Top-class guests from politics, companies, start-ups and science will discuss in the SZ high-rise how we can – and must – think about business in a sustainable way. All reports on the panel discussions, debates and lectures can be found on this special page.
Anyone who happily bit into their avocado bread for breakfast today may not have directly asked themselves who harvested this fruit under what conditions and how it ended up on the plate via the supermarket shelf. But it is precisely these questions that many companies will have to answer by 2023 at the latest: they are obliged to do so by the Supply Chain Transparency Act. An EU regulation due to come into force two years later could be even stricter.
The industry representatives on the podium at the SZ Sustainability Summit also agree that rules are needed to create transparency in the complicated paths that products take until they finally end up with the consumer. But opinions differ greatly as to whether the politically hammered-in pegs make sense.
The Baywa boss sees insurmountable problems, especially for small businesses
Baywa boss Klaus Josef Lutz in particular does not shy away from criticism: “That is well intentioned, but a failed law,” he says. Transparency is all well and good – but how are small and medium-sized companies supposed to achieve that, which, unlike the large corporations, do not have a whole apparatus of people to check every single supplier. Lutz, who is also President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Munich and Upper Bavaria, sees “additional difficulties” above all and demands pragmatic solutions from politicians.
“I would like to have a blacklist and a whitelist,” he demands. So there should be countries or suppliers with whom you can do business without major additional checks – or some with whom you are not allowed to maintain relationships. This must be discussed urgently, especially with regard to the energy transition. In China, for example, many solar panels are assembled by the oppressed Uyghurs there. Strictly speaking, one should no longer buy these products from a human rights perspective. But what would be the alternative?
“First of all, we have to create transparency,” says Alexander Britz, who has just been appointed to the management of Microsoft Germany. The technology group also has many products – whether tablets or notebooks – that contain many raw materials, the mining and processing of which can be complex and also highly problematic from the point of view of sustainability. Be it cobalt from the mines in Congo or lithium from South America. And yet Britz says: “Of course these are huge challenges, but we just have to start now.” He also sees the problem that small companies cannot do this to the extent that billion-dollar corporations can. On the other hand: There were the same doubts about the General Data Protection Regulation and in the end it worked.
Klaus Dittrich, who has just resigned as CEO of Messe München after twelve years, takes a similar view. He experiences the problems with the supply chains primarily through his exhibitors. This is where the trade fair is most likely to have an impact, for example by advising them on stand construction. “There you can use chipboard with wood from the region or do the catering with local ingredients,” says Dittrich. A trade fair can be a good place for exchange.
Microsoft manager Britz is convinced: “The issue of transparency will also remain with us because the consumer demands it.” Because they want to know more and more often where the breakfast avocado comes from and how much CO₂ was caused on the way to the plate.