Environmentally conscious management is important to them – this is what many companies now claim of themselves. Even oil and chemical companies, whose business models are anything but green per se, are getting involved. However, companies must also expect headwinds if they fail to keep their promises. The most recent example of this is the British-Dutch Shell group, which a court in The Hague has obliged to stricter CO₂ targets.
This begs the question: How green are companies really? Experts estimate that the share of socially and ecologically oriented companies in Germany is currently only around ten percent, although most of the larger companies are now publishing sustainability reports. The problem with this: “There are no generally applicable standards as to what exactly defines a green company,” says the growth-critical economist Irmi Seidl, who teaches at the University of Zurich, among others. “There is also some hairdressing, with a lot of money and good consulting firms you can get impressive results.”
At the SZ sustainability summit on Friday, representatives of the companies BASF and Baufritz as well as the environmental and consumer protection organizations Greenpeace and Foodwatch led a heated debate about green aspirations and green reality.
“The whole concept is misleading and presumptuous.”
The agricultural and chemical company BASF was recently criticized for exporting highly toxic pesticides. Saori Dubourg, on the board responsible for the areas of crop production, food and health as well as cosmetics and detergent industry, defended the business of the group. Such funds are indispensable in Africa, for example, in order to prevent massive crop failures. She referred to the sustainability goals of the group and emphasized that ecological crop protection has meanwhile become one of the most important research fields for the group. The group also attaches great importance to compliance with human rights. “We rely on a triad of environment, social impact and economic transformation,” she said.
Thilo Bode, Managing Director of Foodwatch International, strongly criticized BASF’s sustainability model. “The whole concept is misleading and presumptuous,” he countered the manager. The decisive factor for him is business: BASF continues to sell many products that have been proven to be harmful to the environment, climate and biodiversity, said Bode. He also questioned the company’s social commitment and referred to BASF’s resistance to the German supply chain law. Dubourg, on the other hand, held that BASF did not consider the German law to be expedient. “We support a global supply chain law,” she said. However, that is not yet in sight.
What it means to make a company sustainable from the ground up, explained Dagmar Fritz-Kramer, managing partner of the Baufritz company, a pioneer in ecological house construction with wood. The renovation started in the 1980s. “That’s when we started to question everything,” she added. All building materials have been checked to find out how environmentally friendly and healthy they are. According to Fritz-Kramer, Baufritz has been working climate-neutrally since 2018. She criticizes the fact that there is a lack of ambitious environmental and climate protection goals in the construction sector, while significant CO₂ savings would be possible in the industry.
“A logic of prohibition alone will not help us.”
According to Foodwatch managing director Bode, even sustainable business models have to be questioned. “Wood is a renewable raw material, but it can still become scarce,” he said. Martin Kaiser, second managing director of Greenpeace, referred to the critical condition of many forest areas in Germany. “Our forests are overexploited and overly compacted.”
There was also a controversial debate in the group as to how strongly politicians should intervene in order to make the economy more sustainable. “A logic of prohibition alone will not help us to get there,” emphasized the BASF manager. For many companies, the green change also means a huge financial transformation. State incentives for innovation are also necessary for this. Greenpeace man Kaiser called for a “clear framework on the part of politics”. Without laws, the courts are likely to have a hard time in the long run, as the judgment against Shell shows. The oil company appealed against the judgment of the Hague court this week.