“The issue of sustainability will remain” – Economy

Of course this question arises. Is what we have been constantly discussing for several years still an issue at all? Now that Russia has invaded the Ukraine, where images of unbelievable suffering are running across the screens every minute, where the world economy may even be on the brink and the question of energy supply is becoming more urgent than ever.

Is this the right time to discuss sustainability in business? And about the question of what the CFOs of the companies on the board of directors or the management board can contribute to this?

Yes, says Martin Eisenhut, CEO of the management consultancy Kearney. A Thursday evening in March, Eisenhut is one of the high-ranking guests at the Munich sustainability summit of the SZ. It is with dismay that one perceives what is happening in Europe. But Eisenhut also says: “The issue of sustainability will remain.” After all, there is pressure from all sides, from politics, from business, and of course from within society. Secondly, sustainability is not just an issue for CFOs or board members in general – the issue affects everyone in management. And, thirdly, financial success and climate are “not in conflict”. On the contrary.

One who sees it that way is Inka Koljonen, who has been CFO at Munich truck and bus manufacturer MAN since February 1st. She was born in Finland, attended the German school there, studied in Munich, worked for Siemens in Russia – a European career. And yet the first question for the Russia connoisseur is about the war. “We view the situation with dismay.” MAN is also indirectly affected, “we buy cables from the Ukraine, there are now delivery bottlenecks”.

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Just a delivery problem? No. The whole thing also “surprised her personally”. The war was “unbelievable”. But she also says that you have to make a distinction. Between the regime in the Kremlin and the many people in the country. But none of that changes anything about the fact that we have to keep working on sustainability. The war will eventually be over.

Sustainability is a big issue for the CFO of a large truck and bus manufacturer, which, together with its Swedish partner Scania, belongs to the Volkswagen Group. The CO₂ footprint of trucks is significant, in production, but above all in use. The solution: electric vehicles. There are the CO₂ requirements, which are becoming ever stricter, and the question of how to manage mass logistics with 40-tonne transports on Europe’s motorways in a sustainable way. Not only investors and society asked about sustainability. Also, quite specifically: the potential employees, says Koljonen: “It’s not like it used to be, when only the companies chose their employees. The employees now also choose their companies.”

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Jan Kupfer, board member at Hypovereinsbank, does not sell any trucks that deal with CO₂ limits and the question of the future of diesel. He is about financial products – and here, too, it is about sustainability. “The pressure is coming more and more from the investors themselves,” says Kupfer. Yield alone is not enough, it should also be generated sustainably. The best example: The world’s largest asset manager Blackrock, which has been paying more attention to sustainability in its investments for some time.

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Telefónica Germany’s Chief Financial Officer, Markus Rolle, observed the following: “The topic is always part of the conversation.” Sustainability, you have to go along with that, the topic has “moved up the agenda absolutely,” and he doesn’t believe that the current war situation will change anything about it. Because more sustainability also means more profitability. Investors are now holistically on the move: climate, social aspects, the question of how diverse board members are.

And something else becomes clear on this evening in March, which is actually mainly characterized by bad news: if European companies continue to go their own way, if they take sustainability seriously, then that will also be a competitive advantage.