Yesterday, the award ceremony for the winners of this year's Responsible Care competition took place in Laatzen. The VCI Nord issued the following press release on the occasion:
The BÜFA Group from Oldenburg has won 2nd prize in the Responsible Care competition of the Verband der Chemischen Industrie Landesverband Nord (VCI North). The company was awarded for a cooperation project with Leuphana University Lüneburg, in which students worked out how the BÜFA Group can optimally integrate the "17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" into its sustainability strategy.
At the beginning of this year, BÜFA worked with 23 students from the MBA program "Sustainability Management" to develop customized strategies and measures within a one-week digital workshop. The project was accompanied by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Stefan Schaltegger, one of the most cited scientists in the field of sustainability management.
The collaboration has resulted in practical concepts for the company's various business units - for example, for the expansion of the sustainable product portfolio, raw material purchasing and, above all, communication about it. "With the claim 'New Chemistry,' we sum up the aspiration for our actions in two words: We rethink chemistry to enable solutions for a more sustainable world. In this context, sustainability has been deeply anchored in BÜFA's corporate philosophy for many years," explains Yvonne Burmann, Business Development Officer at BÜFA. In order to rally all of the company's employees behind this claim, the workshop participants drew up concrete recommendations for action for good sustainability communication in the direction of their own workforce. This includes, for example, involving colleagues more closely in sustainability projects or raising their awareness of sustainable business practices through competitions, such as the carbon footprint. For external communication via the sustainability report, current gaps in coverage were also identified and the course was set for a revision towards an interactive report in accordance with the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
The jury of the VCI Nord around Dr. Peter Prinz (Managing Director of VYNOVA Wilhelmshaven GmbH and Chairman of the Board of the VCI Nord), Frank Quiring (Member of the Management Board of the Rheingold Institute) and Marike Vornkahl (Trade Secretary of the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industries Union North District) praised how the global values (SDGs) were broken down to the company's own corporate structure. The very open discussion of global goals and their significance for the company itself, as well as the strong will to communicate proactively, transparently and honestly to the outside world, is remarkable.
About Responsible Care:
In Germany, the global Responsible Care initiative is part of the Chemie³ sustainability initiative and stands for the chemical industry's desire to optimize its performance in protecting health and the environment, voluntarily and beyond the legal requirements. Companies with special projects can apply for the Responsible Care Award of the VCI Nord once a year as part of the initiative. This year's competition was held under the motto "Dialog - our contribution to transparency".
About the BÜFA Group:
The BÜFA Group is an independent, medium-sized company in the chemical industry. BÜFA was founded in Oldenburg in 1883 and today operates internationally in the Chemicals, Cleaning and Composites business segments. The company manufactures innovative, environmentally conscious and targeted products and systems that are used in sectors such as the rail industry, wind energy, the food industry and the cleaning industry.
About the Sustainability Management program:
The MBA Sustainability Management at the Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM) of Leuphana University Lüneburg qualifies students on a part-time basis to develop and implement sustainable solutions for companies and organizations. Introduced in 2003 by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Stefan Schaltegger, the program is the world's first university-based "Green MBA" and prepares graduates to effectively solve real sustainability problems while strengthening a company's economic success.
About VCI Nord:
VCI Nord is a state association of the German Chemical Industry Association. It represents the economic policy interests of around 300 member companies with almost 70,000 employees in Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Bremen. Other core tasks of the association are the further training of teachers, the improvement of science education and the promotion of contacts between universities and industry.
Contact:
Alexander Warstat
Press spokesman
Association of the Chemical Industry
North Regional Association
Sankt-Florian-Weg 1, 30880 Laatzen, Germany
Tel. +49 (0) 511 984 90 39
Mobile: +49 (0) 172 457 46 77
warstat@lv-nord.vci.de
