Sinja Krauskopf
„One world. One Climate.“
This was the title for the supporter circle meeting of the Alliance for Development and Climate Foundation on September 27, 2022 in Berlin.
„One World. One Climate“ – We all know that we as the Global North and industrialized countries, as the main emitters, must actively contribute to climate protection. Peter Renner, Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for Development and Climate Foundation, described this task very appropriately as „decarbonizing society.“
Decarbonizing society
In his keynote address, Juan Pablo Solís Víquez (Senior Advisor Climate and Environment) reported on how Fairtrade International, which everyone should be familiar with as a logo on packaging, is dealing with the „Fairtrade climate standards“ and the associated challenges for fair carbon credit distribution.
A major issue for the Allianz Foundation, as mentioned at the beginning by Mr. Renner, is the „decarbonization of society“. To ensure high quality offsetting of emissions with as many benefits as possible from the SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals – 17 goals of the UN to achieve a global sustainable society) for the Global South, Allianz has a new seal – SDGold – in the development and testing phase. According to it, companies have to go through 5-steps that are audited by the foundation as well as an external certification body. But here too, and this is essential in my view so that no false game can be played with the seal, certification must be repeated every three years. The new seal was presented by Nina Ruge, as moderator and ambassador of the Alliance for Development and Climate Foundation, as well as Dr. Olivia Henke (board member) and Hendrick Fischer from Rotpunkt Küchen GmbH, as the current seal tester.
Examples of sustainable commitment
After a coffee break with interesting new acquaintances, four representatives from different business sectors presented their climate protection strategy as well as examples of implementation. I don’t want to bore you to death, so I will summarize this part with statements of the participants from the discussion in my own words:
– Even without a high financial investment, all company processes can be analyzed and sustainably optimized in Sisyphus work – Ruth Prinzmeier (Sustainability Manager, Interface).
– It is important to select projects that have a high co-benefit to SDG’s Florian Zachmayer (Managing Director, Nürnberger Wach- und Schließgesellschaft)
– Even though food accounts for a very large part of emissions, do you really want to take away people’s favorite food in their twilight years? – Christian Schehle (Head of Climate Protection and Sustainability, LAFIM Diakonie)
– 1% of working time may be spent on social projects – Nicole Fischer (Executive Member of the Board, Stiftung 1. FC Köln)
Workshop: Setting up robust climate protection strategies
Thank you very much for the striking comparison of climate protection strategies such as climate neutrality and net zero strategy (SBTi) as well as the very intensive discussions about the respective advantages and disadvantages as well as the problem of double counting of certificates on country level with other supporters from different industries from retail to service providers to manufacturing companies.
My personal conclusion: It is important and of course discussions have to be held about the different advantages and disadvantages of strategies, implementation measures as well as the quality of measures and offset projects. Nevertheless, there are many small and medium-sized companies that find it difficult to anchor the topic of sustainability in a systematic approach within the company. The goal from politics and society should be to take ALL companies on the journey through the sustainability jungle and to provide understandable information for the target group.
In the World-Cafés as well as at the dinner we supporters could further exchange our views on the different challenges, it was a feast for me.
I would like to thank the Foundation for the interesting day, the lively exchange in the workshops, with Allianz employers and other supporters, and I am already looking forward to seeing you again next year.