How sustainable is the food industry?

Centre for Sustainable Corporate Management develops self check for companies in the sector

The ZNU - Centre for Sustainable Management of the University of Witten / Herdecke has under the 2. Partner meeting presented a self-check for the food industry. "Who made this positioning in sustainability for itself, then also know what further steps need to follow. Sustainability means yes ecological and social criteria in the direction of the company to take greater account. And as any business owner needs to ask precisely also what these values ​​he wants to realize when and how and how it is with its personal sustainable corporate management, "explains Dr. Axel Kölle, a head of ZNU, the newly developed instrument.

The issue of sustainability is increasingly also in the food industry attention and means to take into account when making business decisions not only the economic, ecological and social criteria from the outset and to weigh. "How not least showed the financial crisis, it is important to have a medium to long-term return in mind, instead of relying only on short-term profit maximization in balancing the business objectives. Our grid showing the companies that go through this process with our help, how to bring relevant issues such. as climate change, demographics or fairness with a profitable business in line, "said Dr. Christian Gessner, the other director of ZNU.

As part of the partner meeting, a provisional ZNU Advisory Board was also formed, which is currently led by Hans-Günter Trockels (CEO of thekuchenmeister GmbH), Dr. Michael Raß (MD of Teutoburger Ölmühle GmbH & Co KG) and Jens Washausen (MD of ADATO Consulting Group). "We deliberately left two advisory board positions vacant, which we want to fill with at least one sales representative in the near future. This is the only way to successfully and credibly implement our ZNU approach - sustainability cooperation between manufacturers and retailers," says Hans-Günter Trockels. The Advisory Board of the ZNU will then be officially appointed by the university management and will hold its constitutive meeting in the run-up to the II Future Food Conference (September 14/15).

The future conference is also in place - as the subtitle "Where do you stand in terms of sustainability?" documented, entirely in line with the ZNU sustainability grid. High-ranking representatives from industry and trade report on their experiences.

In addition to the companies mentioned above, the dynamically growing ZNU partner network also includes Brandt, Salomon FoodWorld, Bedford Fleischwaren, Kanne Brottrunk, Bäro, Deutscher Fachverlag (LZ), Engel & Zimmermann, Große-Vehne, SoftM, LOKAY and Food Net NRW.

More information from Dr. Axel Koelle & Dr. Christian Gessner
02302 - 926-573/-581
www.uni-wh.de/znu

Source: Witten / Herdecke [ ZNU ]