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Background:
The SSI SCHÄFER Group is a leading international supplier of modular warehouse and logistics systems. The German family-owned company with a history of over 85 years currently employs over 10,500 people worldwide in around 70 operating subsidiaries. At the beginning of 2021, the group developed its strategy, which defines sustainability as one of the five main priorities for SSI SCHÄFER. Sustainability is thought of in two dimensions: On the one hand, SSI SCHÄFER sees itself as an enabler that offers innovative and sustainable intralogistics solutions for its customers, and on the other hand as an internationally active family business that holds great responsibility towards society and its stakeholders.
Task and result:
IR.on AG was commissioned by the SSI SCHÄFER Group for both, the development of a sustainability strategy and the creation of a sustainability report. The aim of the joint project was to create essential prerequisites to prepare the group for the upcoming regulatory requirements, to enable reporting capability for the group's first sustainability report and to publish this in 2022 for the 2021 financial year.
To develop a group-wide sustainability strategy, a comprehensive analysis was conducted, selected stakeholders were interviewed on the relevance of the topic and the company's performance, and a materiality analysis was carried out. With the help of the materiality analysis, a total of four fields of action were identified for SSI SCHÄFER:
As part of a workshop with SSI SCHÄFER, a sustainability roadmap was then developed to concretize the previously obtained results with the help of targets, time horizons, responsibilities, measures and KPIs.
On this basis, the first voluntary sustainability report of the SSI SCHÄFER Group was prepared and published in summer 2022. The report is based on the internationally recognized GRI standards and enables stakeholders to find out about the company's initiatives, projects and solutions, as well as how SSI SCHÄFER intends on tackling upcoming challenges. IR.on AG took over the basic planning, the collection and evaluation of relevant information, the support and verification of plausibility as also the compliance with requirements regarding texts and the collection and recording of key figures. Through translation and layout design, the sustainability report was finalized and subsequently published. The report, published in summer 2022, can be found on the SSI SCHÄFER Group website:
→ To the Corporate Website
→ To the Sustainability Report
You can learn more about the collaboration with the SSI SCHÄFER Group (in German) in the podcast episode „Nachhaltigkeit als Chance für den Mittelstand – Wie SSI Schäfer die Herausforderung ESG meistert“ in the strategy podcast „Hoffnung ist keine Strategie“.
