External stake­holders play a key role in the sustain­ability strategy of ebm-papst. “Our customers come first. Sustain­able action only makes sense if it creates added value for them,” stresses Jochen Frieß, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent Global Product Manage­ment. “There is more than one path to sustain­ability, with many different approaches and opin­ions.

One chal­lenge for us is to iden­tify those stake­holders who share our values and goals, so we can work with them to jointly improve our respec­tive market posi­tions.” Close coop­er­a­tion with OEM customers, suppliers, and indi­rect part­ners such as asso­ci­a­tions and service providers enables us to find new and inno­v­a­tive ways to make our busi­ness even more sustain­able. Successful exam­ples of this approach include initia­tives such as the “Climate Protec­tion Compa­nies” co-founded by ebm-papst and “Next Level Mittel­stand,” an SME group that is looking for ways to stan­dardize and digi­tize carbon foot­print measure­ments for prod­ucts.

4

Creating exper­tise, sharing exper­tise

However, some of our customers and stake­holders remain uncon­vinced of the impor­tance of sustain­ability, as Thomas Nürn­berger, Chief Sales Officer (CSO) of the ebm-papst Group and Chief Exec­u­tive Officer (CEO) Air Tech­nology APAC, knows: “We are seeing that sustain­able thinking and action is much more wide­spread in Europe than in the USA or Asia.” We are inno­va­tion leaders in this field in two senses of the word: Firstly, ebm-papst has estab­lished itself on the market as a provider of sustain­able solu­tions, and is helping to shape tech­no­log­ical progress.

Secondly, we use our prod­ucts ourselves at our loca­tions around the world, so we can advise our customers and other stake­holders based on prac­tical know-how attained through “self-exper­i­men­ta­tion.” “At the same time, we are in constant contact with our customers, suppliers, service providers and other compa­nies in order to share exper­tise and develop new ideas together – across all sectors,” Thomas Nürn­berger adds. “Our aim is to shape sustain­able manage­ment in such a way that it creates added economic value. This requires a rethink of the entire value chain – not just one link of it.”

Oppor­tu­ni­ties at every stage of the value chain

ebm-papst has been imple­menting sustain­able prac­tices at every stage of the value chain for many years, whether through local-for-local produc­tion, reusable and recy­clable pack­aging, or renew­able energy sources at our sites. “We know that we can and must do much more – and we will,” Jochen Frieß assures us. The first steps, such as the estab­lish­ment of a Group-wide ESG team, the analysis of the most impor­tant mech­a­nisms for sustain­ability, and the consis­tent collec­tion and trans­parent commu­ni­ca­tion of rele­vant KPIs, have already been taken.

In addi­tion to this, we also see the circular economy and R-strate­gies as areas partic­u­larly rife with oppor­tu­nity and a need for opti­miza­tion. The same goes for reducing our carbon foot­print, and we are already partic­i­pating in some related initia­tives and pilot projects. This is why we launched the strategic flag­ship initia­tive “Circular Economy” – to develop the require­ments of the circular economy for our future prod­ucts and assess new poten­tial busi­ness models. Jochen Frieß is certain that ebm-papst will continue to set new stan­dards for product devel­op­ment in the future: “We see great poten­tial in utilizing connec­tivity and cloud connec­tions to intel­li­gently control our fans and thus massively reduce energy consump­tion.”

A zeal for sustain­ability

At ebm-papst, sustain­able action is an inte­gral part of our corpo­rate culture. “For us, sustain­ability is much more than a prin­ciple. It defines our heritage and will shape our future,” explains Thomas Nürn­berger. Our employees passion­ately demon­strate this every day. This culture of commit­ment and respon­si­bility is partic­u­larly evident in initia­tives such as the refugee aid we have provided for Ukraine, where ebm-papst employees have demon­strated impres­sive initia­tive and soli­darity.

“We are proud to create an envi­ron­ment in which our employees can get involved in social causes – be it in the form of larger campaigns, such as refugee aid, or the many smaller good deeds, such as supporting sports clubs,” says Jochen Frieß of the social commit­ment culture at ebm-papst. We also see it as our social respon­si­bility to strengthen the local areas around our sites. Invest­ments in educa­tional facil­i­ties such as schools and univer­si­ties play a special role in this. After all, these are the insti­tu­tions that are nurturing the profes­sional talents of tomorrow.

98%

All our measures, initia­tives, and efforts make one thing clear: at ebm-papst, the commit­ment to sustain­ability is not only passed down from gener­a­tion to gener­a­tion; it is also prac­ticed and promoted actively in every part of the company. By fostering an aware­ness of social respon­si­bility and inte­grating sustain­ability into all its busi­ness processes, ebm-papst provides new impetus for the industry and promotes a culture in which social commit­ment and sustain­able busi­ness go hand in hand.

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Trans­parent, effi­cient, complete

In a brief inter­view, Pia Schreynemackers of the Fraun­hofer Insti­tute for Mate­rial Flow and Logis­tics explains how the institution’s “Sustain­a­lyze” project with ebm-papst facil­i­tates the compar­ison and assess­ment of sustain­ability reports, and how they can be used for bench­marking.

What is “Sustain­a­lyze” all about?

With the intro­duc­tion of the EU Corpo­rate Sustain­ability Reporting Direc­tive (CSRD), compa­nies are faced with the chal­lenge of docu­menting their sustain­ability perfor­mance trans­par­ently, correctly, and completely. The “Sustain­a­lyze” project, which was devel­oped in close collab­o­ra­tion between the Fraun­hofer Insti­tutes IML and ISST and ebm-papst, addresses precisely this issue. How can we make sustain­ability reports suit­able not just for compar­ison, but also for assess­ment? How can company data be used for bench­marking and in order to support the strategy?

By using tech­nolo­gies such as natural language processing and machine learning, we can carry out in-depth analyses that include both quan­ti­ta­tive data and free text passages. This approach makes it possible to fully docu­ment and opti­mize sustain­ability perfor­mance – an impor­tant step toward sustain­able corpo­rate manage­ment.

“The soft­ware enables users to compare and under­stand sustain­ability reports more effi­ciently, without having to spend time reading them. This is a real mile­stone.”

Pia Schreynemackers, Fraun­hofer Insti­tute for Mate­rial Flow and Logis­tics

What was the reason for collab­o­rating with ebm-papst?

As a leading company in the field of air and drive tech­nology, ebm-papst shares our vision of a sustain­able future. The part­ner­ship is a win-win situ­a­tion for both sides: ebm-papst helps us with devel­op­ment by providing use case inter­views so that we can initially test the soft­ware compre­hen­sively. This gives us valu­able insights on which func­tions we need to prior­i­tize and overall marketability. In turn, our work offers ebm-papst a simple way of obtaining the rele­vant data, a compet­i­tive compar­ison, and thus strategic support.

How can other compa­nies benefit from the project results?

The soft­ware enables users to compare and under­stand sustain­ability reports more effi­ciently, without having to spend time reading them. This is a real mile­stone, espe­cially in an age where the demands for trans­parency and sustain­ability in busi­ness are constantly increasing. By improving the compa­ra­bility of their sustain­ability reports, compa­nies can get a better idea of how their perfor­mance compares to other busi­nesses, and iden­tify areas with poten­tial for opti­miza­tion. Our part­ner­ship with ebm-papst also shows how valu­able it can be to combine indus­trial know-how and scien­tific research when devel­oping prac­tical solu­tions that can help the industry as a whole to move forward.