The HSCG's Integrated Management Systems team is supporting 10 companies on their way to climate neutrality.
The Integrated Management Systems team at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences has been dealing with the challenges and opportunities of climate management in corporate practice for years. As part of a project funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), we supported 10 companies from various sectors in developing a roadmap to climate neutrality.
A central working tool and result of our two-and-a-half-year project work is the so-called roadmap: it describes the necessary steps and measures to achieve the goal of climate neutrality by a certain date. Uncertainties and possible scenarios are also taken into account by dividing the roadmap into individual, more manageable sub-goals. This created a clear and practicable path for all companies, enabling them to pursue the ambitious goal of climate neutrality in a planned and systematic manner.
As part of the project, the project team developed a GHG accounting tool that not only maps the companies' GHG emissions, but also their climate measures.
As part of our final workshop at the end of January 2025, we summarized the status of the project goals together with the participating companies and reflected on success factors and challenges for companies on the path to climate neutrality in a workshop. It became clear that the most important success factor was the intensive and continuous collaboration between the companies and the university's project team. Whether it was individual 1:1 support in using the GHG tool, informative workshops on political and legal innovations or up-to-date information on the state of the art of climate protection measures - the exchange and shared knowledge were the key to success. Without this project - all the companies agreed - they would never have got to where they are today in terms of climate management.
As a special highlight of our final workshop, we were able to present our 10 proud companies with their individual climate roadmaps, the GHG balancing tool developed by us and completed by the companies, as well as their personal certificates of participation.
We would like to thank our cooperation partners for their intensive and trusting collaboration:
and the associated partners:
Even if the path to climate neutrality remains a major challenge for many companies, we have been able to lay an important foundation stone with this project. The companies are now equipped to continue on this important path with determination and independence.
The project managers Prof. Jana Brauweiler and Prof. Jakob Hildebrandt would like to thank the project team Sarah Barth, Markus Will, Lucas Wenzel and David Horsch for their excellent and tireless work.
Special thanks go to the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), which funded this project and thus made it possible in the first place, and to Dr.-Ing. Jörg R. Lefèvre, Environmental Technology: Environmentally and Health-Friendly Processes and Products, for the regular professional exchange throughout the entire duration of the project.
Photo: Tom Richter
