Partnership and transparency are at the heart of our corporate sustainability strategy. Indeed, these qualities make up 2 of our 5 specific focus areas on sustainability (the others are Innovation in design and delivery, Being a sustainable organisation, and Climate protection). We identified these areas in collaboration with the Swiss sustainability consultancy Sustainserv, who have been long-term partners in supporting and guiding our sustainability activity.
An on-going and purposeful partnership
It is fitting, therefore, that our most recent example of sustainability transparency comes in the form of an article in the Weka Finance and Accounting Yearbook 2023 by Dr. Andrew Mountfield and Dr. Stephan Lienin from Sustainserv that is co-authored by Aulikki Sonntag (our CBDO) and Anastasiya Popova (our Head of Sustainability).
This article is just one example of a fruitful ongoing partnership between Staticus and Sustianserv. Andrew and Stephan guided us through the comprehensive process of developing a sustainability strategy. Together with them, we conducted a thorough materiality analysis, before defining our objectives (including the 5 focus areas already mentioned) and the concrete actions we will take on sustainability.
We finalised our sustainability strategy in 2022, and are now in the process of precisely defining and implementing specific KPIs. Nevertheless, our cooperation with Sustainserv continues. Andrew has shared his thoughts on our progress in recent articles and podcasts.
An in-depth article on management and sustainability
Our most recent collaboration is a contribution to the WEKA Finance and Accounting Yearbook 2023. Andrew and Stephan had the idea to create an article for the Yearbook focused on the integration of business and sustainability strategies, and they invited Aulikki and Anastasiya to contribute.
The result is an article that explores ways to integrate business and sustainability and compares a range of approaches for developing a corporate sustainability strategy. The process of strategy development is illustrated using Staticus as a case study, with a focus on how standard approaches can be tailored to a specific company’s requirements and goals. The case study explores how we as a team developed our own corporate sustainability strategy.
You can read the article in WEKA’s 2023 Finance and Accounting Yearbook. This annual publication provides detailed analyses of the major challenges and developments in accounting and finance in Switzerland. Published by WEKA, a company group that provides specialist information, education and training, the 2023 Yearbook was edited by Prof. Dr. Reto Eberle, Prof. Dr. David Oesch, and Prof. Dr. Dieter Pfaff, are from the Institute for Business Administration at the University of Zurich.
Fulfilling our commitment to transparency
Our involvement in collaborations like this is important if we are to truly fulfil the sustainability commitments we have set for ourselves. By not simply reporting on the basics of our sustainability activity, but actively sharing detailed examples and case studies of what we are doing, we hope to encourage openness and action within our industry.
As our CEO Aušra Vankevičiūtė explained at last year’s CWCT AGM discussion on embodied carbon, companies in our sector have an obligation to share more about their sustainability activity. Instead of using sustainability for PR and focusing on beating the competition, she argued for real calculations, data and practices to be shared. We are proud that this is exactly what Aulikki and Anastasiya are doing through publications like this, and grateful that we have supportive partners like Sustainserv to enable and guide this activity.
