Virtual Congress: Upholding Sustainability

WACKER’s third global Sustainability Week was held in October. The Corporate Sustainability team uses the annual initiative to instigate groupwide activities that promote sustainable development. The activity week encourages employees to make their own contributions toward sustainability, both at work and at home.

The novelty this year was the virtual congress environment where colleagues across the globe could share their experiences despite the pandemic. Internal experts offered a varied program highlighting how they drive forward the many facets of the sustainability strategy SustainaBalance^®. External speakers from VCI (Chemical Industry Association) presented an overview of sustainability trends in the chemistry sector. Discussions and an interactive tradeshow on climate protection, sustainable products and research, as well as responsible management of suppliers, and other topics rounded off the program.

Colleagues were urged to engage with environmental activities in the spirit of Sustainable Development Goal No. 13 “Climate Action.” Teams spanning numerous regions and continents initiated over 30 sustainability projects to save resources and lower the carbon footprint. The action week closed with three-minute pitches from project teams competing for the Sustainability Ambassador of the Year 2020 title.

Examples of Groupwide projects, some of which continue after the campaign week, include:

• Avoiding car trips and taking public transport or biking instead
• Video conferences instead of air travel
• Promoting sustainable consumption
• Biodiversity projects at sites and their neighboring communities
• Environment cleanup activities
• Hazardous waste collection and disposal or recycling
• Measuring the foodprint, i.e. the carbon footprint of food consumed in company restaurants
• Avoiding food packaged in plastic
• Systematically switching to LED lighting