CO2: With these measures, medium-sized companies reduce their emissions

• 79 % of companies are considering further investments in climate protection
• Only 11 % want to use a climate strategy as a base for their business strategy
• Almost two-thirds assign the responsibility for climate protection to the board of directors and management - the rest below that level

"The reality when it comes to climate protection activities by German medium-sized companies is much better than the public image would indicate," says Karsten Schulze, Senior Partner & Member of the Board at FTI-Andersch, the consulting unit of FTI Consulting in Germany that specialises in restructuring, business transformation and transactions. "Many companies have already started to implement concrete measures in order to improve their carbon footprint. This is proven by these latest figures from Forsa."

79 % of the companies surveyed also indicated that they are looking into further investments to address climate change. 40 % are working on financing certified climate protection projects in order to compensate for their own emissions. "However, since less than half have a climate strategy so far, medium-sized companies must be careful not to lose their way with too many individual measures," says Karsten Schulze.

Half of the companies are working on a climate strategy

"Experiments are good, coordinated action is always better," says Karsten Schulze. "It can be stated: Many companies have already recognised this. Even if only a minority have implemented their own strategy so far: half of the companies are actively working on it right now." 52 % of the medium-sized companies stated that they are currently developing their own climate strategy.

The energy-intensive, manufacturing companies are pioneers. Half of them already have a climate strategy. By comparison, just about a third (31 %) of the service providers and a quarter of the companies surveyed in the trade sector have a climate strategy.

The topic of climate has also become significantly more relevant in the overall strategy of medium-sized companies. 56 % state that climate aspects are an important part of their general business strategy. However, only 11 % of the companies want to use their climate strategy as a basis for the overall business strategy. Professor Dr. Patrick Velte of Leuphana University Lüneburg, who provided scientific support for the study, says: "A successful climate transformation must also entail an adjustment of the business model and the associated products and services. Otherwise, there are risks of symbolic climate-related corporate communication, failed climate neutrality by 2045 and failure to reach the 1.5-degree target."

A slim majority wants to adapt core processes, but only a minority aims for complete CO2 neutrality

"At least today, there are still some questions about how far the climate strategies of medium-sized companies will actually have an impact," says Karsten Schulze. Because only 55 % want to change their core processes on the basis of the strategies, 41 % want to adjust their product portfolios and 40 % want to transform the business model itself. In contrast, 79 % say they want to adjust processes selectively. Karsten Schulze says: "These figures provide at least a cautious indication that for some companies the action already initiated in many cases could be a bit actionistic - without me wanting to or being able to assess the quality of the individual measures and their impact. However, truly ambitious goals will only be achievable in the long term if the climate concept is anchored in all areas of the company by means of actual changes within the processes.

This is consistent with this: CO2 neutrality has been stated by just 28 % as the goal of their climate protection measures (trade: 50 %; industry: 34 %; services providers: 15 %). The largest share wants to reduce CO2 (72 %). Half want to have implemented the current measures in five years, a quarter in ten years. The rest plan to do so within a much longer period of time.

In addition, although the clear majority (61 %) have created an area of responsibility for ESG and climate issues at board and management level, for example a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), the majority of companies have not yet created one. Sustainability committees in the supervisory or advisory board, on the other hand, are rare so far (19 %). Professor Dr. Patrick Velte says: "Assigning climate expertise either to a person or a committee on the board of directors as well as on the supervisory and advisory boards is the first step towards ensuring that sustainability expertise is institutionalised in corporate management and supervision. In the long term, however, all board members must develop the corresponding competence. Selected competence holders as an "isolated solution" can always be associated with the risk of symbolic climate governance - think back to the Chief Digital Officers in the 2010s. Climate expertise also needs to be consistently built and developed at levels below senior management."

About the survey:

The survey and opinion research institute Forsa was commissioned by the management consultancy FTI-Andersch to interview a total of 152 companies from the industry, trade and services sectors with an annual turnover between 40 million euros and 1 billion euros (German medium-sized companies), including around 50 % from the manufacturing sector. The study 'Climate Governance 2023' by FTI-Andersch in cooperation with Leuphana University Lüneburg (Professor Dr. Patrick Velte) can be downloaded in full here.

About FTI-Andersch:

FTI-Andersch is a management consultancy that supports its clients in the development and implementation of viable future/performance and restructuring concepts. FTI-Andersch actively accompanies companies that have to deal with operational or financial challenges and change processes - or want to align their business model, organisation and processes for the future at an early stage.

Our clients include, in particular, medium-sized companies and corporate groups that operate internationally. FTI-Andersch is part of the international FTI Consulting Group (NYSE: FCN) with more than 7,500 employees.

Zu den MandantInnen zählen insbesondere mittelständische Unternehmen und Konzerne, die international agieren. FTI-Andersch ist Teil der international FTI-Consulting-Gruppe (NYSE: FCN) mit mehr als 7.500 MitarbeiterInnen.