GfK
providing us with the right skills for the right projects . Although the world stopped , our projects didn ’ t ”.
Sustainability transformation and commitments GfK have also made a lot of progress in terms of their Environmental , Social and Corporate Governance commitments . Though they have been submitting Ecovadis and CDP reports for some years , GfK had not submitted any quantitative data . This , of course , relates to authentic sustainability , which is about measurable and therefore actionable policies . Again , Data is key .
This is where Becker came in : “ The first thing we did was to measure our carbon emissions . We nominated staff at each of our sites as sustainability partners to support data-gathering . We were collating the data into a single tool and interpreting it .
“ We collected carbon-related data for 2019 and 2020 . Once we understood this , we put a programme in place to first reduce our building footprint by accelerating hybrid working and consolidating sites in the same country , and then we implemented local initiatives like recycling and reducing plastic .”
“ I also ensured that all my procurement staff were trained on ethical procurement so they could better understand the social , environmental and ethical impact within the total supply chain .”
GfK have now made a commitment to be climate neutral by the end of 2025 , and , according to Becker , since they ’ ve reduced as much as they presently can , they now need to offset .
“ 2022 was the first year that we offset 25 % of our 2021 emissions ,” she says . “ We invested in a technology project in India that also gives back to the people in the region by helping women work and providing children with education .
“ I firmly believe if more companies took the initiative like we did , we could really make the planet a better place for us all .”
Predicting the future … When asked about what she sees for her company and her role in the future , Becker stated “ I see best-in-class cost , productivity , quality – so we have things done right the first time around and a faster response time to our clients .”
“ We ’ re not looking for cheap because ‘ cheap ’ drives low quality , and the reason GfK is successful is because we provide a high-quality product , at the right cost and at the right time .
140 February 2023