Banking & Finance

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SaarLB

### Challenge
K’UP was asked to capture the zeitgeist "Modern Luxury" in order to develop the new global overall appearance of the Mercedes-Benz brand.

### Strategy
Within a short period of time, a Brand Lab was set up to synchronize the work of six divisions for 70 markets and their agencies on the basis of the brand strategy. The result defined the new brand strategy "The personal best", three global communication target groups and eight rules that guided all brand activities for the first time. With the "Grow up" campaign, which emerged from this, 

Mercedes-Benz managed to sell the GLA to social climbers and by that winning a new target group, especially in China, thus achieving new sales records in the SUV boom. Subsequently, the Brand Lab was expanded on the intranet and K’UP was, among other things, entrusted with the development of the brand roadmap, marketing theme planning, digital use case development for "Mercedes me" and a motorsport marketing strategy.

**Defining a global brand style via contemporary luxury**


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Mercedes-Benz – The Personal Best

### Challenge
Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank consulted K’UP in an early phase of its strategy considerations. The goal was to completely realign the bank for the future and to ensure the change from a complex product orientation to a clear customer orientation. The change process was to focus on culture, brand and portfolio issues.


### Strategy

At the beginning of the project, apoBank had already dealt with restructuring plans and initial cultural goals. K’UP then laid the foundation for an understanding of its own history or brand DNA at an early stage and built up a basic customer segmentation across all business areas. Based on the knowledge of the needs and insights of healthcare professionals, it was possible to make clear portfolio recommendations. In addition to this, a vision and mission led to the redefinition of the bank's entire strategy house.

The digital platform ideas were likewise the starting point for long-term strategic planning, new KPIs in business intelligence (CLV) as well as for the complete realignment of the bank's brand values, positioning and purpose. To activate the brand, K’UP developed not only a multi-year brand roadmap, catchy brand behavior rules, but also numerous communication strategies and campaign plans. Active work on the brand's reputation also became necessary as the bank faced unforeseen IT problems during the change process. As a result, K’UP not only successfully guided the brand through the crisis and a downstream corporate design process, but also realigned the brand name, brand claim and key customer journeys. 

In addition to marketing and sales strategies for some business units and group subsidiaries, such as apoAsset, K’UP was entrusted with the in-house development of a customer-centric brand campaign. The campaign not only shows the diversity of individual life plans, but also highlights what health professionals draw their strength from and what is important to them on the way to their goals in life. Thus, apoBank starts into a new era as a bank of health, which makes it easy for health care professionals to follow their vocation in order to have time for the essentials.


**The time is now.**

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apoBank – Von der Standesbank zur Bank der Gesundheit 

apo bank - from a bank of professional associations to a bank of the health sector

### Challenge
The major challenge in positioning Berlin as a "City of Change" was not only the development of a long-term umbrella brand strategy, but above all the consideration and involvement of the many different stakeholders in this project.

### Strategy
After an investor insight study and international B2C and B2B market research, K’UP succeeded in positioning Berlin as a "City of Change" by getting all stakeholders from business, culture, politics and the public behind a common strategy and thus sustainably enhancing the city's reputation. International market research accompanied the campaign management over several years.

Since then, overnight stays have increased by 80 percent, the unemployment rate has dropped by 30 percent, and the number of people moving to Berlin has quadrupled. In addition, K’UP accompanied the marketing work to strengthen the local identity and targeted international establishment as a business metropolis for Berlin.

**Increasing communication relevance and consistency by establishing structures for product development and international marketing.**

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Berlin – Forschung und Strategie ebnen den Weg zur globalen Marke

Berlin – Research and strategy pave the way to a global brand

### Challenge
The base was the idea of a new company in the commodities and financial investment business. An unprecedented investment platform for strategic metals and rare earths such as gallium for solar technology, indium for TV sets or bismuth, which is used in medical technology. K’UP was asked to lead a holistic innovation process.

### Strategy
Together with the client, K’UP developed the product innovation and backed it up with a corporate and brand strategy, a naming and a stringent product nomenclature. In addition, a digital customer journey was developed and a corporate design was launched, which laid the foundation for a successful start in a new market.

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Erden Invest – Etwas völlig Neues im Finanzmarkt unternehmen

Erden Invest – Pulling off something completely new in the financial market

### Challenge
For its upcoming privatization, the rescued HSH Nordbank needed a clean slate with a new name, new brand positioning and new strategic approaches for its future business model.

### Strategy
For the realignment of the former Landesbank, K’UP conducted a comprehensive analysis of the company, its history and business areas, competitors and customer groups. The aim was not only a comprehensive reorganization, but also a goal-oriented corporate management and complete repositioning as a medium-sized commercial bank. With the help of its own market research studies, K’UP was able to demonstrate the extent to which the largest business units were facing a generational change on the customer side. Against the backdrop of younger target groups, new business model approaches were developed based on a digital ecosystem.

In addition to a new corporate vision and mission, a comprehensive brand strategy ensured the revival of Hanseatic virtues such as clarity and sincerity. All approaches for future business model optimization and brand activation were finally transferred into necessary organizational and process planning. As a result, the bank was able to leave consolidation behind after just a few years and impress with rising consolidated profits and an exceptionally high capital ratio.

**From a state-owned financial institution to a market-oriented financial player**


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HSH Nordbank – Neustart

HSH Nordbank – New start

### Challenge
K’UP was asked to develop the future images of the BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands for the next ten years. 

### Strategy
To succeed, K’UP set up its own process, established an internal strategy team and moderated a group-wide process that brought together all stakeholders from R&D, design, product development, marketing and sales in a Brand Lab. As a result, a consistent process guided all brands via individual, global customer insights to concrete future potential. Whether "My drive. My plant.", "born to last" or "cultural enrichment", comprehensive product and experience potentials were ultimately defined for all three brands. At the same time, K’UP was also responsible for the BMW Motorrad brand and the parent brand of the BMW Group.

**Three brands. Three visions of the future. Many corporate divisions.**

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BMW – Mein Antrieb. Mein Werk.

BMW – My drive. My plant.

The [World Uncertainty Index](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/03/imf-launches-world-uncertainty-index-wui-furceri.htm), created by Stanford employees, shows a steep increase since well before Corona. The financial crisis of 2008 already pushed it into an initially abrupt and then continuous upward trend. Since that crisis, companies and societies should have specifically improved resilience, but have only done so in a few sectors, such as a careful reduction of global supply chains.

In many areas, such as healthcare, they not only refrained but actively weakened resilience. More by accident, digitization proved to promote resilience in the Corona crisis (home office, deliveries, among others). However, digitization was and still is driven by an old-fashioned pursuit of efficiency. Digital solutions are anything but resilient to other forms of crisis, such as energy outages or the constant threat of hackers.

We are therefore at a point where we do not only need to build new resilience quickly, but we also have to catch up on what has long been neglected. This double challenge requires systematic and thought-out action.

We have summarized in the four-step process RAMP, how this might look like for companies and institutions. This abbreviation stands for: Resilient, Anticipative, Monetary, Planetary, and it means:

### Leading companies and institutions RESILIENTLY.

Set up your **death scenarios** and fully run them through in small teams. Identify your cluster risks, create fallback structures. Establish a plan for how you will realize the first three death scenarios yourself, for example, by eliminating at risk areas that cannot be protected. Be prepared for the exception. Spend money on these measures without short-term expectations of revenue. Accept that the usual criteria for efficiency do not apply here.

Only strong investments in passenger protection could save the aviation industry from a permanent crisis. In fact, however, it is already becoming apparent that with the goal of filling all the seats, efficiency will take precedence over effective protection.

Trade show companies that do not create virtual offerings will hardly be able to fill halls. Whether going online, e.g. via Meetyoo, will save the event industry seems questionable. Will establishing of servers preserve co-working business models like WeWork? Probably not. Even the urban hotel industry already rents out hotel rooms by the day as workspaces.

### Align brands ANTICIPATIVELY with customers.

What changes are taking place in the customer's life, what will a good customer relationship look like tomorrow? What solution that is still to be found could excite the customer in the future? Check your customer relations in these regards. Make these relations resilient across multiple levels through fairness and generosity. Invest in the relationship and do not monetize it out of reflex. Do not abuse the relationship for marketing purposes. Avoid manipulations such as excessive habit forming, self-renewing trial contracts, or discounted new contracts. Develop new, credible ideas for rewarding continuity and customer loyalty.

Medical practices, for example, are investing in online consultations without much prospect of short-term refinancing. The need for this existed before Corona, the reason however did not. KinderarztNow demonstrates how to arrange online consultations and download prescriptions. Right now, the Faroe Islands offer virtual tours by horseback, kayak or as a hike. For this, locals not only carry 360° cameras with them, but also spontaneously answer questions from online travelers about particular sights.



### Creating MONETARY added value through innovations.

Mutual revenue means not focusing unilaterally on revenue growth, but wholeheartedly serving customers with product and service innovations. Even with innovations that so far have been rejected internally or socially. Realize some of them. Train structural readiness for change and install a continuous innovation management.

Overcome possible aversion to drones and robots and test their applications, try co-operations. There are more possibilities than merely ministering services in drive-in theaters. If ticket expert Eventim can work with auditor PwC and others to develop an alternative Corona app, then you can also equip your ATMs with an iris scanner, offer your manufacturing workers goggles with distance indicators, or add disinfecting protective sleeves to your beverage cans.
Ingenuity helps. Don't just produce gin, produce sanitizers. 3D-printed door openers or Knick'n'clean’s ultraviolet hygiene stick would have been customer-friendly innovations already, even before the crisis.

### Business models should enable repeatability through PLANETARY compatibility.

Define basic key resources, competences, technologies or raw materials. Run through scenarios where one or more are omitted and take action to replace them sustainably. Determine ecological costs and ways to reduce them. Use crises as catalysts to reduce ecological costs. From this perspective, think about situational go-to-market scenarios.

Maybe you were already questioning your dependence on suppliers from China before the crisis. Now you can restructure, expand your in-house video chat capabilities and avoid harmful air travel while doing so. Test the use of plastic film made from fish scales by Marina Tex or develop new packaging from your waste yourself, like Feel the Peel. Create an environmentally sound alternative for every key resource.

In the continuously increasing uncertainty incident, the Corona crisis is an extreme. With RAMP we want to help to understand the conditions of the identifiable changes within the World Uncertainty Index and counter them. Because we cannot afford to repeat the failures of the last twelve years since the financial crisis a second time. This is the only way we will shape society and the markets tomorrow and not just manage past struggles.


**You want to know how resilient your company is?**
 **Take the free RAMP test.**
### [RAMP Test](https://kup.id/ramp/test)

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Der Welt - Unsicherheitsindex und die vier Stufen der Resilienz

The World Uncertainty Index and the four stages to resilience

**How do you become part of your customer’s journey of life?**
 **How do you become significant, inspiring and generate measurable revenue through this?**

The Management of customer journeys is the art of making the consumer feel that they are understood and recognized in the right moment of their lives.
 
 
### Three questions:

**- How do you want to be emotionally present on your customer’s journey?**
 **- With what do you want to inspire your customer’s life contentwise?**
 **- How can you build a lucrative relationship that your customer will accept?**


 Twelve years ago, we developed our SIL approach out of central marketing, product development and sales KPIs. With brand, innovation and growth we combined brand strength, innovation-premium and customer value for the first time and replaced the BCG-matrix for us by that.

Today the development of modern business models without the interaction of these three increasingly merging sectors became unthinkable. Recently we occupied ourselves intensively with the customer journeys of leading brands. In our current exploration we performed the SIL check on many more companies and were surprised to discover, how much expectation and reality differ in customer experience.

There is a large bank that neglects communication with their customers during initiation, a beauty brand forgets the empowerment of their purchase experience, or a technology provider massively confuses customers with constantly changing product names. Sweets manufacturers confuse with increasingly complex product variants or online marketplaces by using complex pricing structures. Power- or furniture providers propagate customer proximity, but their online presence ranges from outdated to invisible. Some print magazines afford up to three different online presences. Even after premium purchases of phones or cars, the interest in the customer aborts abruptly. And binding a customer positively with the service stage at that point, should be obvious.

We are far away from a strict lead customer experience management and want to highlight a positive example. The brand Red Bull is not only master in extending consumer contacts by using media but knows how to randomly attract their target group’s attention at an early stage.

# Three Rules:

• Write down your target group’s day-to-day journey and not the journey through your brand-universe
 • Pay attention to the hidden signals with insight potential that could become key moments. It’s well known that conversion rates don’t increase with the number of touchpoints. Try less here.
 • Define the goal of your customer relation (marriage of convenience, friendship, adventure, …) and take your time to develop these carefully. Avoid annoying digital automation and consumption pressure.


 We would love to show you your brands performance in the SIL Check noncommittally. Share your thoughts about customer intelligence, profiles, insights or journeys with us.
 **We are looking forward to getting to know you.**

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Customer Experience Management

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT

A **high-performance running shoe** made from two fully recyclable biopolymers and only available by subscription. This business model from ON combines several sustainability aspects to close the material cycle as best as possible.
 A special feature of the shoes is that they can only be rented by subscription, which increases the probability that the shoe will be returned and effectively recycled. At the end of the shoe’s lifecycle, at least 6 months, they can be returned and used 100% to manufacture new products and you get new pair of Cloudneo shoes. 

We distinguish in three **[impact levels of circularity](https://kup.id/en/article/the-three-efficiencies-of-sustainable-circularity)**. As an innovative business model, ON is a good example of Impact Level 2.


### [ON](https://www.on-running.com/de-de/cyclon?g_adtype=search&g_acctid=981-546-0205&g_campaign=%5Bn:GSN%5D%5Bm:GER%5D%5Bl:DE%5D%5Bi:Brand%5D%5Bc:Shoes%5D%5Bcat:Shoe-Model_Cyclon%5D&g_campaignid=11096183974&g_adgroupid=105615424981&g_adid=463625567654&g_keyword=on%20cloudneo&g_keywordid=kwd-1535139656520&g_network=g&gclid=Cj0KCQiAg_KbBhDLARIsANx7wAzZTkl8SbqVGDuTidw_ruRvhecHH6zmhhQhMGLdg8zpZNRdd2Xup70aAtahEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds)



 Photo © ON

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Fairphone - Nachhaltigkeit in der Elektroindustrie

ON - The circular running shoe

MUD Jeans offers a **jeans leasing model** including repair service for a monthly fee. After one year of leasing, the jeans are paid off and can be kept or traded in for a new leased pair. Returned jeans are either resold as vintage jeans or recycled to make new MUD jeans in a process that reduces the use of toxins and resources.

The business model extends the **product lifecycle** so that high value products are retained within the company, and reduces environmental impacts (e.g. water and raw material consumption) by recycling resources.

We distinguish in three **[impact levels of circularity](https://kup.id/en/article/the-three-efficiencies-of-sustainable-circularity)**. As an innovative business model, ON is a good example of Impact Level 2.

### [Mud Jeans](https://mudjeans.de/)



 Photo © Unsplash Maude Frederique Lavoie

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Mud Jeans - Jeans for lease

Getting from A to B with an app that combines public transportation and sharing services to find the best route. That's the business model of the Finnish company MaaS Global. Mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) is a functional approach that wants to give users the same freedom that only their own car can provide: to be able to **go anywhere at any time**.

They use an open ecosystem approach that allows mobility providers to integrate and cooperate with the app. Sharing services and public transportation are displayed on the map and the fastest or cheapest way to get to the destination is calculated. With its Tripguide, Whim not only supports sharing services and public transportation, but primarily serves as a means to **get around cheaply**.
 Together with the MaaS Alliance, an international MaaS association of diverse stakeholders, they are working closely with infrastructure and policy - on a regional to international level to be able to make mobility sustainable for the wider society.

We distinguish in three **[impact levels of circularity](https://kup.id/en/article/the-three-efficiencies-of-sustainable-circularity)**. As a circular ecosystem, Whim App by MaaS is a good example of Impact Level 3.

### [MaaS Global](https://whimapp.com/)



 Photo © MaaS Global Whim

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MaaS Global - Mobility that replaces your car

### Think everything together.

Shortage of skilled workers, climate change, corona crisis, Ukraine war, raw material prices, inflation, recession...
 How do I save my company?
 Is it enough to solve cost issues?
 How do we open up new sources of revenue?

The crucial step: remember, you are the CEO, the entrepreneur and yes, also the creative destroyer (J. Schumpeter).

 **Your first and only question: Who or what do you want and where should your company be in ten years?**

 So, especially during the recession, develop a strong vision, a picture of where you want your company to be. To do this, leave familiar paths and ask yourself what you can, want, need to do for your customers, employees and planet. Break through your silos and invite all your stakeholders into your vision to translate it into a strategy together with us and our **[CORING Process](https://kup.id/en/coring)**.

**How to transform your vision into your new mindset?**

Take advantage of the opportunities of circular business models and adopt a completely new perspective on your core business and customer promises.

Ground the constant pressure to grow, de-invest in old markets and themes, and focus on your incremental transformation.

Unleash the energy in your team to make a difference together. Balance material, human and planetary performance. In doing so, go beyond boundaries by striving for seemingly impossible goals. Do things that sustainably advance the planet and, in turn, you.
This energy is what modern entrepreneurship is all about. We call it **Ultrapreneurship**.

 **Start doing it right now!**

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Ultrapreneurship now

As if the shortage of skilled workers and the corona crisis weren't enough, the Ukraine war is currently fueling commodity prices and inflation. With rising financing interest rates, digital investment targets are slipping out of sight. SMEs are therefore economically unsettled, especially as supply bottlenecks are likely to lead to further foreclosure of the global markets in the coming months. This will have a particularly severe impact on Germany as an export nation.
 But so far, German SMEs have discovered economic opportunities in every crisis.
 Take the climate crisis, for example: the current UN climate report from May 2022 shows why we can already expect global warming to average 1.5°C in the next four years. You don't have to be an economist to recognize that the climate crisis not only requires extreme action, but also offers enormous business potential.
 
Instead of just green washing, however, the core business should finally be rethought. Three steps can be defined for dealing with sustainability:

 **1. Gain transparency** about your use of resources and your emissions. Identify your biggest environmental levers.
 **2. Reduce climate-damaging CO2 emissions**, but also close material cycles and replace resources with sustainable alternatives.
 **3. Discover circular business models** that enable you to serve customer needs in completely new ways. In this way, not only create economic value, but also build a resilient ecosystem that creates planetary and societal value.

Many CEOs complain they are overwhelmed by the number of new issues and the complexity of decisions. How can you address this complexity? How do you make sustainability real?

**Manage your business as a whole**, not through silos. See it through the eyes of a customer for whom it is a logical entity. So avoid separating organization, brand, business model, or sustainability. From your customer's perspective, your corporate identity is indivisible. Therefore, bring all those responsible for these topics in your company to the same table.

Don't just survey your current status on all four levels, but let those responsible work together to develop the potential for the coming years.
 You will see how much sustainability connects all areas, from production to sales. Plan binding proof points for the next few years with a consistent innovation roadmap. Because you'll have all areas at the table to realize these milestones together. A new mission statement and strong forward momentum will be the result.

 **Here are our most important learnings as strategists who accompany such processes every day.
Contrary to popular belief, sustainable business strategies can:**

 **·	Reduce costs** through lower material, emission, disposal or energy costs
 **·	Maximize revenues** through competitive products and credible price premium
 **·	Minimize risks** through reduced commodity price, supply or regulatory dependency
 **·	Retain customers** through long-term sustainable leasing, repair or recycling relationships
 **·	Motivate employees** with clear attitudes, organizational goals and measurable effectiveness.
 **·	Support societies** through safety, fair training and payment along the supply chain.
 **·	Regenerate Planet Earth** through air and water purification, soil enhancement, and species conservation.


It is no longer a matter of having to do everything that makes money. No, what is increasingly being done is what moves us forward sustainably as responsible companies. Whether it's "cradle-to-cradle" or circular business models: Take a completely new perspective on the offering and the associated added value for your customer.
 In the future, SMEs will think in terms of customer solutions instead of corporate products. After all, it has long been clear that we actually need mobility instead of cars. We want clean laundry instead of washing machines. Less is often more right. For example, we can offer customers cars or fashion that are brand-new, produced in a recycled state or already used.

To be able to define sustainable business models more precisely, we divide them into three different impact levels of sustainable circularity. You can read more about what these are and what they entail in our article on **[the three impact levels of sustainable circularity](https://kup.id/en/article/the-three-efficiencies-of-sustainable-circularity)** nachlesen.

The modern entrepreneur does not merely act for profit, but balances material, human and planetary performance. We call this new pursuit of "Useful Performance" Ultrapreneurship.

 **Conclusion**
 Become part of the solution, especially in times of crisis. Trade in an entrepreneurial way. Re-prioritize and unleash the energy in your team to make a difference together. Discover that sustainable business models are fun and profitable.
 

 **Start doing it now!**

Have you read the examples of circular business models in our **[Blog](https://kup.id/en/up)**?
 Want to take entrepreneurial action, reset your priorities and make a difference?
 Want to see the status of your business at a glance?
 Take 20 seconds and use the free RAMP test. **[RAMP Test](https://kup.id/en/ramp)**.

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How companies can understand and benefit from sustainability

Online mail order has been booming not just since the Covid19 pandemic: in Germany alone, the volume of shipments is forecast to increase by almost 20% by 2026*. This means at least as much growth in **disposable packaging waste**.
 The Finnish packaging specialist RePack has set itself the goal of preventing this. The idea of the start-up founders around CEO Jonne Hellgrenn: a **reusable recycling system for packaging**. Such systems have already been successfully established for glass and plastic bottles or beverage cans - why shouldn't it also be feasible for packaging?

In practice, the reusable packaging system is simple, practical and above all, circular: RePack provides online retailers with bags made of recycled polypropylene for a monthly rental fee.
 Retailers ship their goods in them, and customers return the empty packaging directly to RePack or use it to make returns to the retailer. After the return, the shipping bags are cleaned - either by RePack or the retailer directly - and are available for up to 40 additional shipping cycles. 

We distinguish in three **[impact levels of circularity](https://kup.id/en/article/the-three-efficiencies-of-sustainable-circularity)**. As an innovative business model, RePack is a good example of Impact Level 2.


### [RePack](https://www.repack.com/)



 Photo © Original RePack Ltd
*Source: BIEK; KE-Consult, Statista 2022

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RePack - Verpackung neu gedacht

RePack - Packaging rethought

The Dutch smartphone manufacturer Fairphone is not only committed to **ethically fair working conditions** in the manufacture of its products along the entire value chain, but also ensures that the smartphones are made from both recycled and **recyclable materials** during production. In addition, attention is paid to reparability and thus a longer device lifespan. 

Furthermore, Fairphone has established a model in cooperation with recycling specialists, such as the French company Cadaoz, whereby old devices should increasingly enter the recycling cycle.
 As an incentive for donating the old device, the cell phone owner is issued a voucher that can be redeemed at Fairphone. According to the company, this should enable the return of 17,000 old devices in 2020. Around 40% of the devices will be refurbished and repaired for the second-hand market, while the rest will be recycled and recyclable materials returned to the cycle.

We distinguish in three **[impact levels of circularity](https://kup.id/en/article/the-three-efficiencies-of-sustainable-circularity)**. As an innovative business model, Fairphone is a good example of Impact Level 2.


### [Fairphone](https://www.fairphone.com/)



 Photo © Fairphone

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Fairphone - Sustainability goes electronic industry

The initiators of **[Labor Tempelhof](https://labor-tempelhof.org)** have set themselves the task of developing and implementing circular economy concepts for large concerts according to the **"Cradle to Cradle"** (C2C) principle. 

This project was put into practice for the first time in August 2022 at **three concerts at Berlin's Tempelhof Airport.** The large-scale events served as test sites to measure the climate-, environment- and resource-positive effects of C2C solutions and to test their scalability. 
 For example, 100% of the required electricity was covered by green electricity, phosphorus was recovered from sewage sludge, slightly polluted water was purified and fed into toilet flushes, and a social awareness concept was developed. The project uncovered challenges, for example, in the scalability of solutions and existing (mobility) infrastructure. The findings were published as a guidebook and made available to businesses, politicians, and event organisers.

We distinguish in three **[impact levels of circularity](https://kup.id/en/article/the-three-efficiencies-of-sustainable-circularity)**. The project Labor Tempelhof is an example of impact level 3 "Circular and sustainable ecosystems", as it pushes for both a systemic transformation and the development of innovative solutions for society at large, as well as involving diverse societal stakeholders (from participants to start-ups to politics and infrastructure).




 Photo © Jörg Steinmetz for Labor Tempelhof

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Concerts as Circular Testing Fields

Labor Tempelhof - Concerts as Circular Testing Fields

The UK produces over 1 million tonnes of sugar annually. About 50% of this is exported. The largest sugar producer is **[British Sugar](https://www.britishsugar.co.uk)**, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods (ABF), which is committed to consistent **waste reduction** and **resource efficiency.**

At British Sugar, waste products from sugar production are turned into animal feed, topsoil and ethanol, among other things. **This ensures growth.** The company is one of the largest British ethanol producers and has become a major supplier to the petrochemical and pharmaceutical sectors.

A third of all ABF factories have succeeded in recycling or reusing 95% of all waste*. As a result, for **every tonne of sugar produced, less than 200 grams of waste is generated.**

In terms of **[efficency](https://kup.id/en/article/the-three-efficiencies-of-sustainable-circularity)**, British Sugar is therefore a good example of **Impact Level 1**, as they have made the production of their core product as circular as possible.


 Source: British Beet Research Organisation, Responsibility Report 2022, ABF.


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Optimised use of resources

British Sugar | Optimised use of resources

The company **[Dr. Schnell](https://www.dr-schnell.com)** specialises in the production of cleaning agents for buildings and commercial kitchens. In 2020, the Munich-based company was awarded the Cradle-to-Cradle Gold certificate for its **ECO collection** of household cleaning agents.

The ECO products are offered as highly concentrated cleaning agents that can be extended with water itself. This reduces packaging and water consumption. The products are free of chemicals that are harmful to environment or human health. Production is powered by 100% green electricity, carried out with regional partners and recycled packaging is used to reduce the carbon footprint.

In the detergent and cleaning products industry, high water and energy consumption still have the greatest impact on the environment.*

With its **ecological and technical measures**, Dr. Schnell reduces waste by 45% and water consumption by 72%* compared to the rest of the industry, achieving a **[circular efficiency](https://kup.id/en/article/the-three-efficiencies-of-sustainable-circularity)** of **Impact Level 1**.


 Sources:
 *IKW | Sustainability initiative
 **Dr. Schnell Envorinmental Statement 2022 P.35

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Circular Cleaning Agents

Dr. Schnell - Circular Cleaning Agents

The use and production of light generates 5%* of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. In the European Union alone, 40% ** of electronic waste is not recycled. If all EU countries' light sources were switched to LED, 51 million tonnes of CO2 emissions and 65 million euros in energy costs could be saved each year. 

**[Signify](https://www.signify.com/global)**, formerly Philipps Lighting, is a leading international supplier of **efficient lighting technology.** The company wants to significantly reduce the consumption of resources by light sources for commercial and private customers. 

With its concept **Light as a Service** (Laas), the company offers a circular lighting solution. For a monthly subscription fee, Signify takes responsibility for the lighting technology from planning and installation to maintenance. The products used are designed for easy repair and recycling and are manufactured by 3D printers to save material and weight. The use of AI in lighting management additionally reduces energy consumption and costs. Signify's LED lights are thus claimed to have a 75% *** **lower environmental footprint** than conventional products. 

With its focus on long life and reusability, Signify is not only closing product loops. With its LaaS business model, the company has an **[Impact Level 2](https://kup.id/article/die-drei-wirkungsebenen-nachhaltiger-zirkularitaet)** circularity score.


 Sources:
 *https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-examples/why-buy-light-bulbs-when-you-can-buy-light-signify 
 **https://www.signify.com/global/sustainability/green-switch/circular-economy
 ***https://www.signify.com/global/our-company/blog/sustainability/circular-economy-in-lighting


Photo © Skye Studios

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Light as a Circular Service

Signify – Light as a Circular Service

### Challenge

Waste management, street cleaning, green maintenance, road construction: With more than 750 employees - 23 of them of different nationalities - at more than 18 locations, the **[Aachen Council](https://aachen.de)** performs central tasks of public service for the city of Aachen. In order to break down silos, manage the complexity of the multi-layered organization and motivate and retain employees, we were tasked with developing a mission statement with shared values.

### Strategy

We have developed a mission statement that clearly encapsulates the strengths of the Aachen Council. In doing so, we not only want to create identity and joy, but also a framework for action that forms a common platform for the heterogeneous organization. For the activation, we have developed three concrete phases that the Aachen Council can also use to develop its organization, its ecological footprint and its digital tools. A mixed team of Change Ambassadors accompanied the process with a lot of joy and trust and established itself as a permanent dialog tool for the management.

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A mission statement for new strength and togetherness

The Aachen Council - A mission statement for new strength and togetherness

We know that the challenges are big and the demands are increasing: Shortage of skilled workers, pressure to innovate and change, digitalisation, a backlog of professionalisation.

 **Is your organisation up to the task?**

Although HR work has many answers to current crises, HR departments in small and medium-sized enterprises often reach their limits - especially when it comes to asserting themselves as a fully-fledged strategic partner in everyday administrative and operational work.

The reasons for this are clear: HR work has often not yet benefited from digitalisation. Efficiency has not been increased, and the corporate strategy has not been implemented. HR professionals have had to demonstrate social rather than business skills. 

 **How can new requirements be reconciled with the old range of services?**

HR departments need a tailor-made strategy and appreciation for HR professionals. Only in this way can they be sustainably transformed and create real added value.

Our clients undertake the transformation in four steps: 

We survey the status quo. 
We jointly develop the content-related priorities, the organisational set-up of the HR department and the necessary role profiles. 
We condense our findings into a simple strategy paper with an implementation plan. 
We support the actual implementation, usually in the context of development measures. 

 **What concrete measures make HR departments really effective?**

**Define clear roles.** Clarifying roles between management and HR leadership (e.g. employee focus vs. business focus), is the first step in developing together.

**Set a strategic focus.** Priorities need to be defined together with management along strategic goals. Programmes that are not priorities need to be radically cut or outsourced. 

**Make talent acquisition a priority.** A good HR department must have complete mastery of the spectrum of recruitment. This includes Strategic Workforce Planning and Employer Branding. 

**Work with data.** HR analytics can be used to translate HR-related insights into strategic decisions. Regular capacity building is essential in this process. 


 The time for change is now.
 **Strengthen your HR department and make it a true strategic partner in the company.**

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The Transformative Power of an Effective HR Department

How do you help your HR departments solve the challenges?

**Three strategic measures to handle the shortage of skilled workers**



In the coming years, the shortage of skilled workers will be one of the key challenges facing medium-sized companies. Many companies are already feeling the effects of this; filling demanding positions has become much more difficult and the expectations of candidates have changed. This is the conclusion of the [SME survey](https://kup.id/article/know-your-priorities) conducted by K'UP.



We find that medium-sized companies are not taking sufficient measures to assert themselves on the labor market. Many of the companies we surveyed would like to invest in employer branding and personnel marketing measures to cope with the shortage of skilled workers. But this alone will not solve the problem. 




**We therefore recommend action in three areas:**




**1.	Investing in the attractiveness of the workplace:**


It is not enough to invest only in the attractiveness of the employer to the outside world, because ever since Kununu and Glasdoor came into existence, candidates have been able to find out how things really are at the company. It is now common practice among graduates to approach employees directly and ask them for information about their potential employer. Only those who invest in an attractive employee experience have an advantage on the job market. In the past, mid-sized companies scored points with a secure job, a competitive salary package, canteen and pension plan; today, much more is required.

In addition to a meaningful corporate purpose and lived values, employees expect above all professional and personal development. They want to work together to achieve motivating goals and be supported by their managers in doing so. HR and management improve their employer attractiveness by developing the corporate culture along corporate values, introducing relevant HR tools and establishing coaching as a management tool.




**2. Align HR policy with workforce planning:**


Even well-positioned employers must learn to adapt to the dynamic conditions of the labor market. Their HR policies must deal with higher turnover, shorter retention periods and flexible staffing options (including freelance, external employees if necessary). Personnel processes, especially in recruiting, talent management and onboarding, must be geared to this. Companies that are resistant to the crisis in skilled labor will on the one hand target suitable candidates. At the same time, they also make the most of increased fluctuation, for example by generating external knowledge.




**3. Shaping the future through education initiatives:**


Medium-sized companies should not rely solely on government measures to identify and promote talent. They must identify talent themselves at an early stage and actively close widespread gaps in education. They can do this, for example, by supporting (non-profit) education initiatives. In the process, they also become better acquainted with the local labor market and its players. Scholarships, internships and other activities simultaneously attract talent to the company.




**We would be happy to discuss the findings of this article in more detail in a personal meeting. Please contact our resilience expert [Juliane](https://kup.id/shoulders/juliane-hueppe-1).**

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Three measures against the shortage of skilled workers

In view of the subdued consumer sentiment, more and more companies such as adidas, Puma and Zalando are under enormous pressure in the new year. Falling sales are making urgently needed investments in sustainability or artificial intelligence increasingly difficult. The effects are being reinforced by the bankruptcies of start-ups (+65%) and companies (+26%) compared to the previous year, which corresponds to a total of 15,000 companies.

The fashion industry in particular has been experiencing an unprecedented wave of insolvencies for months: Peek & Cloppenburg, Görtz, Reno, Hallhuber, Impressionen, Madeleine, Peter Hahn, Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, Wormland. With the Sigma insolvency, Sportscheck, Fahrrad(.de) and Tennis-Point also slipped into bankruptcy. In addition to consumer goods, consumer durables such as Römertopf, Zeller Keramik and Weck were also hit. Furniture manufacturers such as Arco, Nolte, Hülsta, Wesco and a number of kitchen manufacturers also filed for insolvency in 2023. These included companies such as Warendorf, Hansa, Störmer, Lechner, Dan, Alno and Quelle.

And so the new year begins for many with postponed investments, extended supply chains, reduced production and overtime cuts, also in view of new problems in the Suez Canal. Knife manufacturer Zwilling is putting its workforce on short-time working, just like 40 percent of furniture manufacturers.

**Does this sound familiar to you?**

**Complex situations require focused action.**
The time of silos is over. Now all those with responsibility in the company need to sit down at the same table. 

**Task**: Everyone works on a joint strategy for the future from their own area.

Procedure: Business model, organization, brand and sustainability **together create a solution scenario.**

**Opportunities:** Those who build up direct customer relationships as well as retail relationships usually also succeed in capitalizing on these. In other words, developing significant eCommerce margins from **direct-to-consumer channels**. Since 2000, adidas has been showing us how to do this and make retail partners and customers happy in the process. Active customer data offers monetary and planetary earnings potential in several respects. 

• Only those who use their customer data can differentiate themselves in the market through target group-specific **innovations**. For example, two founders with over 12,000 fans developed their first pan design via a crowdfunding campaign. Today, Pfannenhelden(.de) is read by over 100,000 people every month. With their STUR cast iron pans from Germany, Filip Mierzwa and Simon Köstler not only win design awards, but also offer a 50-year guarantee on a pan costing between 150 and 300 euros. 

• However, consumers are not only digging deeper into their pockets for design. As the example shows, they are just as happy to avoid coatings that are harmful to health (PTFE, PFOA, PFOS). In every product area, there are target group segments that are willing to pay more when it comes to **sustainability**. This is the quickest way to replace plastic kitchen utensils with other materials, rent out kitchens temporarily or refurbish electrical appliances in new cycles.

• And once a specific target group segment has been conquered, **internationalization** is just as cost-effective via social media. Marketplaces are identified in advance, portfolios are tailored and Go-2-Market campaigns are reviewed on a country-specific basis. This not only allows additional sales potential to be leveraged, but also increases the earnings per product through economies of scale.

• Those who actively use their customer data in times of substitutable products are also able to significantly increase the overall duration of their customer relationship, i.e. their customer loyalty. This not only reduces marketing and returns costs. Most consumers value personalized shopping experiences and direct service contact. Precise targeting can encourage customers to make specific purchases at each stage of their lives, which ultimately increases the total revenue per individual customer, i.e. the **customer lifetime value.**

**Objective:** To further develop the core business with an efficient set-up and actively use direct customer relationships to generate a higher price premium through sustainable innovations.

**Result:** Every crisis is overcome with the company's own customers and their willingness to pay. This is the only way to sharpen portfolios, measures and earnings horizons. 

This creates **clarity in times of change** and moves the company and the planet forward.


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Consumer and durable goods lose their customers: Four opportunities for a better D2C strategy

The pharmacy market is facing profound change. Traditional structures and business models are increasingly being challenged by economic pressure, digitalisation and changing customer behaviour. This white paper outlines the most important developments in the pharmacy market, paying particular attention to the current situation and future trends. 

**1. Pharmacy demise and economic pressure**

With one/two closures per day, there has been a dramatic trend of pharmacies dying out in recent years. While there were still 18,068 pharmacies in Germany at the end of 2022, there were only 17,733 at the end of the third quarter of 2023. 
Many pharmacies are seeing their profitability jeopardised by falling gross profits, price pressure from mail-order pharmacies and political cost containment measures (e.g. mandatory discounts for pharmacies to health insurance companies). This is exacerbated by a massive shortage of staff, which is affecting the performance of many pharmacies. 

The ban on multiple and third-party ownership is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it ensures the regional survival of many pharmacies. On the other hand, entrepreneurial room for manoeuvre is severely limited by restrictions on capital inflows and synergies through scaling. 

**2. Digitalisation and mail order in the pharmacy market**

Mail order, digitalisation and the current introduction of electronic prescriptions are massively changing customer behaviour in the pharmacy market. The market share of mail-order pharmacies and digital pharmacy platforms for pharmacy-only medicines, which can be purchased in pharmacies without a doctor's prescription, is already over 20%. For prescription-only products, the share is currently 1.2%, although the introduction of electronic prescriptions (e-prescriptions) is expected to lead to rapid and significant growth. 

The e-prescription opens up potential both for optimising care through better interaction checks and medication management for chronic patients and for greater convenience in care, for example through same-day delivery, which saves multiple trips to the pharmacy. Electronic patient records and a digital medication plan create additional opportunities for improved patient care. Digital and telemedical services, online consultations and "AI-supported remote diagnostics" would be possible, for example. 

**3. New players in the healthcare market**

In the midst of these changes, new and powerful players are positioning themselves in the healthcare sector. For example, Christoph Werner, CEO of dm drogerie markt, has recently announced that he intends to offer health services in the more than 2,000 dm shops in future. In line with his vision, preventative and health consultations will be provided, vaccinations offered, diagnoses made and medicines dispensed. 

Drugstore discounters and supermarkets are already among the most important sales channels for nutritional supplements and medical products. Vitamins and minerals are most in demand here. The cold segment is experiencing annual sales increases, as are the stomach and digestion, muscle, nerve, fitness and eye ranges. 

It is therefore not surprising that the expansion of healthcare providers beyond doctors' surgeries and pharmacies is already well established in other countries. In the USA, for example, drugstores with integrated pharmacies generate two thirds of their sales with products or services that are reserved for pharmacies and medical service providers in this country.

**4. Pharmacy light**

The momentum of change is intensified by an announcement by the Federal Minister of Health. In a published ‘Key points paper on reducing bureaucracy in the healthcare sector’, various regulatory requirements for pharmacies are to be reduced. At the centre of the discussion is the intention to enable ‘pharmacy light branches’, which envisages a significant downgrading of the standard compared to the current regulations.

In pharmacy branch networks, for example, the laboratory and prescription department will only have to be kept at one location. With the option of telepharmacy, i.e. the use of technical equipment for video consultations, medicines can be dispensed in ‘pharmacies light’ by a pharmaceutical technical assistant (PTA) without a pharmacist being present. 

If these political plans are actually realised, this will open up completely new options, such as the possibility of so-called shop-in-shop pharmacies, which would also call into question the ban on third-party ownership and open up the possibility of e.g. shop-in-shop pharmacies for drugstores or other chain stores. Previous laws or assumptions such as the prohibition of third-party ownership could be seriously called into question. 

**5. Challenges and opportunities for the players - what does this mean for pharmacies and drugstores?**

First of all, it can be said that the topic of health will become increasingly important in the coming years due to demographic change. Rising life expectancy and increasing morbidity are coming up against declining numbers of doctors and pharmacies and reduced medical capacities. The growing number of older people requires an increasingly modern range of healthcare services, medicines and medical products, while younger people are prioritising quality of life and a healthy lifestyle. 

In the context of the developments described above (digitalisation, mail order, etc.), the mail order pharmacy market will see further consolidation among a few powerful players. This is illustrated by a new study by Smile.BI. According to this study, Amazon would be the market leader in the pharmacy market within three years if the e-commerce giant were to enter the market. In the USA, Amazon already ranks second among the ‘top e-pharmacies’. 

Drugstores and grocery chains could also offer tangible added value in rural areas with shop-in-shop pharmacies due to their coverage of the area. To do so, however, they would have to rely on business partners in the healthcare sector, which would result in two different scenarios. Partnerships with regional pharmacies could be considered for the operation of shop-in-shop pharmacies. An alternative scenario is a mail-order pharmacy concept, which is becoming more interesting than ever with the introduction of electronic prescriptions. In both scenarios, it will be important to actively utilise customer data through digital direct-to-consumer offers. Especially in combination with ever-improving AI, customer needs could be anticipated based on demographic variables and previous purchases and, if necessary, converted into subscription models. Local pharmacies could also evolve into ‘supply pharmacies’. The focus would then be on comprehensive pharmaceutical services, such as drug therapy safety or care counseling. 

Regardless of whether all the ideas in Lauterbach's key issues paper are realised or not, the pharmacy sector faces considerable challenges.  Those who manage to build direct customer relationships and actively utilise customer data in order to anticipate patient needs and are also able to maintain sufficient relationship trust despite the high volume of transactions will emerge from this crisis as winners. 



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Developments in the pharmacy market: An analysis of current trends and future challenges

A five-kilometre car journey produces about as much CO2 as the production of a bottle of wine. And that's even without the associated transport to the consumer. The traditional, round glass bottle is responsible for **the largest CO2 footprint** in the value chain of the wine industry, with a share of over 50%. 

**[Packamama](https://packamama.com)** from Great Britain wants to tackle this problem with an innovative shape. Red and white wine are offered in **flat bottles** that can be stacked more efficiently and even fit through the letterbox slot. This allows more than twice as much wine to fit on a pallet, saving costs and facilitating delivery by post, which in turn saves on emissions.

The Packamama bottle has the same capacity as traditional glass bottles, but stands two centimetres taller. It is also 87% lighter than traditional wine bottles as it is made from 100% recycled PET. 

Thanks to its collaboration with The Wine Society, a leading online retailer of **monthly wine subscriptions**, Packamama has managed to both raise its profile in the wine industry and successfully implement its letterbox technology.

Packamama has thus launched a completely new circular product from **[Impact Level 1](https://kup.id/en/article/the-three-efficiencies-of-sustainable-circularity)**. Compared to conventional wine bottles, the **carbon footprint could be reduced** at many points in the value chain - from production, to delivery, to the recycling process.




 Sources:
 How climate-damaging is wine? - SWR Wissen
 About — Garçon Wines (garconwines.com)
 Flat future: Garçon Wines eyes Oceania and China with ‘sustainable’ wine bottles that fit through letterbox (foodnavigator-asia.com)


Photo © Jill Wellington for Pexels

Quellen:

 [Hüwelmeier, Judith: Wie klimaschädlich ist Wein?, in: SWR Wissen, 14.03.2023, [online]](https://www.swr.de/wissen/1000-antworten/wie-klimaschaedlich-ist-wein-100.html#:~:text=Wenn%20man%20sich%20die%20CO2,kommt%20noch%20der%20Transport%20hinzu.)
 [Garçon Wines: We’re building the wine brands of the future, in: Garçon Wines, o.D.,[online]](https://www.garconwines.com/about)
 [Yu Lim, Guan: Flat future: Garçon Wines eyes Oceania and China with ‘sustainable’ wine bottles that fit through letterbox, in: Foodnavigator Asia, 21.05.2020, [online] ](https://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Article/2020/05/21/Flat-future-Garcon-Wines-eyes-Oceania-and-China-with-sustainable-wine-bottles-that-fit-through-letterbox)

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The Innovative Wine Bottle

Packamama - The Innovative Wine Bottle

**The challenge**

The family-owned company [THIMM](https://www.thimm.com/en/) is a leading solution provider for the packaging and distribution of consumer goods. As part of a generational change, the challenge was to develop a new corporate identity including strategic planning for organizational, cultural and brand strategy.  

**Strategy**

Customers and employees were surveyed in several parallel working groups and a strategy was developed based on the company's DNA, which envisages the modernization and digitalization of the value chain and THIMM as a sustainable solution provider.  

Furthermore, not only the vision and mission, but the entire corporate identity was redeﬁned and strategic areas of action were planned. In addition to a management and cultural guideline, a new brand strategy was also developed.

THIMM's new brand identity and culture served as the foundation for an analog and digital relaunch campaign, which was communicated and implemented internally and externally throughout Europe. The result was not only a new corporate design, but also the claim **"When simplicity feels good. It's THIMM time".**  


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THIMM - Realignment of the corporate brand and culture

### Challenge

Teams venturing out of the enterprise experience uncertainty and ask themselves big questions: Will we find new customers? Will we manage to strengthen our offering profile? How do we become visible and build our own brand? The spin-off of the Berlin and Potsdam team of the law firm Boehmert & Boehmert was no different. That's why the partners agreed to entrust us with the development of their corporate and brand strategy.

### Strategy

By analysing the competition, values such as client-centricity, awakening and straightforwardness came into focus. The analysis of the client of the future soon showed us that the business model of the IP specialist law firm is undergoing a strong digital transformation.
Collaborative network approaches are becoming the means of choice for new topics and business areas.
 As a service provider of the future, the firm will therefore automate partial services and pursue a clear platform approach in order to maintain quality, speed and transparency.

 The strategy, as well as our recommendation to focus on the concise name "Nordemann" created clarity. Since its founding, Nordemann has not only been among the Best Lawyers, occupying top rankings in [WiWo Legal All-Star](https://www.wiwo.de/finanzen/legal-all-stars-2021-das-sind-die-besten-anwaelte-ihres-fachs/28079454.html) or Legal 500, but was also named [Media Law Firm of the Year](https://www.juve.de/juve-rankings/deutschland/kanzlei-des-jahres-medien/) by JUVE Verlag one year after its launch.

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Nordemann - Spin-off with distinction

The German glass industry produces 20% of the total amount of glass in Europe in terms of revenue.¹ Over 4 million disposable glass containers are produced in Germany every year. Glass recycling closes the cycle, but high temperatures are still required for melting, so that only about 25% of the energy input can be saved by recycling compared to the production of new glass.² [MAGNA Glaskeramik](https://magna-glaskeramik.de/) is part of the glass industry and focuses on the sustainable and combined production of glass and ceramics entirely from waste materials, thus saving part of the energy consumption.

For the production of glass-ceramics, glass is crushed into fine glass granules and then sintered in plate form for 20 hours at melting temperatures that are lower and therefore more energy-efficient than glass production.³ The temperatures used develop a crystal structure that makes glass-ceramics a robust material for exterior and interior use. 

MAGNA's glass-ceramic is made from almost 100% surplus and waste material from industrial and bottle glass production.⁴ After use, glass-ceramic can be completely returned to the production process and recycled. In order to save additional electricity and water during production, a water treatment plant and a photovoltaic system are used, which each cover the majority of the waste water and electricity.⁴

The smooth, scratch-resistant and water-resistant glass ceramic is available in different colors and sizes and is suitable for products such as facades, furniture, washbasins or design objects. One example of the individual use of the material is the facade of the Bulgari flagship store in Shanghai, which was primarily made from green recycled glass, or the new façade of the Cradle to Cradle NGO Lab in Berlin, for its production MAGNA was partly responsible for.

To close the circle of the circular economy, the company also offers the service of taking back glass-ceramics and introducing them into the recycling process. This **circular business model** has been awarded with the **Cradle to Cradle Gold certification**.

Hopefully, this application will set a precedent so that glass-ceramic solutions in general become even more cost-effective. In any case, MAGNA Glaskeramik has achieved a positive circularity level of **[Impact Level 2](https://kup.id/en/article/the-three-efficiencies-of-sustainable-circularity)** with its business model, which is completely focused on the recycling of waste glass and saves CO2 with low temperatures and durable products.

¹ [van Bergen, Johannes : Energieintensive Industrie, in: KWK, o.D., [online]](https://ee-kwk.com/energieintensive-industrie/) 
² [Thiel-Sonnen, Alice : So entsorgen Sie Ihr Altglas richtig, in: SWR1, 04.06.2024, [online]](https://www.swr.de/swr1/rp/altglas-102.html#:~:text=%C3%9Cber%204%20Millionen%20Tonnen%20Beh%C3%A4lterglas,eine%20Quote%20von%2090%25%20vor.) ; [Glas Gasperlmair: Glasrecycling – der nachhaltige Umgang mit dem Rohstoff Glas, in: Glas Gasperlmair Ges.m.b.H., o.D., [online]](https://glas-gasperlmair.at/unternehmen/news/glasrecycling-der-nachhaltige-umgang-mit-dem-rohstoff-glas/)
 
³ Interview mit Steve Eigenwillig und Maria Loran von MAGNA Glaskeramik 
⁴ [MAGNA Glaskeramik: Umweltproduktdeklaration, in: MAGNA Glaskeramik, 02.11.2022, [online]](https://magna-glaskeramik.de/fileadmin/glaskeramik/pdf/de/Zertifikat/GER_2022-11-02_EPD-MGK.pdf)


 Photo © Magna Glaskeramik
 Photo © Bulgari Shanghai

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MAGNA - stunning facades made from recycled glass

**Where do I come from?**

I was born in 1970, come from Hanover and have been very lucky to be self-employed all my life. This allows me to deal with what I enjoy most - brands.

My first company was a snowboard label that I founded with my brother when I was at school. During my business studies in Bavaria, I then built up a franchise sports chain and worked in marketing at adidas.

By chance, I got my first assignment for the brand relaunch of a B2B client before my exams. So shortly afterwards I founded a full-service agency in Berlin with the rotor°Mediengruppe. However, our growth got out of control with the advent of the internet and so, at the birth of our first daughter, I faced my first and last bankruptcy.

Then I had the great fortune to meet Jochen Pläcking and founded the brand consultancy kleinundpläcking with him in 2005. Not only did I have a great time with him. Jochen is still my role model in terms of generosity and forbearance. And so we have not only been able to provide strategic support for many large and small brands since then. We have also managed to permanently evolve from a pure brand consultancy.

Today, our strategy team brings companies forward comprehensively in brand, corporate, organisational and sustainability issues. This not only ensures even closer client relationships, but also gives me great pleasure. Over time, I started giving lectures on strategic brand management. I'm still allowed to do that today at WHU in Vallendar.


**What drives me?**

I not only like to be on the move, I also like to move things forward. This applies to me, my family and our company. 
Here I feel lucky every day, as one of four partners, to be able to advise our clients on brand strategy issues. 

I have also set myself the goal of abolishing the ideals of homo oeconomicus and replacing them with more sustainable value creation. I call this homo in mundum.

I know that our generation can succeed in not developing productivity at the expense of individuals or our planet. If we want to act responsibly, all we have to do is define corporate performance in terms of an equal balance of material, human and planetary added value. And if the whole thing is supposed to be fun for us consumers, then I call it RAMP.

In my home town of Potsdam, as in Berlin, I meet people every day who act in a sustainable way. That spurs me on.


**What is my strategy?**

Courage and humility.

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Corporate and brand strategy for SaarLB and implementation support

SaarLB

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