**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 six 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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### Vita

- Strategic Brand Management, K'UP
- Lecturer for Brand Management, WHU Beisheim School of Management
- Head of Strategy, AM Creative
- Founder and Managing Director redor°Media Group
- Junior Marketing Manager adidas
- Graduate in Business Administration
- Savings bank clerk
- Founder Klein Schneebretter

### 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

**Where do I come from?**

From Munich to Bath in England, via Vienna to Berlin. That's the short version. To be more precise, I studied business administration at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, followed by market research and consulting in England, then a PhD in management at the University of Vienna, and now a partner at K'UP. As soon as I arrived in Vienna, I fell in love with research and method development with a focus on branding, destination image and psychology. I have been writing scientific articles and teaching at various international universities for years. I am attracted by research on social developments and the bridge between academia and practice. I am driven to work with exciting people from different backgrounds and corners of the world to come to new, relevant insights.


**What drives me?**

I believe that good strategy must be built on real knowledge. It drives me to always create new approaches, try new methods and find approaches to get real insights from them. At K'UP, I've been leading a team since 2021 that explicitly cares about these new approaches and insights. We develop new methods for research, enable more efficient and better strategy work, and connect ourselves, our partners, clients and bright minds.

My driver in this is my family, my son and music. I've been playing in different bands for years and love to discover new things.



**What is my strategy?**

Re-thinking, critically weighing, finding the best insight.

### Vita

- Partner researcher, K'UP
- Lecturer and guest speaker at international universities
- Author and ad-hoc reviewer for top international journals
- Analyst, Zenith International Ltd, Great Britain
- PhD Management, University of Vienna
- Diploma in Business Administration, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich


### News and Publications

- Herz, M., & Krezdorn, N. (2020). The More You Know–High versus Low Experience Effects on Project Management Decisions. In Forum Markenforschung 2018 (pp. 107-122). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
- Micevski, M.; Halkias, G.; Herz, M. (2019). Multiple consumer identities and the crossover effect of the EU identity in predicting domestic and foreign product preferences. Journal of Business Research
- Herz, M. & Rauschnabel, P. (2019). Understanding the Diffusion of Virtual Reality Glasses: The Role of Media, Fashion and Technology. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 138, 228-242.
- Herz, M., Arnegger, J., & Mayer, M. (2018). How Stable is Event-Related Country-Image Change?. In Forum Markenforschung 2016 (pp. 141-157). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden
- Herz, M., & Arnegger, J. (2017). Country Image Formation, Stability and Change – A Longitudinal Assessment of the Image of Azerbaijan. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing.
- Herz, M., & Diamantopoulos, A. (2017). I Use it but Will Tell You that I Don’t: Consumers’ Country-of-Origin Cue Usage Denial. Journal of International Marketing.
- Diamantopoulos, A., Herz, M., & Koschate, N. (2017). The EU as Superordinate Brand Origin: An Entitativity Perspective. International Marketing Review.

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**Hygiene factor sustainability**

No company can avoid the topic of sustainability today. Fortunately, not only the executive floors or the EU reporting obligations ensure this, but increasingly also the customers, employees, and talents. Sustainability has long since arrived in everyday working life and has transformed from a motivator to a hygiene factor.

 **The greenwashing trap**

Probably hardly any brand manager has not dealt with which aspects of their own brand are or can be made sustainable in recent years. Most brands try to position themselves positively sustainable in the market – be it ecologically, socially, or economically. But only a few manage to actually differentiate themselves from the competition with it.

Through an automated analysis of communicative positioning using the K’UP Brand Language Model of 387 global brands, we were able to show that a large part of all brands position themselves on the same topics. The analysis shows which topics are communicatively played by the brands. It is easy to see that ecological sustainability, and especially climate and renewable energies, as well as biodiversity, dominate the brands' world of topics.

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Most of the brands thus rely on the same topics, which is communicatively of no use. Worse still - some companies slide into greenwashing with their statements and risk financial damage. Whether through puffed-up packaging or false claims.

 **The green claims rules**

The upcoming Green Claims Directive from the EU once again changes the rules of the game and makes a targeted alignment with sustainable brand positioning indispensable. Greenwashing will no longer have any place. In the future, those who continue to use flowery names to give consumers a false, good feeling will maximize their legal costs. Companies will face increasingly strict rules in the future, although the exact implementation and execution have not yet been fixed. This will lead to the brand management having to constantly readjust its own communication in the future. This means statements like “climate-neutral” (e.g., Babydream - diapers) or “100% green” are defined too imprecisely. 

For consumers, it is not clear what exactly “green” means or whether “climate-neutral” products were only compensated instead of reduced. The use of seals will also be more strictly regulated so that consumers can rely on the truthfulness (e.g., organic seals on eggs – often still mass animal farming). If studies or comparisons are carried out, the company must precisely specify the basis on which the investigation is conducted. Another example is actions that are supposed to promote sustainability but actually only increase net profit and make hardly any ecological contribution will be regulated (Aldi - plastic bags for 1ct). All of this is intended to ensure that companies that act honestly sustainable have a competitive advantage and that consumers are not misled and have the greatest possible influence on ecological change.

No wonder that greenhushing is spreading and prompting companies to no longer talk about their sustainable activities at all. Both developments are cause for concern because there is a lack of positive progress attitudes and role models that would be able to change an industry.

 **Away from emotionality. Act decisively.**

There is no way back. The topic of sustainable brand positioning will continue to occupy brand management in the coming years and must be approached clearly and holistically. It's not bad if your colleagues are still working on the materiality analysis or carbon balance. Look in your strategic planning or innovation roadmap to see when your company wants to tackle what specifically on sustainability. Then eliminate all vague emotions and terms from your marketing. 

Customers want clear facts. Arrange your goals in terms of content and time before you start and put them in a rational ratio to your positioning. In this way, you can tick off your proof points like in a check box in the future, and your narrative never runs into emptiness. Now simply report on what you are actually doing in terms of sustainability. Start small, but stick to concrete, provable facts. Tell relatable and authentic stories about your goals, successes, and setbacks. BASF has been praised from the start for its way of transparently showing its own challenges and the path taken. And Tony’s Chocolate openly talks about the fact that despite intensive efforts for years, it cannot completely exclude child labor.

 **New clarity in times of change**

What ultimately pays off, as always, is a clear attitude and honesty. It encourages others to get started and convinces your employees and customers.

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The Transformative Power of an Effective HR Department

Living sustainability instead of pretending

**Challenge**

**[TH Nürnberg](https://www.th-nuernberg.de/en/)** is a university with strong regional roots and a century-old history. However, a growing competitive environment and declining numbers of applicants are intensifying the competition for students, specialists and third-party funding. The goal was therefore to reposition itself for the future with a new brand identity.


 **Strategy**

Based on a comprehensive analysis of the university (history, faculties, competition, trends, structure, communication) as well as an extensive quantitative and qualitative stakeholder survey, K'UP developed sharp target customer profiles, a vision/mission and a differentiating brand strategy. Based on the new values and a clear positioning, the activation was then tackled together with the agency **[Ediundsepp](https://www.ediundsepp.de)**. The result is a new name, a claim as well as a comprehensive corporate design, which from now on will draw inspiration form the physicist Georg Simon Ohm.

 

![2023_Ohm_Logo_Rot_ohneZusatz_RGB.svg](https://kup.id/api/uploads/2023_Ohm_Logo_Rot_ohne_Zusatz_RGB_528854ed0a.svg)


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THN - From university to motor & impulse generator of the region

OHM - From university to engine of an entire region

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)


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The Innovative Wine Bottle

Packamama - The Innovative Wine Bottle

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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How do you help your HR departments solve the challenges?

**Challenge**

Today, a car is like a computer. That's why anyone who wants to maintain or repair their car needs complicated tools for electronic onboard diagnostics (OBD). One of the market leaders for these OBD tools is the Munich-based IT company, **[Carly](https://www.mycarly.com/en/)**. Not only does it offer an amazingly simple end-customer solution in the form of a small ODB dongle, but with our help it wanted to differentiate itself more strongly as a brand in an otherwise very rational competitive environment.



**Strategy**

For Carly, we developed a fundamentally new brand strategy based on an extensive analysis of product, communication, and competition. A central component of this was the research and segmentation of target customers. Typical for the topic of cars, their needs ranged from control to pragmatic solutions, to self-realization. Based on this, we developed brand values, a positioning, and an emotional marketing strategy that put the customer benefit even more clearly in the foreground. Because for the customer, Carly doesn't just hold a little dongle. In addition to reading out detailed vehicle data in real-time, Carly can offer mechanical advice expertise on its platform. To this end, the Munich-based company maintains one of the largest international communities of mechanics and experts, who provide tips and instructions appropriate to the vehicle in question. Carly thus gives customers the certainty that repair and maintenance can be efficient and fun. The best prerequisites for making every trip a good one. 


 **Carly. The good drive.**


 Photo © Carly

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How a newly developed strategy shapes the brand image

Carly - How a newly developed strategy shapes the brand image

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


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Light as a Circular Service

Signify – Light as a Circular Service

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

Photo © Karolina Grabowska for Pexels

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Circular Cleaning Agents

Dr. Schnell - Circular Cleaning Agents

**Where do I come from?**

I came to West Berlin from Lübeck with a few boxes and worked my way. In Kreuzberg without heating, at the Free University with sociologists and English scholars. At the University of the Arts, where I poked around in various departments and still ended up in advertising by visiting Hamburg agencies unannounced.

I was a copywriter and creative director at Springer & Jacoby and Scholz & Friends, both creative forges at the time, and later in London. Then freelance creative and lecturer.

I worked - also as a director - in Germany and England for many brands and their agencies. During that time, I had my own companies with various partners and founded an agency with Jochen Pläcking and Arne Klein, among others, which later brought us back together as partners at K'UP.


**What drives me?**

To be free for mental and real adventures. I have already achieved many goals: became a friend to my children, built wooden houses myself, written ten books (as L. van Wangger), been an award winning creative in advertising, made films, remained a (sceptical) entrepreneur. In my novels I am preoccupied with the question:
Who can we be?
Do we even have to become who we think we want to be?
Isn't that presumptuous? Do we push ourselves too far, or is that precisely what is human about us?
How can we overcome categorical, formulaic thinking?

At best, this can be indirectly applied to strategy, which often seeks formulas. But it leads to questions like: Is a company what it wants to be? Does it want the right thing? Is it capable of recognizing itself and creating meaning? Does it cross and respect the right boundaries? What do these boundaries look like? For example, do we need to create companies that act only for the non-human world? For animals, plants and the planet?
For this we need breakthrough ideas, while we are often still consuming our energy in optimizing what we have. We need to strengthen imagination and thereby release action. This is important to me.


**What is my strategy?**

Test yourself thoroughly, then amaze yourself.

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### Vita

- Partner & Business Philosopher, K'UP
- Owner and director, Thin Tank Filmproduktion
- Author of novels and short stories
- Freelance Creative Director for advertising and brand agencies Founder and Creative Director, Charlylima
- Co-founder and Creative Director, AM Corporate & Creative Strategic partnership, Weber & Soltek and Brainchild London Creative Director, Brainchild London
- Founder and Creative Director, Weber & Soltek
- Creative Director, Scholz & Friends Berlin
- Copywriter & Creative Director, Springer & Jacoby Hamburg Lecturer for Copywriting, University of the Arts (UDK) Berlin Copywriter, Scholz & Friends Hamburg
- Copywriter, Lintas
- Graduate in Communications, University of the Arts (UDK) Berlin

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Without using marketing descriptors such as Generation Z or Y, the aim here is to reflect on the Young Generation between the ages of 14 and 20. 

When we talk about the condition of this Young Generation, we must bring two aspects to the fore: 

**Society is in a transitional phase from a long-standing fixation on increasing production to a reluctant prioritization of the habitability conditions of the planet.**
 Many of the younger people already understand this, and hopefully, many of the older people do too. But the social and economic reality is still focused on increasing production - now in the guise of sustainability. 

**So, the wrong thing keeps happening, while the right thing is already obvious.** 

As if that were not enough, a lot of lip service is paid to social change by social elites, while at the same time, assets accumulate more and more in the hands of the upper decile. A minority that emerges even richer from severe social crises. The life chances of the younger generation are narrowing more and more due to this unequal distribution. Regardless of whether one considers ecological or economic prospects. 

This brings us to the second point: **The young generation has already greatly lowered its expectations of the older, responsible generations, both materially and morally, as well as ecologically.**

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Just to remind you, the ruling generations are largely responsible for today's problem status through their maximalist greed. The battle cry of the 80s "Greed is good" exemplifies this, as does the 50-year-old knowledge of Exxon and other fossil corporations of the destructive climate consequences of their exploratory bonanza. 
The emergence of dangerous clown politicians, the ranking of societies under the profitability dictate, lobbying of the wealthy for their privileges up to the democracy- 
abolition etc. All this is well known. The necessary changes are also. But they take place only in homeopathic doses, or not at all. 


So, the young generation is confronted with appeasement and empty promises - from corporations, managers, the church, teachers. And the parents. The politicians? They acted, as the saying goes, flexibly.
 The misbehavior of the supposed role models continues. They are not role models. They speak - as Karl May says - with forked tongues. They say one thing and do another. And that's what young people see day in and day out; it's the reality they follow in the digital media - their preferred access to social participation.
 At the same time, they are shaped by heroic narratives that they internalize through gaming and media worlds. These worlds are Manichean: good competes against evil, which is the only way to make it exciting. In reality, however, the often hypocritical self-contradiction of "yes", but continues to prevail, which must seem particularly questionable to them against this background. 

They must therefore assume that this compromised world is precisely what the previous generations wanted.
 The fact that this is not so, that a large part of the older generations had and has quite different ideals, is rarely an issue. History, especially economic history, is written by the victors. Only, from a planetary and also moral point of view, yes, even from an economic point of view, they are now more and more often the losers.
Their beliefs have not worked, they have ignored or even overreached a large part of the societies. And this is now so clear that, from the point of view of the young, they should step down.
 But they don't. They continue to play the game of enrichment at any price as well as the theater of self-congratulation. They pull glass ceilings up a few inches. Perhaps they practice quotas for women, but these lead women into the same capitalist dilemma of destruction in which men are already stuck. 
 The young generation sees all this. How should they react to it, that was our initial question, how should they feel about it?
 What else is there besides participation resignation or doublethink? Some of them will certainly choose these strategies of adaptation. But what do the critical ones among them do? 
 I am surprised again and again, by how few of them revolt, how many knowingly take the well-trodden path of destructive competitive thinking, although from all horns resounds: 
 We need material and planetary justice and above all moderation. It can no longer be a matter of ruining the planet and society in the struggle for monetary success. Redistribution and a change in thinking that is willing to do without are long overdue. 

**So has the young generation allowed itself to be tricked after all?**

I think it's different: On the one hand, they no longer believe in universal rights and replace them with particular claims. Within their own bubble of reference, they try to achieve their goals. Other things seem secondary. This can be called resignation, but it is probably above all pragmatism. When pragmatism becomes mediocrity would have to be clarified.
 More and more often I encounter the attitude If my normal life feels okay, average is okay for me. You have to be able to afford high goals - hero fantasies are just lived out digitally. Pragmatism - bend for success - was already the fanfare of the previous generation. So who should be surprised that the next generation is adopting it?

The younger generation strives for balance in their (working) lives. No wonder, when they have seen what careerism has done to their parents.
 But when does balance become cowardice? A courageous act is always an abandonment of balance.

Self-protection and protection of others become strategies for stress reduction. What is it worth at all to dare hard confrontations for ideals? If then I do something small, I have my compost bucket and ride my bike.
 Timidity spreads, while the few energetic environmental activists are partly already declared terrorists by the media. How would it be times not only with a school strike day but with a general strike day for the planet? Does not take place so far, because there is obviously not enough cohesion, courage, and problem consciousness for it.
 Everyone must know for himself is the new battle cry of inaction.

But everything must be constantly renegotiated and re-evaluated, right?
Actually not, because we know long ago what must happen first. But the knot just doesn't burst and no savior comes with the (light)sword to cut it.

**Everything must change so that it can remain as it is** - this well-known saying of Guiseppe Tomasi's "Gattopardo" describes the dilemma: the privileged keep their privileges and stage sham changes with which they distract the rest of society, which ultimately has to pay the price.

Some call our time the "Digital Biedermeier" others "The age of diminished expectations".
 In any case, it characterizes a young generation that lives in a permanent state of waiting for meaning under partly unpredictable circumstances and therefore doesn't want to hear any more bullshit. On the other hand, they jump at the biggest bullshit - such as aesthetic self-optimization or flexing with ostentatious luxury.
This generation remains trapped in contradictions. That's precisely why they want to feel that their counterparts will stand up for their promises even at the risk of their own failure. That is the touchstone of credibility. Only those who do not elegantly - or, in most cases, clumsily - get off the hook stand for something.

After a phase in which staging displaced reality, the Young Generation finally wants the world to become more honest, more modest, and more predictable. And that, unfortunately, also paralyzes them. Because they will not get the change without a hard confrontation - also with themselves.

Perhaps it's quite simple: **If you want to find your own truth, you have to be able to engage in conflict and endure it.** If you can't do that, you're left with the truth of others. And unfortunately, that's often not quite true.
 The new appreciation for rationality, for sound arguments, and for factual product advantages instead of emotional sales is certainly a first, decisive step on the way to the Young Generation's own truth.

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The Young Generation in the Endless Beta Phase

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.


 Foto © Ulleo for Pixabay

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Optimised use of resources

British Sugar | Optimised use of resources

### 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

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 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

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 - Packaging rethought

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

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