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Wind energy instead of coal power?
Those who operate sustainably not only save resources, but also improve their image
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / DPA
The proportion of German companies with a sustainability strategy has decreased compared to 2020.
This is the result of a Forsa survey commissioned by Commerzbank, which was available to SPIEGEL in advance.
According to this, 40 percent of medium-sized companies in Germany have a sustainability strategy, in 2020 it was slightly more at 43 percent.
The proportion of medium-sized companies planning to introduce a sustainability strategy has also fallen by four percentage points from 37 percent two years ago to around a third.
The majority of managers expect benefits from sustainability measures such as recycling: 91 percent of those surveyed stated that they saw an opportunity for their company in the careful use of resources.
A similar number see an improvement in corporate image as a positive effect.
Despite this, the proportion of companies that are implementing or planning certain measures has not changed compared to the previous survey.
In 2020, 75 percent of those surveyed stated that they were implementing or planning measures to save on consumables such as paper.
In the current survey, this value is also 75 percent.
For the current representative survey, the market research institute Forsa interviewed executives from 300 companies with annual sales of more than 15 million euros by telephone.
In 2020, the survey was larger, at that time Commerzbank included more than 2,000 companies with annual sales of more than two million euros.
This year, Commerzbank not only asked managers about sustainability, but also about digitization issues.
The results show: 48 percent of companies process data to create added value for themselves.
Looking at different trend technologies, the Internet of Things plays the most important role for the companies surveyed.
Internet of Things describes the networking of physical and virtual objects, for example in autonomous driving.
48 percent are already using the Internet of Things or consider it relevant for them in the short to medium term.
The Metaverse (15 percent) or cryptocurrencies (7 percent) play a rather small role for the respondents.
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