Enkelfähig – Creating value for generations
What is enkelfähig?
Enkelfähig is entrepreneurship in the 21st century. It means living in a value-oriented way and reconciling this with entrepreneurial thinking. Sustainability is becoming a premise for economic success.
Why do companies need to act eco-friendlier?
Our planet is at a turning point. If we continue as we are, there will be no future worth living for. A temperature rise of just 2 degrees Celsius has an enormous impact on our lives. Extreme weather such as droughts and heavy rainfall will lead to the destruction of land areas and habitats, countless plant and animal species will become extinct, and the rise in sea level will be greatly accelerated.
This means financial damage of up to 40 trillion US dollars, resource scarcity and poverty for 3.7 billion people, and a decline in economic output of 7 to 14 percent. Companies in particular have a duty to act sustainably.
After all, only 100 companies are responsible for more than 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. So together, we can make a difference: By rethinking entrepreneurship and putting sustainable action at the heart of how we do business.
Enkelfähig – tomorrow always starts today
CWS takes the initiative for a future worth living: At CWS, we act enkelfähig. As part of our investment holding Haniel's Enkelfähig initiative, our circular business model contributes to a healthier and safer future.
At CWS, we transfer Enkelfähig into our overarching sustainability strategy "Think Circular" and create value for generations by linking economic success to value-oriented action. For us, sustainability and profitability are closely linked. We do business in a way that is generation-friendly and thus enkelfähig.
For a healthier and safer tomorrow. Starting today.
>>> Find out more about the Haniel Enkelfähig initiative here
Enkelfähig rating at CWS
As there is no customer-friendly guideline for sustainable product and service ratings, CWS established a holistic rating approach and provides its customers with an easy-to-understand rating.
How does it work?
The Enkelfähig Rating is a holistic assessment to evaluate our products in the fields of ecology and economy impacts. It consists of three steps:
The rating is a Haniel-wide assessment and applied across the whole business portfolio. It is part of a regular reviewing process and business reporting.
Enkelfähig Criteria and Scoring
Each of these criteria is evaluated and weighted. This results in an overall score of 1 to 5, whereby a product from a score of 3.0 is considered enkelfähig. Solutions with ratings of 1.0 to 2.9 are not enkelfähig, but can continue to rise in the ranking through optimisation.
Circularity
For CWS, Circularity is the essential part of our business operations. This criteria covers a fully circular service and product approach from the raw material to end of life infrastructure. Circularity also covers packaging and waste management, as well as the reuse and recycling of resources.
Climate Change
For the criteria of Climate Change, the carbon footprint of our products and services are key. Furthermore, local procurement, energy efficiency, renewable energy, lightweight materials and the avoidance of CO₂ emissions are taken into consideration.
At CWS, we are not only focusing on CO2 reduction, but also take other greenhouse gases (methane, nitrous oxide, F-gases) into consideration.
Biodiversity
Our goal is to restore ecosystems. Therefore we minimise the impact of our business activities on ecosystems and return the resources used for our business activities to nature. For this, we consider our influence on the following parts of the ecosystem: forest areas, arable land, grassland and fallow land, water bodies, mining of raw materials.
Innovation
We see technologies as a solution on the way to a future worth living. The future success of a company is related to its ability to create innovative solutions for its customers, creating unique selling points in its market environment. At the same time, we will need innovative technology to solve the problems of our time, such as climate change, resource scarcity or the threat to biodiversity posed by our way of living.
Profitability
Creating value for generations – also from an entrepreneurial point of view. That's why we focus on the Enkelfähig criteria to ensure that every product contributes to building a profitable, sustainable company. After all, successful products can maintain environmentally friendly processes and make new investments.
Health & Safety
Creating a healthier and safer tomorrow. This is the goal we have set ourselves at CWS. To ensure that our world is worth living in for future generations, CWS is committed to better hygiene and thus to better health in society. With our products and solutions, we also contribute to more safety in professional and public environments. Simply put: we want to make the future a better version of the present.
What are the benefits of having such a a rating system?
How do our customers benefit from this?
At CWS we keep on improving to drive a fully sustainable portfolio transformation. The processes are integrated into our daily business, to make sure we are offering sustainable solutions for our customers.
- Offers fast and transparent orientation for customers interested in sustainability.
- Motivates customers and manufacturers towards truly sustainable solutions.
- Makes it easy to compare products from different categories.
- Supports our customers to reach for their own sustainability ambitions and targets.
How does that reflect our sustainable ambition?
How does Enkelfähig link to our products ?
It serves as a guideline and implementation framework for new product developments and the optimisation of existing portfolios.
Enkelfähig Rating examples
The enkelfähig eligibility criteria explained on our products:
Together with market innovations and customer inquiries the enkelfähig rating tool creates the symbiosis for a future worth living product portfolio and ensures a sustainable transformation of CWS.
Outlook of proofpoints within our Enkelfähig journey
Score limitations: The Enkelfähig Score is still in the implementation phase and based on the experience and assessment of our experts and suppliers. Nevertheless, the scoring is constantly sharpened in its significance and planned to be externally validated. The evaluations serve as orientation and cannot reflect every customer view.