Corporate Responsibility

In the “Responsible Value Creation” field of action, we focus particularly on our actions as a company. Through our digitalisation projects, innovations and services in particular, we have the opportunity to enhance the sustainability of our company and even our client companies from an economic, ecological and societal point of view. In particular, we make a clearly visible contribution to sustainable development in the areas of industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9).

We see sustainability as an essential element of our actions, which is why we have added the “Sustainability” pillar to both our Group strategy and the sub-strategies of our six business units. Sustainability thus now forms an integral part of all our strategic decisions. We consider our impact on the SDGs and evaluate new products and services according to their sustainable added value.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AS A PREREQUISITE FOR KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

Our newly established “HR4Business” programme also includes an approach to knowledge management. We see knowledge management – in all its facets – as an integral part of the company’s processes and aspire to permanently embed it in the TÜV NORD GROUP. We see functioning and successful communication among our employees as an essential prerequisite for knowledge transfer. To promote this, the Training business unit launched its own project (“KOMM MIT”) in 2019. Furthermore, new ways of coexisting and exchanging information were developed and established. The results of the project met with a positive response from the participants and are now being successfully implemented.

REDESIGN OF THE INNOVATION PROCESS

In 2019, we undertook a review of our entire innovation process and established an Innovation Council. This body, whose members are taken from all the business units, is now responsible for the continuous development of our innovation portfolio. We have standardised the innovation process in order to enhance transparency, comparability and effectiveness in the development of the best ideas.

faiLEARN – WORST CASE MEETS BEST PRACTICE

Mistakes should be learned from! In 2019, we launched a series of events under the banner of “faiLEARN – Worst Case meets Best Practice”. In this way, we aim to develop an open culture of learning and innovation. In kick-off events in Essen, Hamburg and Hanover, speakers spoke openly about their experience of making mistakes and talked to the participants about how to deal with them. We are currently developing a method to make the content and findings of these events accessible to all employees.

SUSTAINABILITY EVALUATION OF OUR INNOVATIONS AND SERVICES

Our products and services are intended to create sustainable added value. If this is to happen, we need an evaluation mechanism for sustainability. In 2019, the TÜV NORD GROUP, with the involvement of the CR coordinators from the business units, outlined a methodology and corresponding sustainability criteria. This process will now be piloted in our business units and further developed by the Innovation Council. From mid-2020, we intend to apply the sustain­ability assessment to all innovations and digitalisation projects in the Digital Academy. We also plan to use these criteria to initiate the evaluation of our service portfolio by the end of 2020.

Digital Experts

In extensive training courses at our Digital Academy, we have since 2017 been training employees and executives as digital experts. Their mandate is to drive the digitalisation of the TÜV NORD GROUP forward from within. The number of digital experts increased from 17 to 41 in 2019. Effectively networked and working in interdisciplinary teams, they are designing trailblazing projects for our company. In 2019, for example, the Training business unit successfully tested a way of saving paper by switching to online-based testing methods. The online examination has also now evolved into a standard methodology for our training products.

CONFORMITY MARK COMMISSION

Customers and consumers around the world associate values such as reliability, quality and safety with the “TÜV NORD” brand. It is therefore particularly important to us that our conformity marks should not be misused. For this reason, our Conformity Mark Commission has been approving the award of all conformity marks throughout the Group since 2019, thereby contributing to the safety and quality of our testing activities and conformity marks. In this way, we aim to reinforce the confidence of customers and consumers in our company.

The promotion and well-being of our employees is at the heart of the “Staff Orientation” field of action. We want to support our employees in their personal and professional development and offer them a healthy and pleasant working environment. To this end, we are implementing various projects on issues such as health promotion, family friendliness and equality. We are making a positive contribution to SDG 3 through numerous measures that have an impact on maintaining and improving the health and well-being of our employees.

In the past year, we have continued to work in all areas to support our employees and provide them with a good working environment. The TÜV NORD GROUP is constantly evolving in tandem with the people who work for it. For example, we have developed new management guidelines and refined our occupational health management system. We are particularly pleased that our efforts are also having an impact outside the TÜV NORD GROUP. We are the only technical testing company to have been awarded the accolade of outstanding employer, now for the second time in succession, which places us in the top 1% of employers in Germany.

“HR4Business” LAUNCHED

Good human resources management is essential for the TÜV NORD GROUP with its total of around 14,000 employees. It’s for this reason that we have further developed our human resources management with the “HR4Business” programme, which was introduced in 2019. We distinguish between tasks relating to human resources development, HR planning, HR service, HR marketing and diversity in HR. We have developed a focus project for each of these areas. In this way, we have positioned our human resources management for a sustainable long-term future.

OUTSTANDING EMPLOYER 

In 2019, for the second year in a row, we were awarded the accolade of outstanding employer, which is awarded annually by an independent organisation. We are the only technical testing company to have been given this award, which places us in the top 1% of employers in Germany. We also scored highly as an employer in other rankings. According to the Universum ranking, for instance, we are one of the top 100 employers in Germany.

FUTURE-ORIENTED RECRUITING

We aim to be on the winning side in the “war for talents” and actively approach potential new employees. In 2019, we introduced “BeeSite” as a new talent relationship management tool to help us on our path to future-oriented recruiting. We are using “BeeSite” to build a community for talents who resonate strongly with our topics or are close to our staff. In the “BeeSite” community, we can communicate with the talents and build a relationship with them before they even apply to us. In this way, we work together to explore whether we are a good match for one another. This platform also helps us to avoid putting the wrong people in the wrong jobs. Moreover, we are making our recruiting processes more transparent throughout the Group.

PROMOTING HEALTH

Until recently, our range of occupational health promotion offers had been limited to our three main sites. Since 2019, however, TÜV NORD GROUP employees have been able to make use of approximately 100 health-promoting measures at a total of 15 sites. An extended range of face-to-face options has been offered alongside online products. We offer selected measures, such as medical check-ups or psycho­logical coaching, across different sites. And we intend to continue to increase the range of offers: we plan to include more sites in 2020.

STRONG YOUNG TALENTS

To prepare our young talents as well as possible to take increasing responsibility in the areas of leadership, project management and sales, TÜV NORD GROUP offers them various development programmes. For example, we introduced the “JUMP” programme for promising junior management staff in 2019. The “TANDEM” programme also went into its second round. A total of 15 young talents were provided with a mentor over a period of twelve months. As both programmes have been very well received, we plan to continue them in 2020.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION FIRMLY EMBEDDED

Diversity and inclusion are particularly important to us. In order to support these twin causes in the TÜV NORD GROUP, we have developed various projects and innovations, such as a gender balance programme. Since the beginning of 2019, all observer trainings of the central orientation and assessment centres have been specifically designed to raise awareness of the need to be gender-neutral in the observation and assessment of participants. In order to reinforce the culture of impartiality that already exists in the selection process for new employees, we have developed an “Unconscious Bias” training for our managers, which will be introduced in early 2020.

At the heart of the “Environmental Orientation” field of action is the aspiration to curb the warming of our planet and to limit what will in some cases be the catastrophic effects of anthropogenic climate change (SDG 13). A significant number of our services, alongside dedicated internal programmes and measures, aim to make an ever-increasing contribution to climate protection.

We see the protection of the climate and the environment as the most important challenge of our time. It is therefore a matter of course for us to ensure that our business has the most positive impact possible on the environment. To ensure that this happens, we are working consistently to conserve resources and to motivate our employees to act in an environmentally-aware. For example, we are planning to revise our travel policy in 2020. The aim is to introduce greater clarity concerning which means of transport our employees should use for which business trips. Corporate decisions can have not only positive but also negative consequences, particularly when it comes to environmental impacts. In the interests of sustainability, we are therefore striving to assess our decisions as holistically as possible.

GREENER VEHICLES

We are focusing on increasing sustainability in the make-up of our vehicle fleet. We have decided to set strict requirements for pollution and efficiency classes when making purchases. We have also weighed up the arguments in the public debate on nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel-powered vehicles. In particular with regard to vehicle emissions, we had to weigh up which strategic decision to make with regard to this type of engine, which we consider to be more environmentally friendly in terms of total emissions. In the past year, we have once again increasingly switched over to petrol-driven cars in the small car segment, even if their use results in higher CO₂ emissions. Reducing our emissions of particulates such as those generated by diesel cars was in the first instance a priority in this vehicle class. We are aware that this strategy represents an intermediate step and a short-term response to the nitrogen oxide debate. Our long-term vehicle strategy is geared towards the development of green mobility. We are accordingly continuously expanding our vehicle fleet with the addition of hybrid and electric cars. As we continue along the path to sustainable mobility, we are particularly pleased at the prospect of our first hydrogen-powered vehicle, which will be handed over to us in May 2020.

SUSTAINABLE NEW BUILDING IN ESSEN

At our Essen site, we are currently erecting a new office building, replacing several old buildings with poor energy performance which it would no longer have been viable to renovate and improve in terms of energy efficiency. A five-storey building is being built on the 13,000 m² site which will contain offices, conference rooms and laboratories. In the autumn of 2021, some 600 employees from the Industrial Services and IT business units are expected to move in. As with all new buildings, we are also committed in Essen to the standards for sustainable construction. Even in the planning phase, we pay particular attention to high levels of energy efficiency. The office building will, for instance, be supplied with environmentally friendly district heating. This will enable us to achieve a significant CO₂ saving when compared to the use of gas as a heating medium. We are using recyclable aluminium as the material for the facade. The construction is inspired by the Silver standard of the German Sustainable Building Society. In terms of spatial planning, we have placed our faith in open concepts in the spirit of pioneering workplace design.

UNITED AGAINST FOOD WASTE

In Germany, almost 12 million tonnes of unrecycled food are thrown away every year. We see this as an economic, ecological and ethical problem. For this reason, we are committed to more than just providing tasty and healthy food in the four company restaurants at our main sites. Our operator in Hanover and Hamburg, L&D, is a member of the “United Against Waste” association. The company restaurants run by the operator Aramark in Essen have been recording food consumption for years and already meet the association’s requirements: they, too, are now officially in the process of applying for membership. The association has developed practical solutions to reduce food waste, many of which are being implemented by us. All food waste from storage, production, overproduction and crockery returns is recorded and analysed. On the basis of this analysis, targeted measures will be developed in 2020 to reduce the volume of waste we generate. Experience has shown that the approach of United Against Waste results in a reduction in food waste of about 30%. Appropriate training has already taken place in the company restaurants, and the first measurements and surveys are now pending. Another step in the direction of sustainability is the introduction of reusable takeaway packaging.

In the “Societal Orientation” field of action, we are focusing primarily on our work in committees and associations and on supporting technology-based environmental and socially oriented projects and initiatives. We are thus using our knowledge and resources to promote sustainable development, especially from a technical perspective, in concert with selected partners and social actors. We are in this way making a significant contribution to SDG 17.

In 2019, we implemented sustainability as an integral part of both our strategies at both Group and business unit level. In doing so, we are also showing that we take our societal responsibility seriously and see our company as a permanent fixture in society. It is important for us to know and learn from the expectations of our stakeholders. It is for this reason that we intend to intensify our dialogue and conduct it in a more systematic manner.

MAKING AUTOMATED AND NETWORKED DRIVING SAFE

In order to promote the targeted further development of guidelines and test procedures, we are contributing our expertise to various committees dedicated to automated and networked driving and to car IT. In 2019, we implemented various projects at our Institute for Vehicle Technology and Mobility in the Mobility business unit. For example, in the “AutoConstruct” research project funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, we analysed new networking technologies for automotive use. The findings were used in the development of appropriate testing methods. We are also working on the “Automotive Technology” DIN standards committee, which developed new ISO safety standards for the automotive industry in 2019.

DIGITALISATION IN THE AUTOMOTIVE TRADE

At the Frankfurt Motor Show, we presented the results of our study on digitalisation in the automotive sector. This shows how digitalised processes at the customer interface in automotive retail and service can help improve customer orientation. The study also includes a checklist for a digitalisation strategy in the automotive trade. It can help in the structured development and expansion of a trader’s online presence.

YOUNG TALENT FOR STANDARDISATION

After an intensive qualification process, an employee from the IT business unit was selected to participate in the International Electrotechnical Commission’s IEC Young Professionals’ Programme in 2019. The aim of the programme is to introduce young talents from the fields of management, engineering or technology to the work of the IEC so that they can actively participate in it. The programme aims to strengthen standardisation work in the electrotechnical field. The employee began her one-year term of office by attending the Young Professionals’ Workshop 2019 in Shanghai; during her term, she represented Germany on the global IEC platform and was involved in the work of the international standardi­sation organisation. Shortly thereafter, she also took the lead role in an IEC working group on cyber security.

STANDARDS FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

We are also contributing our expertise to the Working Committee “Artificial Intelligence” of the German Institute for Standardisation (DIN) and the corresponding international committees (ISO / IEC). Since 2018, we have been shaping the standardisation process in the field of artificial intelligence with all the knowledge and perspective we bring as an independent testing organisation. With all due consideration of the technical and legal framework conditions, we are jointly developing standards and concept definitions that are making an important contribution to the social acceptance of artificial intelligence. With our experience in what has now become the everyday use of artificial intelligence in some of our testing processes, we can offer new ideas and inspiration in important ways.

TIC COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP

We are a member of the TIC Council, the global association of the testing, inspection and certification industry, with more than 90 members internationally. The aim of the TIC Council is to develop and disseminate standards and solutions that promote safety and innovation, with the long-term aim of strengthening society. Its members are the byword for the highest standards in the fields of safety, quality, health, ethics and sustainability. In 2019, we were involved, among other areas, in the Strategy Taskforce and helped to develop the Council’s organisational structures.

INVOLVING STAKEHOLDERS

The publication of the first CR Report in April 2019 was an opportunity for us to exchange views with external stakeholders and to involve them in our sustainability activities. An initial dialogue involved client companies, public authorities, NGOs and universities. The positive feedback on our CR Strategy and reporting is motivating us to take the concerns and expectations of our stakeholders even more systematically into account. In 2020, we intend to initiate a regular dialogue format through another stakeholder event.