Dear friends and partners,
Do you feel the same way? Just before Christmas, it's always particularly impressive to realise how quickly time flies. Another year is drawing to a close - and although it feels like it's only just been summer, the candles are suddenly burning on the Advent wreath.
If you would like to get a more detailed picture of what has happened in the FIEGE world over the past twelve months, we recommend taking a look at our company magazine, LOGO, which was published just in time for Christmas, as it is every year. This year's issue is entitled ‘Creating. More. Value.’ In it, we look at the question that drives us as a service provider on a daily basis: How do we create the greatest possible added value for our customers?
One topic that is becoming increasingly important is sustainability. We are therefore delighted to have been honoured with the German Sustainability Award for Companies in the ‘Transport and Logistics Industry’ category in november. We are delighted that our commitment to greater sustainability in logistics has been recognised. At the same time, we are very aware that we are still a long way from reaching our goal when it comes to sustainability, regardless of the awards we receive. But the award spurs us on to consistently continue on our path.
Our colleague Sandra Achternbusch, Executive Director Corporate Sustainability at FIEGE, spoke to the Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung about what this path looks like and where it will lead. You can find the interview in this newsletter, as well as the customer story with our long-standing customer Vaillant, whose products have been making a significant contribution to greater sustainability for decades.
We hope you enjoy reading it, look forward to continuing our dialogue with you and wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
With best regards
Image credits: DVZ
‘Recognised, but mainly motivated’
In an interview with Lilli Domer and Frederic Witt from DVZ, Sandra Achternbusch, Executive Director Corporate Sustainability at FIEGE, explains how we think about sustainability and how we want to meet the challenge of sustainable transformation.
Congratulations on winning the German Sustainability Award! What does this distinction mean to you, your team and the company FIEGE?
Thank you very much for the congratulations! The award is a nice recognition for us and shows that our commitment is being noticed. At the same time, it is an incentive to continue on our path – because we are still a long way from reaching our goal and still have a long way to go.
You are surely thinking of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). What challenges does it present?
The CSRD is a key issue for us because it places high demands on reporting. Among other things, the double materiality analysis has been a challenge for us in recent months. It offers a great deal of room for interpretation and thus sometimes leads to uncertainties. We are therefore in close contact with auditors and other companies to ensure that we do not make any mistakes here. At the same time, I see the CSRD as a great opportunity because it brings a new transparency that can and will benefit not only us, but the entire industry.
FIEGE relies on a variety of alternative fuels and drives. How is this progressing?
We now have eight electric trucks in use, six of them in Germany and two in Switzerland, to gain experience with battery-powered trucks. We are also testing the conversion to bio-CNG and bio-LNG, as well as the switch to HVO100. This enables us to reduce CO2 emissions without having to immediately take our existing vehicles or those of our partners out of service – it's a pragmatic interim solution. What we want to avoid is silo thinking. In the end, it will probably not be one alternative drive system alone that makes the difference, but rather technological development as a whole. That's why we are thinking and testing in many directions.
You can download the full interview with Sandra Achternbusch here:
Sandra Achternbusch has been responsible for sustainability at FIEGE as Executive Director Corporate Sustainability since January 2022. Her responsibilities include, among other things, developing and implementing the family-owned company's sustainability strategy, ESG data management and sustainability reporting. Prior to joining FIEGE, Achternbusch worked for a start-up in the food production industry and later in management consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH.
image credits: FIEGE
Image credits: Vaillant Group
Heat pump logistics of the future: Vaillant and FIEGE focus on proximity and efficiency
Vaillant and FIEGE each look back on more than 150 years of company history. Both family-owned companies are known for innovations that continue to change their industries to this day. Among other places, we are now breaking new ground together in Slovakia. Read the full story here:
The new LOGO #97 is here!
We are obsessed with creating value for our customers – as a service provider, this credo drives us forward each and every day. But how do we define something as individual as added value? And above all, how do we create the greatest possible added value for our customers? These two questions have been at the centre of our attention in recent months. That is why the 97th issue of our LOGO magazine is entitled 'Creating. More. Value.’. We hope you enjoy reading it!
header image credits: DNP // Christian Köster