INSIDE
Our green transformation journey: sustainability reimagined
For healthcare marketing agency WEFRA LIFE, its mission of being the driving force in the healthcare market means making efforts for a healthy planet, too. For a further reduction of its carbon footprint, the family company from Neu- Isenburg, near Frankfurt, completed three important initiatives this year.
‘To make effective progress on reducing our carbon footprint, we first had to determine how large it is and the individual components that it is made up of,’ explains Niklas Kurz, Chief Operating Officer of WEFRA LIFE, ‘We prepare our assessments and analyses based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. We have already had our carbon footprint calculated for three years now, though this year we have developed an even more detailed calculation basis than we had before. It enables us to break down emissions in fine detail, for example, the emissions from a single online ad. Using this detailed analysis, we can develop highly targeted measures to reduce our carbon footprint.’ These measures need to address two points, namely, direct emissions based on things such as heating and vehicles as well as indirect emissions relating to purchased energy and the upstream and downstream supply chains. ‘By switching to solar panels and green power as well as using hybrid and electric cars, we can already reduce our direct emissions,’ says Maximilian Glotzbach, Senior Financial Controller at WEFRA LIFE, ‘In relation to indirect emissions, we maintain constant exchange with our suppliers so that they are aware of their possibilities for lowering emissions.’ In the area of media, for instance, advertisement printing as well as media planning can now be made more sustainable. ‘We want to gradually align our media offerings with this aspect, too.’
Entering the future with a smart strategy
WEFRA LIFE has cemented and published the targets it is pursuing – in a sustainability strategy and a sustainability report, which can be provided to clients for their perusal at any time. ‘Here, we have set our reduction targets officially and made them publicly accessible for everyone in the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi),’ Niklas Kurz explains, ‘We aim to reduce the emissions that we have a direct influence on by 42 per cent by 2030; we aim to keep reducing all the others continuously by 2030. While we do this, we want to further expand our pioneering role, including on sustainability matters, in our collaboration with other partners.’ One of the particularly important partners in this field remains the company Greenkeeper, which applies a comprehensive reduction approach by completely capturing carbon dioxide in wood through sustainable forestry. This wood is in turn used for sustainable construction projects, which means no more carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere.
Pillars of sustainability
However, the sustainability report does not just include targets for the purpose of reducing carbon emissions. It also spans the bandwidth of ESG (environmental, social and governance) topics. In it, for example, WEFRA LIFE commits to assuming social responsibility, safeguarding anti-corruption measures and upholding human rights and other important ethical standards.
‘This year, we have taken critical steps to give our company the best positioning possible on sustainability,’ Niklas Kurz makes clear, ‘Our mission is to be the driving force not only in the healthcare market, but this field as well – in 2025 as well as the years following!’
If you have questions about our sustainability strategy, reports or initiatives, you can write to csr@wefra.life at any time.