Study on environmental targets of Swiss companies

Companies play a crucial role in the implementation of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined in 2015. On the one hand, they provide those goods and services whose consumption leaves a "footprint" that threatens to exceed planetary impact limits. On the other hand, they have numerous resources and opportunities for influence that enable them to make significant contributions to sustainable development.

The relevance of concrete goals

The extent to which they are aware of their corporate responsibility can be seen, among other things, from whether they have recognized environmental issues as a strategic success factor and systematically anchored them in management.

A relevant and meaningful indicator for this is the existence or non-existence of concrete objectives. For according to an old "management wisdom", you cannot and will not manage what you cannot measure. And in a business context, you can only measure something for which you have previously formulated an objective with associated indicators.

This was the starting point for the project "Environmental Goals of Companies in Switzerland", which was commissioned by the FOEN and developed during the summer of 2016 by a research consortium led by Prof. Dr. Claus-Heinrich Daub, Deputy Head of the Institute for Corporate Management at the FHNW School of Business, together with Herbert Winistörfer, Head of the Center for Corporate Responsibility at the ZHAW School of Management and Law.

The aim of the study was to find out which environmental goals Swiss companies publish (quantitative dimension), which topics or environmental fields of action are addressed and how the goals are formulated (qualitative dimension). Obstacles and potentially beneficial factors were also to be identified.

For this purpose, the research team looked at the 500 largest Swiss companies. Those that have public reporting and publish at least one environmental target were examined in detail. This basic sample consisted of 88 companies.

In addition, eight of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have a reporting system with sustainability targets and are considered pioneers, as well as eight multinational enterprises (MNEs) that are considered "best practice" in terms of environmental targets, were analyzed as a comparative sample.

Since an analysis of reports, among other things, cannot provide information on motivations and backgrounds for setting targets, individual and group interviews were conducted. Both business leaders or CEOs as well as sustainability or environmental managers of some selected companies were interviewed.

Industry differences large

Depending on the industry, very different proportions of companies can be found that have environmental targets at all: While there are 50% or more in the paper and cardboard industry, banks and in the cosmetics industry, the proportion in the computer/computer industry is 5%.

Most of the companies that formulate targets focus on energy, emissions, wastewater and waste and materials. Less attention is paid to biodiversity, products, transport and supplier certification. The majority limit themselves to areas that are dealt with in-house - the preceding or subsequent stages of the value chain are rather rarely considered.

The entire study as well as an abridged version can be found at the FOEN website.