H&Z Management Consulting - Consulting with head, heart and hand

Leading the Charge in Business Sustainability Transformation

In the contemporary corporate world, sustainability transcends buzzword status to become a critical cornerstone. As global awareness of environmental and social concerns intensifies, consumers demand both sustainable products and total transparency. Tightening regulations, call for proactive management. Success requires businesses to prioritize sustainability at their heart. Turning this challenge into an opportunity offers a competitive advantage. Instead of merely adapting, let's lead the change, moving sustainability from talk to action. 

Green Landscape Birdview

Sailing Towards a Sustainable Future: Your Compass to Green Success

At H&Z Management Consulting, we stand as committed allies, propelling your growth and sustainable evolution. Our process begins by meticulously analyzing the status quo of your operations, regardless of whether you're seeking to comply with sustainability standards or striving to pioneer a circular economy. With this comprehensive understanding, we tailor a sustainability strategy, aligning it with your unique vision, to stimulate growth and transformation.

 

Recognizing the vital role of your workforce in this transition, we provide extensive training programs. These are designed to equip your teams with the skills to drive sustainability initiatives, fostering a cultural shift towards sustainability. Additionally, we ensure robust support throughout the transformation process, providing tools and techniques for effective change management. With H&Z, your business doesn't just adapt to the sustainability era—it thrives, leading the way to a resilient, sustainable future. 

Our approach to sustainability

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Value Chain Decarbonization

As frontrunners in Carbon Footprint Assessment, we offer unparalleled services, specializing in the precise measurement and evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions linked with your organization's activities, products, or services. We hold a strong expertise in calculating both company and product-specific carbon footprints, providing you with actionable insights and potential reduction measures.

Our distinctive approach encompasses a thorough mapping of product-related value chains, tracing the carbon footprint from raw materials to the point of delivery. Utilizing our accurate and state-of-the-art H&Z Carbon Footprint Calculator, we meticulously assess the carbon footprint across scopes 1, 2, and 3, guaranteeing a comprehensive evaluation of your organization's carbon emissions.

 

From Emission Analysis to Tailored Decarbonization Strategies: We craft robust decarbonization strategies to aid you in markedly reducing both company-wide and product-specific footprints.

 

Showcasing Our Unique Approach: Our service offers a bespoke CO2 calculation, specifically designed for any product or service offering. Our distinct edge is the direct integration of this calculation with our tried-and-tested lever workshop framework to pinpoint decarbonization strategies. Benefitting from H&Z's over 25 years of experience, this approach is deeply anchored in a profound understanding of value chains and unparalleled process expertise.

 

We utilize these tools to fine-tune your CO2 footprint, aligning your organization with best practices in sustainability. In our endeavor, we strictly adhere to rigorous lifecycle assessment guidelines. This ensures our CO2 emissions assessments are comprehensive, consistent, and in line with global standards, equipping you to make informed, data-driven decisions for sustainable operations.

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Circular Value Chains

Circularity is no longer a choice, it's a necessity - a new license to operate. Our approach ensures safety for both people and the planet, delivers on the demands of policymakers, investors, and markets, and presents a future-proof mix of profitability and sustainability. 

We bring our distinctive approach to the table, helping your business navigate the complexities of circularity while harnessing its immense potential.

 

Seizing circular opportunities: At level one, we dive into concept design. We identify opportunities through a comprehensive opportunity assessment, analysing aspects such as materials & processes, product design, and customer engagement.

 

Unlocking the potential in your business model: Together with you, we define ways to incorporate circularity in your business model and expand it throughout your organization.Seamless Integration and Successful Piloting: Next, we move into piloting, the second level. We bring ideas to life by implementing test runs. This hands-on approach allows us to assess the practicality of the concepts and make necessary adjustments to ensure smooth integration into your business processes.

 

Roll-out stage: Here, we expand successful pilots by creating a roadmap for redesigning several products or product lines. This could also include the introduction of the first Product as a Service (PaaS) offerings and partnerships for necessary competencies.

 

With H&Z, your journey towards a circular economy becomes clear and attainable. We're here to transform your business, enabling you to lead with innovation in a world where sustainability is paramount.

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Strategic CSRD Compliance Guidance

We navigate companies through the complexities of Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) implementation. As the successor to the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), the CSRD introduces more comprehensive reporting standards, including a pivotal emphasis on double materiality assessment. Set against the backdrop of expanding demands for corporate sustainability reporting, we effectively assist our clients in navigating and fulfilling these evolving requirements.

Double Materiality Assessment: Central to your CSRD reporting is the double materiality assessment. By engaging both internal and external stakeholders, we ensure a comprehensive analysis that pinpoints the environmental, social, and governance facets—and corresponding ESRS requirements—that your company should focus on.

 

Gap Analysis: Utilizing structured interviews and workshops, we pinpoint discrepancies in your current sustainability reporting, highlighting areas for alignment with CSRD mandates.

 

Action Plan and Roadmap: Stemming from our in-depth gap analysis, we assign specific roles within your team to ensure a smooth transition to CSRD compliance. Our methodical action plan not only charts out the necessary tasks but also anticipates the potential cultural and skill shifts required in your organization. This ensures that roles are distinct, and aspirations are in sync with your overarching sustainability objectives.

 

Implementation: We stand by you in the actualization phase, helping you set the course as detailed in our roadmap. This includes establishing a robust project management structure, guiding on specific ESRS topic integration, streamlining data collection methods, and lending support in crafting the inaugural report.

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Supply Chain Due Diligence Compliance

 H&Z assists in the concrete implementation resulting from obligations of the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act. We develop pragmatic solutions across various dimensions such as risk analysis, risk management, and implementation of appropriate reporting structures.  

We support the implementation of the Supply Chain Act in a targeted and individual way - depending on both context and urgency.

 

As the “Corporate Due Diligence in Supply Chains" (Supply Chain Due Diligence Act/LkSG) establishes new requirements regarding the protection of human rights, companies must review their global supply chains to ensure greater transparency and active risk management.

 

This highlights the need for companies to engage with the law, to investigate its’ effects, to determine the concrete need for action, and to develop solutions for fulfilling the due diligence obligations.

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Responsible Procurement

At H&Z, we recognize procurement as more than just cost optimization; it's a catalyst for transformative change in promoting sustainable and responsible global supply chains. In today's business landscape, driven by demands from consumers, investors, and stakeholders, along with an increasing legislative push, sustainability has become paramount. Yet, with scope 3 emissions constituting up to 75% of a company's greenhouse gas emissions, many organizations lack robust plans to achieve net-zero targets. We envision a revamped role for procurement, aligning it with sustainability aspirations. We champion this as "Responsible Procurement", empowering procurement divisions to not only contribute to business viability but also champion societal well-being and planetary health.

"Responsible Procurement" at H&Z transforms how organizations approach sustainability in their procurement strategies. Our holistic offering includes:

 

Embedding Sustainability: Our core belief is that procurement goes beyond mere cost optimization. By embedding sustainability into the procurement operating model, we ensure it remains a foundational consideration across all procurement activities.

 

Maturity Assessment & Benchmarking: By assessing your current sustainability maturity, we pinpoint areas of focus. Through materiality analysis, we highlight the most critical “sustainability hotspots”, helping you achieve maximum sustainable impact.

 

Purpose Definition and Strategy Crafting: Initiating your journey with a clear purpose, we help articulate a commitment that guides all procurement endeavors. By merging this with our robust strategies, we balance value creation, resilience, and sustainability.

 

Category Management: Tailored sustainability strategies are formulated for each sourcing category, making sure your procurement processes align with your sustainability ethos.

 

Supplier Management: We integrate sustainability criteria throughout the supplier management journey - from onboarding and continuous evaluations to rigorous audits.

 

Selection & Awarding: Sustainability isn't just an added bonus—it's a decisive criterion. With our guidance, it takes center stage in vendor selection and awarding processes.

 

Collaborative Supplier Networks: We don't just stop at in-house processes. We assist in forging collaborative networks with suppliers, focusing on creating efficient recycling infrastructures and pinpointing solutions to significantly cut down scope 3 emissions.

 

In essence, "Responsible Procurement" is not just a concept—it's a movement. Together, we can turn your procurement processes into a powerhouse for sustainable and positive change.

Our Success Stories for Sustainability

SUSTAINX

Sustainability Connected. Our platform and community for sustainability experts

Our platform fuels collaboration and innovation, bringing together forward-thinking individuals to tackle sustainability challenges. Discover cutting-edge solutions, share best practices, and engage with a vibrant community devoted to shaping a greener future. Join SUSTAINX - together, let's sustain the future.

H&Z

Empowering the railway sector to leverage transparent and sustainable practices

Embrace the green revolution with Railsponsible, the leading rail industry sustainability initiative facilitated by H&Z and SUSTAINX. Uniting operators, OEMs, and suppliers from across Europe, we set industry-wide sustainability standards and champion a greener future in rail transport. Together, we're redefining the tracks towards sustainable rail travel.

Our Experts for Sustainability

Stefan Aichbauer

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Stefan Aichbauer

Sven Steinert

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Sven Steinert