Sustainability

The typical problems of a medium-sized company, coupled with the new requirements for sustainability, harbor the potential for economic tension. Learning factories can counteract this: they simulate production processes and offer an environment where participants can develop knowledge and skills in a realistic production setting. Establishing an innovation factory not only increases productivity, but also significantly reduces land consumption.

In remanufacturing, used goods are brought up to the quality level of a new product. This distinguishes it from recycling, which recovers materials and converts them into new units or products. Various uncertainties, such as the condition, quantity and time of return, can be minimized with Industry 4.0 approaches and artificial intelligence. A special learning concept ensures that employees have the required competence profiles in this context.

Digital product passports are becoming increasingly mandatory for monitoring saving targets within the framework of EU-wide emission reductions. DPPs can enable a standardized exchange of emissions data along the entire product life cycle. A framework for systematic introduction and targeted use can simplify their often difficult practical integration, especially for small and medium-sized companies.

Alongside sustainability, sustainability management is also gaining in importance. At the same time, digitalization continues to advance, embedded in a complex interplay of economic, ecological and social challenges. A sustainability platform that not only records relevant company data, but also ensures the necessary security, can unleash synergies between transformative trends to foster sustainable and efficient corporate development.

Platforms and business models based on them have been around for many years. However, the rapid development of information technology in recent years has greatly reduced the need for physical assets and infrastructure to enable value creation. Digitalization enables highly efficient interactions among platform participants. This lowers the barriers to accessing tangible and intangible goods, which in turn opens up opportunities to develop instruments that improve the sustainability of platform results.

Industrial manufacturing offers a wide range of opportunities for a more ecologically compatible and socially just organization. Sustainability-oriented HR management can competently support industrial manufacturing companies in the design and implementation of sustainable manufacturing. It is important to integrate ecological, social and economic requirements into the respective areas of responsibility. In addition, employees must be motivated and qualified to adopt environmentally friendly working practices in order to be able to implement sustainable manufacturing in practice. Sustainable incentive systems and employee-oriented personnel management must also be taken into account.

This article describes how companies can accelerate the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a guideline, we propose the concept of corporate purpose. By focusing on the added value generated for stakeholders, a corporate purpose has a meaningful effect and provides orientation. As part of our research, a self-assessment was developed, which makes the status quo of corporate purpose in companies measurable.

Correctly recycling obsolete refrigeration devices plays an important role in environmental and climate protection efforts. Recycling plants are subject to regular audits to ensure their compliance with strict environmental regulations. However, the collection of audit-related data is a challenging and time-consuming task, as it is usually done manually and is prone to errors. One solution for more sustainable and efficient monitoring is to automate digital data collection using sensors and artificial intelligence. This enables a direct estimate of the expected level of pollutants. This paves the way for continuous performance monitoring and efficient management of refrigeration appliance recycling plants.

In order to exploit the full potential of the circular economy, companies need to develop holistic solutions and rethink their business models. With this in mind, a summer school entitled Circular Economy was organized by Merseburg University's start-up service in September 2023 with the aim of developing innovative ideas for new business models with a focus on circular models. Current trends in materials science were used as conceivable scenarios for circular forms of economic activity in the idea generation process. Entrepreneurship is an interface function here. Entrepreneurs not only want to run companies, they also want to bring about change with new products, services and business processes.