Preamble

(r)evolution aims to minimize its impact on the environment and climate in order to enable future generations to live a life worth living. As we are currently unable to offer our business activities in a climate-neutral manner and without consuming natural resources, the focus of our efforts is on a planned and significant reduction of our ecological footprint in the following areas:

  • Energy consumption
  • Waste prevention and recycling
  • Travel activity
  • Procurement

 

In addition to the primary goal of reducing our footprint, we also want to have an impact on society beyond our company in order to raise our stakeholders’ awareness of climate and environmental protection and motivate them to step up their own activities. In descending order of relevance, the focus is on employees, service providers, trading partners, business partners (e.g. landlords), customers, industry associations and competitors.

 

A.  Objectives of the directive

This guideline and its annexes serve as a guide for our joint entrepreneurial activities. It sets standards for today, defines specific, verifiable and ambitious sustainability targets for 2028 and describes the measures we intend to take to achieve these targets. In this sense, ecological sustainability is not only the goal, but above all the path we want to follow consistently. We are therefore setting milestones for the end of 2025, 2026 and 2027 in order to focus our measures, measure our progress and document it publicly.

 

We are committed to implementing, budgeting and prioritizing environmental sustainability as a strategic goal in all our business activities. We want to play a pioneering role in our industry by proving that excellent products and services, economic success and environmental and social responsibility can go hand in hand. We invite our stakeholders to accompany us on this journey.

 

B.  Scope of validity and application

The scope of this policy applies to (r)evolution GmbH and (r)evolution research intelligence GmbH for both locations in Bonn and Dortmund. The scope of application also includes freelance employees and companies that work permanently or temporarily on site in our office buildings. These people must confirm in writing that they are committed to the rules and standards of this policy.

 

C.  Responsibilities

The company management is responsible for achieving our sustainability goals and implementing measures. It ensures that sufficient resources are made available and assumes overall responsibility for the sustainability management system.

The company management and all employees in the area of application are equally responsible for compliance with current or future rules of conduct and standards.

A sustainability officer is also appointed. This is currently Kristin Voigt. In this role, the appointed person reports directly to the management. She is responsible for the following tasks, which are to be carried out in close coordination with the company management:

  • Establishment and further development of our sustainability management system.
  • Initial assessment of our ecological
  • Definition of our sustainability goals.
  • Establishment and further development of our action plan.
  • Ensuring the implementation of the agreed
  • Annual review of the success of the measures, documentation of target achievement in a report and publication of the report on our website.
  • Internal and external communication on the topic of ecological
  • Regular training and sensitization of employees.
  • Advising company management on all issues relating to environmental

 

D.  Duration of the directive

This guideline applies for the period from 01.01.2025 to 31.12.2028. A follow-up guideline will then be adopted, which will define our sustainability targets for the following four years until 2032.

Methodology

Our sustainability management system is based on the GHG Protocol (Greenhouse Gas Protocol), a transnational set of standards for carbon accounting and reporting for companies. The GHG Protocol helps us to identify direct and indirect sources of emissions that are under corporate control and to measure or estimate the resulting emissions. A distinction is made between three scopes to which emissions can be allocated:

  • Scope 1: all direct emissions, i.e. from sources within the scope of application (for us, gas).
  • Scope 2: indirect emissions from energy generated outside the area of application (for us, electricity).
  • Scope 3: all other indirect emissions resulting from the production or transportation of purchased goods, the disposal of waste or employee travel.

 

Derived from the GHG Protocol, this guideline describes the following elements of our sustainability management system:

  • Status quo Determination of the regulations, voluntary commitments and (r)evolution measures in place at the time of entry into force of the directive, which directly or indirectly contribute to the goal of reducing our ecological footprint in the above-mentioned areas.
  • Balancing our ecological
    • Listing of our most important direct and indirect emissions that are harmful to the environment and climate.
    • Development of a system of indicators to quantify our environmental and climate impact at the time the directive enters into force (t0).
  • Definition of concrete and verifiable sustainability targets for 2028 (t4) and the interim years (t1 to t3).
  • Plan the actions to achieve our goals over the timeframe to 2028. Determine the expected budgetary needs and plan to communicate with the third parties involved.
  • The nature and extent of the annual review, documentation and communication.

IV Status quo determination

When the directive comes into force on January 1, 2025, the following regulations, voluntary commitments and measures to reduce our ecological footprint will apply.

 

A.  Energy consumption and CO2 emissions

  • [Green electricity] Since 2014, we have been using 100% green electricity for the power supply at our two locations in Bonn and Dortmund.
  • [Energy-efficient heating] At both locations in Bonn and Dortmund, the heating and hot water supply is operated by a modern gas condensing boiler. This was put into operation in Dortmund in 2014 and in Bonn in 2022. As energy-efficient external insulation was only possible in relation to the windows due to the historical building fabric, which is also a listed building in Bonn, we developed a heating policy entitled “Correct heating in old building offices”, which provides employees with guidelines and tips for energy-efficient heating.
  • [Economical lighting] As part of the core refurbishment of our Bonn site QS6, motion detectors were installed for all corridor areas in 2022, which switch the lighting on and off as required. Highly efficient LED lighting units were also installed throughout the building. Employees are also made aware at regular intervals to check that all lights and other devices are switched off before going home, not only in their own office but also in neighboring offices and common areas.

 

B.  Waste prevention and recycling, resource consumption

  • [Paperless office] (r)evolution pursues the goal of a paperless office and limits the use of paper wherever it is possible and sensible in the work process and there is no legal obligation to keep printouts.
  • [Correct waste separation] We are convinced that consistent and correct waste separation can make a relevant contribution to environmental protection and resource conservation if all previous waste avoidance measures have been exhausted. We therefore sensitize and inform our employees with display boards to keep more recyclable materials (paper, glass, compost, packaging) in the cycle in order to actively protect the climate and the environment. We also use composted organic waste in our own office garden to revitalize the soil.
  • [Reusable deposit systems] (r)evolution supports the idea of a circular economy and therefore uses reusable deposit systems. From drinks bottles to CO2 cartridges for our water bubbler and reusable crockery for lunch breaks, we use various reusable systems.
  • [Water-saving taps] Since 2022, we have had taps equipped with a flow limiter at all washbasins at our Bonn site. This has enabled us to proactively reduce water consumption since then.

 

C.  Travel, commuting

  • [Working from home] After rolling out video conferencing technology across the board in 2020 and equipping all employees with laptops or mobile PCs in advance, we introduced a flexible home office arrangement and established remote workstations. By saving commuting times, we are actively conserving environmental resources as well as our employees’ private time resources.
  • [Central office location] By choosing a location for our company headquarters directly in Bonn’s city center at the main train station, we are realizing various sustainability goals in the mobility sector: ideal accessibility for our employees by public transport or bicycle, good connections to the rail network for customer visits that are still necessary, complete elimination of our own car parking spaces.
  • [Job-Ticket] (r)evolution offers all employees a subsidized job ticket and thus promotes climate-friendly mobility.
  • [No company cars] Since (r)evolution was founded in 2005, we have completely dispensed with company cars used for business or private purposes.
  • [Job-Bike leasing] Instead of company cars, we offer our employees the opportunity to lease one or more job bikes for private use. This subsidizes (r)evolution by covering the insurance policy during the three-year leasing phase.
  • [MdRzA] (r)evolution has been taking part in the Germany-wide ‘Cycle to work’ campaign organised by ADFC and AOK since 2022, helping to protect the environment and promote physical activity among employees on a daily basis as a contribution to occupational health management.
  • [Bicycle parking] In the Bonn office, we offer all employees covered and theft-proof parking spaces for their bicycles. On request, eBikes can be charged with green electricity free of charge.
  • [Evo-Bikes] In the Bonn office, our employees have two Evo-Bikes at their disposal, which they book flexibly and use at short notice, e.g. to attend personal appointments, run errands or visit customers within Bonn.
  • [Business trips by public transport] Our travel policy stipulates that business trips must always be made by public transport. If traveling by train is not possible or not reasonable in terms of time, employees may use their private car or airplane in justified individual cases.
  • [Remote instead of presence] We try to reduce the number of business trips to customers, trade fairs or congresses by participating in events remotely via video conference, if this is offered or accepted by the customer.

 

D.  Procurement

  • [Ecological and ethical purchasing] The general guideline for the procurement of consumer goods is to buy ecologically, fairly and, if possible, regionally. When selecting products, we are guided by relevant certifications such as Fairtrade, Bioland, Naturland, FSC and others.
  • [Trading partner selection process] We also carefully select the trading partners through whom we purchase these products. Our whitelist of approved trading partners includes companies that have demonstrated a commitment to social and environmental sustainability and are optimising their value chain in line with specific and ambitious sustainability targets.

 

  • [Central procurement] The procurement of consumer goods is carried out centrally by a responsible person who optimizes the purchasing process in line with our sustainability goals, for example by bundling orders in order to minimize transport emissions and outer packaging.
  • [Service provider selection process] As with our trading partners, we also take great care when selecting our service providers. However, we evaluate potential service providers and their products for our value chain not only in terms of their social and ecological commitment. Their information security management and their technical and organizational measures for data protection are further criteria that determine whether a service provider makes it onto our whitelist.

V Balancing our ecological footprint

To ensure that our sustainability strategy is as effective as possible, we started by qualitatively identifying the sources of emissions that have a relevant impact on the environment and climate. We then developed an easy-to-understand and easy-to-collect indicator system to quantify these emissions.

Our key performance indicator system takes into account our largest sources of CO2 emissions in the areas of energy consumption, waste disposal, travel and procurement. The system also includes other quantitative indicators. Where possible, our emissions are converted into tons of CO2 equivalents (t CO2e). The reference period is 2023.

Range Emission source Scope Measured variable Result
Energy consumption Gas consumption 1 t CO2e 7,95
Energy consumption Power consumption 2 t CO2e 0,00 [1]
Travel activity Commuter traffic 3 t CO2e 5,17
Travel activity Business trips 3 t CO2e 0,29
Procurement Cologne data center (own servers) 3 t CO2e 3,51
Procurement Use of cloud solutions 3 t CO2e 1,59
Waste disposal Bonn Orange 3 t CO2e 0,19
Waste disposal Recycling bag, paper and residual waste 3 l per employee/year 272,4
Miscellaneous Investments 3 % SFDR 9 [2] 31%

[1] Since purchase of green electricity
[2] Classification of funds in accordance with the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation. Sustainable investments are the primary objective for funds in accordance with SFDR 9

VI Our sustainability goals

Our sustainability targets are set until 2028, with noticeable progress in the achievement of these targets being made in each individual year. To this end, we have set ourselves annual target corridors so that the overall target can be realistically achieved by 2028.

Emissions:

  • By 2028, we are aiming to reduce CO2 emissions from Scope 1-3 by 35% compared to 2023. The reduction should at least 8-15% per year.
  • In the long term, we are also pursuing the overarching goal of operating completely CO2 neutral by 2035 at the latest. This objective includes Scope 1-3, even though we are aware that the willingness of our employees, suppliers and customers is necessary to achieve this goal.
  • As long as we have not yet achieved CO2 neutrality, we will compensate the annual emissions through certified compensation projects.

 

Waste:

  • We are aiming to reduce waste consumption by 30% by 2028 compared to the reference year. The reduction should be at least 6-10% per year.

 

Finances:

  • We are increasing the proportion of our investments classified as SFDR 9 from 31% in 2023 to 100% in 2028. The increase amounts to at least 15-25% per year.

 

In addition to these quantitative targets, we also pursue non-quantifiable targets, which are described in the document “Overview of targets and measures”.

Our sustainability measures

In addition to the measures described in Chapter IV (which have already been implemented), we are constantly collecting suitable ideas in the “Overview of targets and measures” file to  help us achieve our sustainability targets.1 At the beginning of each year, this list is used to draw up the action plan that we plan to implement over the next 12 months. These measures must contribute to all set targets and enable realistic target achievement within the defined target corridor by the end of the year.

[1] The overview of objectives and measures supplements this guideline and is intended as a collection of ideas that will be continuously expanded.

Review, documentation, communication

Our sustainability targets are reviewed annually by the Sustainability Officer. By the end of February 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029, a review is carried out to determine whether the targets defined in this sustainability guideline for the previous years have been achieved. The audit results are documented in a sustainability report and published on the company website in March of each year.