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Case Studies > Projecter: Family-friendly and equal opportunity in the creative industry<br>

Projecter: Family-friendly and equal opportunity in the creative industry

  • Gesundheit und Wohlergehen
  • Arbeitnehmerrechte & Wohlbefinden
  • Case study

In an industry full of stress and overtime, Projecter focuses on a work environment that unites family and career. Flexible working hours, daycare subsidies, and transparent salaries promote true equality and balance.

Projecter demonstrates how career and family can go hand in hand in marketing.

 

In the marketing industry, stress and overtime are often the norm, posing a significant challenge, especially for employees with young families. For 17 years, Projecter has consciously focused on creating a work environment that promotes the balance between family and career, particularly for women, and stands out clearly from typical industry standards.
Our industry thrives on creative, ambitious talent who are often in a life stage where they must simultaneously navigate starting their careers, building their professional paths, and founding families. Placing additional burdens on these employees through excessive job demands contradicts our philosophy.
Our goal is to create a work environment that nurtures and challenges, while respecting individual needs for a healthy balance between private life and career. Concrete measures that underpin our sustainable and future-oriented HR policy include:

  • 50% of management positions are held by women.
  • Over 50% of middle management positions are also held by women.
  • Promotions are granted even immediately before parental leave begins.
  • Managers and all employees have the option to work part-time.
  • Daycare fees are subsidized with up to €150 per month.
  • Our vacation policy includes 30 regular vacation days plus 10 additional days for more family time and to cover daycare closures or school holidays.
  • Flexible working hours and home office options.
  • Flexible arrangements for children’s illnesses.
  • We track and transparently communicate the internal gender pay gap, which currently slightly favors female employees.

With these measures, we not only send a clear message for equal opportunities and family-friendly working conditions but also set standards that can serve as a model for other companies in our industry.

Case Studies > Zentek: A Case Study on Successfully Achieving B Corp Certification Through Internal Engagement

Zentek: A Case Study on Successfully Achieving B Corp Certification Through Internal Engagement

  • Abfallwirtschaft & Recycling
  • Partnerschaften zur Erreichung der Ziele
  • Ökologische Nachhaltigkeit
  • Case study

This case study on Zentek’s B Corp certification provides valuable insights into the successful integration of stakeholders and teamwork on the company’s path to becoming a certified B Corporation.

zentek

About Zentek

Zentek, a German company specializing in waste management, relied on a participatory approach to achieve successful B Corp certification in October 2023. On its journey to becoming a B Corp, the company effectively promoted its commitment to environmental stewardship by fostering broad internal engagement with sustainability topics encountered in the B Impact Assessment (BIA).

The role of impact at Zentek

As a company in the waste disposal and recycling industry, Zentek puts the circular economy concept into practice every day and is sustainably positioned across all services. The company strives for complete material recovery and, therefore, high-quality recycling and supports its customers on the path to sustainable packaging and closed-loop solutions. Due to networking with universities and working groups and their support for research projects on resource conservation, the company is actively involved in the transformation towards a sustainable circular economy.

Christoph Heller
Christoph Heller, Management

Zentek

“It was important for us to go one step further and have our environmental and social sustainability performance as a company critically reviewed. With the certification, we have succeeded in demonstrating, both internally and externally, how differentiated our approach to sustainability is and were able to establish a long-term sustainability structure that is aimed at continuous improvement.”

According to Zentek, during the certification process, everyone learned that sustainability is much more than just ‘green’ and that a holistic and far-sighted approach is essential. The waste management service provider is aware of the challenges of the times and the industry and has been able to create a basis with B Corp to respond to upcoming legal regulations (such as the CSRD) and support its customers as a competent partner.

Sabine Tachl
Sabine Tächl, Head of Sustainability Management
Zentek

“To us, sustainability means one thing above all: getting started. No matter how big or small your own contribution or that of the company may be – every step counts. Sustainability encompasses many topics and no one is expected to make a huge impact straight away: One person invests in a solar system, another uses public transportation, and yet another repairs broken appliances. There are also blind spots everywhere. It is important to be aware of these weaknesses and of how to deal with them.”

B Corp certification: a collaborative approach

In the late summer of 2022, Zentek founded a B Corp team with employees from different departments – Sustainability Management, Sales, HR, Finance, Quality Management, Legal, Marketing, Design, and Management – which met regularly to reflect on, question, and optimize the approach of dealing with the B Impact Assessment. The B Impact Assessment (BIA) is a free, confidential platform designed to help measure and manage a company’s positive impact on its workers, community, customers, and the environment. Every business striving for B Corp Certification is required to complete a verified assessment. From the start, Zentek believed that the huge topic of corporate sustainability should not be addressed within isolation by sustainability managers but that it requires the broadest possible discussion and, therefore, a wide variety of departments to be represented in their B Corp team.
The team opted for agile process management based on scrum and progressed in sprints. From today’s point of view, the members are convinced that this structured approach to becoming a B Corp and the insightful retrospectives that showed them how to achieve their goals better and faster were crucial. Looking back, the team remembers how they were slightly overwhelmed by the variety and depth of the topics after the first few weeks of dealing with the B Impact Assessment and had only taken small steps forward up to that point, which had a sobering effect. Big to-dos needed to be broken down into smaller tasks, and by that, the whole project had to go much deeper into the company and involve as many other colleagues as possible.

Although Zentek had already been communicating regularly internally and externally about its progress in the certification process since day one, making B Corp a joint task that all employees could be a part of became the new focus. Instead of thinking about and prescribing necessary changes only at the management level (top-down), all colleagues should be able to help shape the changes themselves (bottom-up). Consequently, this meant taking away everyone’s fear of the complexity of B Corp, preparing content and topics step by step, and presenting them in as concrete a way as possible. It did not take long until the team felt confirmed in their strategy by seeing that they were able to complete significantly more tasks in a sprint than before.

Sabine Tachl
Sabine Tächl, Head of Sustainability Management
Zentek

“Since we should all be able to say that we are a B Corp after certification proudly, it was important that all employees knew exactly what it’s all about and could actively contribute to it. This sense of community and the growing identification with the values of B Corp on all sides functioned as real boosters.”

Another key aspect was the regular internal and external communication with updates on the progress, explanations regarding B Corp, and insights or advice from other B Corps, which contributed enormously to the development of understanding, enthusiasm, and full commitment among the employees. The team repeatedly relied on join-in calls and surveys as well as offering workshops and working groups on various topics from the BIA so that the staff implemented numerous sustainable measures and thus not only reduced the company’s ecological footprint but collectively increased its handprint.

Kim Weber, Marketing & Communication
Zentek

“Our colleagues are enthusiastic about our sustainability journey and are getting involved in a variety of ways because they know that they can make a difference.”

As one example, the interactive in-house exhibition about B Corp proved to be a particularly effective means of communication, allowing employees to gain a better understanding of B Corp. There were booths to learn more about each of the five impact dimensions – workers, customers, communities, environment, and governance. In addition, employees could engage in hands-on activities and competitions, a feedback corner as a space for criticism, requests, suggestions, speeches on achievements, and videos with insights into other companies’ B Corp journeys. To top it off, snacks from Certified B Corps were served to raise awareness of sustainable consumption and the B Corp label. With this measure, Zentek says, the enthusiasm for B Corp and the commitment of the workforce to contribute to sustainable transformation could further be strengthened.

Find a video online: https://www.youtube.com/embed/https://youtu.be/bcXEg_hjCvQ?&controls=1&mute=1

The journey of continuous improvement

Surpassing expectations with an impressive impact score of 99.9 points, Zentek attributes its successful certification to the significant participation of its workforce. As with every B Corp, Zentekt will be required to go through recertification every three years to prove the company’s continuous commitment to positive impact. The Zentek team is motivated to sustain and further improve their diligent efforts for Zentek’s recertification.

Ralf Lang
Ralf Lang, Personnel
Zentek

“This is where we could list the many big and small things that we have accomplished – from numerous energy-saving measures to even more sustainable criteria in procurement and the establishment of a diversity team to a series of new workplace health management measures. Crucial foundations have been laid in many areas throughout the company and new structures have been created, from where it is now our task to tap the full potential.”

With the help of a disposal company screening tool, Zentek wants to create even more positive impact in cooperation with its waste disposal partners and, by recording material recycling, getting closer to its corporate objectives. Likewise, the company looks ahead in terms of Human Resources, with the introduction of a standardized feedback process and new leadership training aimed at seeing positive change. Another highlight is their recent implementation of established processes across various business areas, facilitating the measurement of impact on stakeholders. This allows for continuous monitoring and informed consideration of stakeholder impact in future decision-making.

Kim Weber, Marketing & Communication
Zentek

“Overall, we also feel vindicated regarding our decision not to make a black box out of our certification process and to regularly and transparently share with our colleagues and the public the issues we are dealing with, the challenges we are facing, and the progress we have eventually made. No company is perfect – there is potential everywhere. We think it is important to be honest about this and to talk openly about possible failures because the journey is the reward. Thus, we have already been able to recruit some new team players who have been following our path and are ready to help us promote a more sustainable economy, which is great.”

Findings from the B Corp certification process

  • #1

    Promoting participation

    Provide multiple opportunities for employees to be part of the B Corp journey and help shape change! This can include surveys, quizzes, training, workshops and interactive in-house events to encourage participation and enthusiasm.

  • #2

    Balance between structure and flexibility

    If tasks seem too big, they should be broken down into smaller, more manageable subtasks that can be distributed among several people! Agile process management such as Scrum can provide the right framework for this.

  • #3

    Embrace the Path of Continuous Improvement

    B Corp is an impressive label, but it’s the work along the way that deserves the most recognition! You don’t have to be perfect to achieve sustainable transformation. By engaging employees early, you can turn the fear of change into energy for greater impact. Transparent communication that begins long before certification fosters internal understanding and engagement and facilitates valuable external contacts and advice.

Zentek's influence as B Corp Zentek's sustainability promise