The WIN-Charta – a German abbreviation for “economic sustainability initiative charter” – is a charter which has been developed as part of the state of Baden-Württemberg’s sustainability strategy for businesses who wish to publicly pledge to act accordingly. Commitment, personal initiative and outward communication form the foundation of the charter. By signing the WIN-Charta, Peschel Communications has committed itself to upholding the twelve guiding principles and continuing to make the company more sustainable. In 2021, we have decided to concentrate our efforts on the following guiding principles of the WIN-Charta:
- Guiding principle 2: Employee well-being – “We respect, protect and promote the well-being and the interests of our employees.”
- Guiding principle 4: Resources – “We work to improve resource efficiency, increase resource productivity and reduce the utilisation of natural resources.”
Employee well-being
These key areas are particularly important to us because Peschel Communications is a small company which relies on close collaboration and a flat organization. Since our workflows require good teamwork, we place great value on honest communication, transparency and empathy.
The well-being of our employees has always played a central role in our company. For instance, we promote continued professional development through internal training sessions on topics such as mindfulness and nonviolent communication, and we offer preventive healthcare opportunities at the workplace. Our routine meetings foster regular communication within the team, from our daily morning conferences to annual or biannual employee development evaluations to the weekly check-ins between individual employees and the general management. Peschel Communications also offers the opportunity to adjust working hours to personal needs. This allows us to ensure a healthy work-life balance. Last but not least, we take part in joint activities to nurture team spirit, including the annual company barbecue.
Steps we are taking toward improvement
- Annual anonymous survey on employees’ well-being
- Training sessions/consultations regarding health (e.g. nutrition, exercise, ergonomics at the workstation)
Resources
We think that we have an exemplary role to play when it comes to resource management, and we seek to shoulder our responsibility to continuously reduce our already comparatively low consumption of raw materials. This means using energy responsibly, travelling sustainably wherever possible and using recycled materials for our printing and advertising needs.
And we are already well on our way. We use 100% recycled printer paper and have sourced our electricity for many years from the Elektrizitätswerke Schönau, a utility that supplies electricity from 100% renewable sources. Instead of purchasing bottles of water, we carbonate our own tap water to eliminate the transport and cleaning of reusable bottles. We make sure that the consumer goods we purchase are locally sourced: Our coffee is always organic and fair trade, our herbal teas come from a local supplier and we buy our fruit from a farmers’ market. Even our consumables (cleaning materials) are environmentally friendly. Additionally, we make sure to only purchase electronic devices such as computers that are of the highest quality to ensure a long service life.
Steps we are taking toward improvement
- Use of public transportation or an electric vehicle for necessary business trips
- Reservations at hotels with the highest environmental standards
- Use of primarily recycled materials for advertising purposes
- Purchase decisions with a focus on sustainability
You can find comprehensive information on the WIN-Charta and other WIN-Charta signatories at www.win-bw.com (in German).
