Company Name: Drees & Sommer Engineering Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
Award Category: ESG Performance
Company Size: Small and Micro Enterprise Group
Environment
Climate Change:
D&S China is in alignment with group’s climate strategy. The company calculates and recognizes all greenhouse gas emissions connected to its business operations. The greenhouse gas inventory is based on the internationally recognized standard “The Greenhouse Gas Protocol”.
Building on measures already in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we joined the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) in 2021. By 2024 we will publish a science-based decarbonization target that meets the requirements of the Paris Agreement.
D&S China calculated the carbon emissions from its office electricity supply of 2022, amounting to 10 tons CO2. The company balanced the emissions and reached scope 2 carbon-zero target by purchasing green electricity certificates.
Numerous measures have been defined to avoid and reduce emissions from company’s daily operations, such as developing guideline for saving electricity (switching off videoconferencing system, lights, etc.), promoting low-carbon commuting and business travel and so on.
Drees & Sommer purchased Green Electricity Certificate equivalent to 25,000 kWh in 2023.
Natural Resources and Energy:
As a consultancy firm, D&S China’s business doesn’t involve production that consumes massive resources. The predominant resources consumption are electricity, water, paper, and IT equipment that come from daily office operations.
Numerous measures are being implemented to reduce the resource consumption. For example, employees are advised to save water and electricity in the office; paperless working is adopted to minimize paper/timber.
There are water and electricity metering systems for the office, monthly bills are collected, and consumption data are analyzed and compared.
Consumption, project files are saved on digital platform, excessive printing should be avoided.
Cradle-to-Cradle certified product that has prolonged service life is used in the office to reduce material consumption.
Drees & Sommer’s office in Shanghai uses Cradle-to-Cradle certified material to reduce resource consumption.
Prevention of Pollution:
Similar to resource consumption, D&S China’s business activities don’t generate significant waste and almost no pollution. The main source of waste comes from office trash, used IT equipment, and batteries.
Office trashes are separated and collected according to municipal requirements. IT equipment at the end of their life cycle is handed to specific handlers for reuse or decomposition to minimize waste and pollution. Used batteries are collected and recycled separately to avoid any hazardous pollution.
Drees & Sommer’s office in Shanghai collects used batteries to avoid possible environment contamination.
Other Actions Taken for Environmental Protection:
As part of the “Beneficial Company” strategy, Drees & Sommer is developing a biodiversity concept and rolling out relevant measures to promote biodiversity.
Drees & Sommer’s “Beneficial Company” strategy
Social
HR Development and Engagement:
By joining the United Nations Global Compact, we have shown our commitment to responsible management. The organizations participating in the initiative commit to aligning their activities and strategies with ten principles relating to human rights, labor standards, the environment and preventing corruption. In an annual Communication on Progress, we report on the implementation status.
D&S China is a non-discriminating employer, the company selects employees on competitive basis and has a diverse workforce. The detailed standards for recruitment and onboarding process are described in the Employee Handbook.
The company offers external employee consulting – the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) - to all employees free of charge and 24/7. The EAP provides professional, external, and anonymous short-term consulting on personal and professional issues.
For D&S, the protection and health of employees has the highest priority. The occupational health and safety management system based on ISO 45001 is established and certified with no non-compliance identified.
Company arranges weekly sport event for employees, and organized an outing event to Wuzhen this April. Company offers annual health check package to all employees. Tailored insurance is also offered to senior staff and employees who often do business travels.
The company emphasizes employees’ professional development and offers many forms of training. In-house training platform “e-learning” provides many professional courses. “My Academy” also offers structured training on supporting skills, potential analyses, leadership and so on.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:
Drees & Sommer released its “Diversity and Inclusion Statement”, it states that everyone has the same opportunities to develop- regardless of characteristics such as age, gender, sexual orientation, physical and mental abilities, origin, nationality or religion.”
In 2023 Drees & Sommer signed the Diversity Charta promoting diversity at work.
Our employees have diverse backgrounds, they are from mainland China, Taiwan, and Germany. Almost half of the employees are females.
Product Liability:
D&S China implements a holistic quality management system that ensures quality from three levels: organization, service, and project. At organization level, quality is ensured within the organization through active knowledge management, risk management, internal process audits and so on; at service level, a project supervisor(PSV) is assigned as a sparring partner for project management, supplier and subcontractor ratings and internal project audits are also used; at project level, we ensure the quality of the final project results for the customer through contract clarification meetings, feedback rounds, quality checks of the performance and other methods.
Customer questionnaire is conducted at the end of project execution. In case of bad performance or conflicts with the project supervisor, there is escalator layer policy for customers.
Great importance is attached to clients’ information. We actively sign the non-disclosure agreement with clients or subcontractors. We also make sure that we always obtain clients’ permission for using their information for diverse purposes.
Supply Chain:
As a consultancy company, D&S China doesn’t have extensive, direct supply chains like manufacturing companies. However, we attach great importance to the firm integration of high social and environmental standards throughout our purchasing process. We require all our business partners - including subcontractors commissioned by them to fulfill the contractually required service or delivery – to comply with our business partner compliance.
Some internal experts are working to implement other measures to fulfill company’s social responsibility in the supply chain, including implement risk management that ensures human rights compliance; review all supply chains with regard to human rights and environmental risks; define preventative and remedial measures and so on. All of our suppliers undergo a risk assessment at least once a year.
Community Engagement:
Our staff held Cradle to Cradle circular economy training for students at Shanghai German school previously.
Our staff held open lecture on carbon neutrality in building sector at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in April 2022.
Corporate Governance
Governance Organizational and Mechanism:
D&S China is the Chinese branch of Drees Sommer SE group. The company is led by D&S APAC and has clear governance structure. There are two general managers who are responsible for sales and operations respectively. Organization chart is available upon request.
D&S has issued a Code of Conduct that lists the objectives and principles for the corporate dealings. The Code of Conduct extends to official issues within the Company and all sectors in which employees are perceived as representatives of the company. It sets detailed requirements in aspects such as leadership, responsibility and supervision, information handling, data protection and data integrity, and so on.
Disciplinary measures such as committing misconducts, committing bribery or other violations are clearly written in the staff handbook.
Innovation Sustainability:
100% of projects start with a digitization strategy. The company has established an interdisciplinary Digital Strategy Board that supports the digital integration process. The experts from Digital Core Business are promoting Group-wide knowledge transfer, innovation development and enhanced competence in the use of digital tools in project work. Digital tools such as BIM, digital LCM, files transfer platforms are being used to improve work productivity and efficiency.
100% of projects start with a sustainability strategy. The company has been integrating sustainability into our projects for years. We develop sustainable solutions that not only contribute to environmental protection, but also demonstrate that sustainability can be just as innovative as it is sophisticated in its design.
D&S China is in alignment with group’s “Beneficial company” strategy and strives to make positive impacts on the environment as well as on the society. The results are also reflected on the annual GRI sustainability report.
Extra Points
ESG / Sustainability / CSR reports, e.g.:
Drees Sommer Group releases its GRI Sustainability report annually. The group’s strategy and targets apply to all branches across the globe, including D&S China. The report 2022 is expected to be released by the beginning of September this year.
获得ESG评级，比如，EcoVadis评级、MSCI明晟评级：
Drees & Sommer’s sustainability performance has been awarded with Silver rating by EcoVadis in 2023.
Responsive to or engaged in ESG Initiatives / Standards / Goals:
Drees & Sommer Group joined the United Nations Global Compact Initiative in 2021.
Drees & Sommer group joined the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) in 2021, which ensures that Drees & Sommer’s corporate climate strategy is aligned with the requirements of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
Drees & Sommer is an active member of ESG Alliance of German Chamber of Commerce.
