Having studied business ethics at IHI Zittau helps to keep a tenacious, critical eye on economy
Lukas Görnemann, alumnus of IHI Zittau's master programme Business Ethics and CSR-Management reports about his way to a job as CSR consultant
"I started my master studies at IHI Zittau in October 2016, because I was a bit worried about my chances on the labour market with bachelors in Philosophy and Politics. In addition to that, one of my lecturers at Osnabrück, where I finished my bachelor, gave me an important idea on my way: "Philosophy has to achieve something. It doesn't achieve anything inside an ivory tower." Therefore, it was obvious, that it had to be "something with economy", now.
The programme's title at that time was "Business Ethics & CSR-Management", and I have to admit, that I had to start a brief investigation for the 2nd term, first. The practical focus, transmitted in the web, was decisive for me not to study in my home town Lüneburg, or in Bayreuth, Kiel & Co.
Studies passed so fast by and besides of the many-sided study topics, I enjoyed being together with the other students of a relatively small programme. I was elected into the students' council, benefited from the sports' offer at the HSZG and could finish my studies with an exciting highlight: Prof. Aßländer made it possible for a colleague and me to present a research paper in Heidelberg, which was printed afterwards.
Meanwhile, I was torn out of science and into economy. Although exactly this was the reason for my studies, I have to admit that I'm regretting that to some degre... First of all, I wanted to get an insight into the entrepreneurial reality of sustainability - and was shocked: Although I had finished a master programme close to pratice, first only renunciations came in on return to my applications.
Luckily, after some more renunciations and some more time, I found a phantastic internship in the environmental management of a big German enterprise. For about 8 months, I was immersed in environmental data collection via Excel and an own data tool, had to check their plausibility, calculated CO2-footprints and even supported designing a climate strategy. On the way there, I made myself smart with a little help from articles, courses and seminars - for I wasn't really so deep into "environmental management" up to then. But studies supplied me at least with that - the ability to make myself smart, so everything worked out fine.
After this internship, I started working at my current employer, a middle-size agency in Hamburg, starting also with an internship, but luckily, after some months, I convinced the management to employ me rapidly as a Junior CSR Consultant.
Currently, there's seven of us in our sustainability department with some additional trainees. We offer consulting for many German enterprises, mainly listed at MDAX and SDAX and I already could do some consulting for Scout24 and the municipal services of the City of Munich. The work is very many-folded and driven by service-orientation, as it is typical for an agency. If a customer has a wish - we fulfil it as a rule. Still, our "bread-and-butter-business" consists in the compilation of sustainability reports and the development of individual strategies. As a foundation, we do several analyses: Materiality analyses check, based on frameworks of regulations and on standards, where the given enterprise has substantial effects on sustainability issues and where these issues influence business. Peer group analyses compare similar enterprises and their practice concerning sustainability. Stakeholder analyses try to get a surview of the opinions of stakeholders. Gap analyses finally analyse gaps between the requests of regulation frameworks and ratings and the communication of the enterprise.
Once we understand the enterprises, their branches and the ideas of the customers, we can start with the real work: We collect information from the departments in order to see, what's already there and how the several sustainability issues are managed. Also, we collect data, required by frameworks such as the GRI Standards.
As soon as the information is collected and after many more coordination loops and critical checks of the contents, a first sketch of a report or a strategy is accomplished.
For all those tasks, I took a lot of advantage from my studies. Besides of the basic knowledge of concepts and interlinkages in the field of CSR, I profited from the collected soft skills like learning, writing papers and especially presenting them. Especially relevant to me is the critical eye, that should not get lost in the practice of the enterprise. Inside the logics of maximization that companies practice, sustainability often is considered only as a tool to win favour with clients, employees and nowadays especially "ESG"-investors. My studies at Zittau help me to be as tenacious as possible. This doesn't always work out, but with the right persons on the entrepreneurial side, some "victories" can be achieved. For this reason, I can recommend to study at IHI Zittau to everyone."