On our final presentation day, we took a deep dive into our topic: sustainability. All of the German students rode their bikes to the viadee office when the rain started pouring. We arrived at viadee totally soaked. The open smiles and refreshing cold beverages that greeted us from the Viadee team made it much easier to recover from that.
We spent the past few days working on an important question for the IT consulting firm: How can viadee create an integrated sustainability plan that engages its entire business – from suppliers to customers – and improve its already good sustainability measures?
A team of six students gave our final presentation. We were happy that everything ran so smoothly, and we had a very engaging discussion with the team at viadee about our results right after.
Below is a brief rundown of the lead initiatives we presented:
Supplier partnerships: We created a strategic supplier sustainability scorecard. This multidimensional tool evaluates partners based on critical areas such as environmental footprint (e.g. carbon footprint and green energy), social accountability (e.g. fair labor practices), and governance and transparency. We also developed a “shopping guide” for hardware to help employees choose durable, repairable, and responsibly produced technology, for example Fairphones and Framework laptops.
Brand communication: Building trust requires that sustainability be an experience, not just a slogan. We recommended revisiting the social media strategy on Instagram and LinkedIn by focusing on employees’ green projects, presenting sustainable partners, and providing educational content. We also recommended increasing the visibility of the sustainability page on the viadee website and obtaining the globally recognized B Corp certification to verify their dedication.
Customer influence: The best way to reach customers is to empower them. We designed prototypes for influential products, like a dashboard and a corporate carbon calculator. These solutions provide clients with instant feedback on their carbon impact to turn objectives into business value.
Internal “quick wins”: We recommended subsidizing the Deutschlandticket for public transportation, improving office waste segregation, and adapting vegetarian catering for events. All of these ideas were suggested directly as a result of our research and interviews.
The subsequent Q&A session was very engaging. The most thought-provoking discussion was probably the one about the growing significance of sustainability for recruiting and how commitment to social and environmental goals is no longer just a “nice-to-have,” but rather the key to attracting and retaining leading talent in the competitive tech industry.
We are very grateful to the entire viadee team for their hospitality and their openness to our results. It is exciting to watch a company so devoted to creating a sustainable future, and we are happy to have been part of that journey!
