DESA AUTOGLASS – communicating sustainability transparently with a best practice report
DESA AUTOGLASS is a company operating throughout Switzerland that specialises in vehicle glass services, including stone chip repairs, vehicle window replacement and driver assistance system calibration. With over 30 branches and 130 service technicians, DESA serves both private and business customers throughout Switzerland. In addition to providing the highest quality of service and customer satisfaction, DESA attaches great importance to sustainability and is already implementing various initiatives, including the introduction of a certified CO2 management system in collaboration with Swiss Climate.
Starting point: Increasing demands on sustainability communication
Interest in DESA's sustainability activities is growing. Customers and business partners increasingly expect reliable and transparent information and, more and more often, an external assessment of sustainability management, for example through ratings such as EcoVadis. Based on these requirements, DESA and Swiss Climate have decided to produce a sustainability report in line with best practice. This report will serve as a source of information for external stakeholders and for ratings. It will also provide a consolidated overview of the sustainability initiatives already implemented within the company and form the basis for the strategic development of sustainability management.
A best practice report: practical and industry-specific
A best practice report is based on established standards and guidelines such as the GRI standards and legal reporting requirements (OR Art. 964), but is specifically tailored to the company's framework conditions and the specifics of the industry. This ensures credible and effective communication, even for medium-sized companies such as DESA, which are not subject to legal reporting requirements.
Approach: Systematically developing relevant topics and report content
Swiss Climate began by conducting a comprehensive review of DESA's sustainability management. This allowed us to draw on a wealth of information gathered during our many years of collaboration on CO₂ management. In order to identify the key sustainability issues for DESA and the report, a stakeholder analysis was carried out as part of a workshop, followed by a double materiality analysis. This ensured that all relevant sustainability issues were included in the sustainability report, taking into account various interests.
In the next step, Swiss Climate consolidated DESA's existing key figures, targets and measures and carried out a gap analysis with regard to the key sustainability issues. Based on an environmental analysis, proposals for missing content were also developed and finalised in a further workshop together with DESA. This ensured that clear objectives were in place for all key issues, which could be implemented and measured using appropriate measures and key figures. Swiss Climate then developed a proposed structure for the sustainability report. DESA developed the content on this basis, with Swiss Climate providing support as a sparring partner.
Result: A sustainability report as a communication and management tool
The result of the project is a 28-page sustainability report that provides an overview of DESA's key sustainability issues and efforts. The report offers a wide range of added value: it ensures transparency and trust among stakeholders and serves as proof of DESA's commitment to sustainability, for example in the context of tenders or ratings such as EcoVadis. At the same time, it fulfils a strategic purpose by creating a clear framework for pursuing goals and measuring sustainability ambitions.
"The implementation of the project was very collaborative and Swiss Climate was always a supportive sparring partner. This approach contributed significantly to initiating a learning process. The finished sustainability report provides a clear overview of progress and areas for action, creating transparency both internally and externally. It is also an important tool for communicating our sustainability activities to customers and other stakeholders in a consolidated form."
Kevin Rawyler, Sustainability Manager at DESA AUTOGLASS
