The position is relatively new. Does that mean that the CSR issue has not been dealt with before in your company?

Lisa-Marie laughs and shakes her head vehemently.

No, CSR has been on the agenda at Maier Sports GmbH for years. It was previously anchored in production management and was co-managed there. I had already been involved in this topic to some extent. What is new is that we have focused on it much more strongly. As a company, we want to face up to our responsibility and have consciously decided not just to react in order to meet legal requirements, but to proactively drive positive, sustainable changes in all areas of the company.

What interfaces do you have in the company?

Lisa-Marie's passion is immediately apparent. She stops at our steepest section of the road and clarifies her statements with calm but determined gestures.

On strategic issues, I consult directly with our management. In particular with Simone Mayer, who as CEO is responsible for product, production, and logistics. This means that we have very short lines of communication and can make quick decisions. However, the entire CSR issue is a highly complex topic that must be viewed holistically, and that is precisely what makes the task so exciting and multifaceted. The important thing is that we all share the same philosophy when it comes to this topic that is close to our hearts.

In the project work, I then have interfaces to each of our locations, whether to the headquarters or the individual production sites, to each department and to each of my colleagues, because the topic affects everyone in the company and should also involve everyone.

And how are you tackling this complex issue? What are your plans?

We have initiated a 3-year plan in which we have defined and prioritized 11 different topics with projects. For topics where we were already able to do so with our current level of knowledge, we defined goals that we would like to achieve within the next three years. We deliberately set ambitious but realistic targets. For some areas, we have decided to have an actual analysis carried out in advance - by external service providers. These evaluations will show us where we stand today so that we can set appropriate targets for the future. From October, for example, we will take up our climate strategy with regard to CO2 reduction.

How did you go about finding topics and what other topics did you fix?

At the beginning we asked ourselves the general question: how do we live CSR today and how do we want to live it in the future? To do this, we weighed the main categories and decided to tackle 70% environmental issues and 30% social issues. We then clustered our many ideas, prioritized them, and defined them in the 11 projects outlined below.

Why did you decide on this 70:30 weighting for the focal points?

Both areas, environment and social, are enormously important, multifaceted, and closely interwoven. Social sustainability is dependent on environmental sustainability in the long run. Through our more than 10-year membership in the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), many topics of the social area are already actively processed and reviewed. For example, our production sites have been audited regularly for years. For these audits, the factories are visited on average every 3 years by the FWF. In the course of this, workers are also interviewed. However, the interviews are not during work, but privately, so that they can freely express themselves about the working conditions in their company without pressure or fear.

We at Maier Sports GmbH visit all our companies regularly and during these visits we pay attention not only to production, but also to the "Code of Labor Practices" defined by the FWF. FWF "Worker Info Cards" are also distributed during our factory visits, and we make sure that the FWF "Worker Information Sheet" is hanging on the walls, accessible to all. Both the posters and the flyers have a "Help Hotline" and the "Code of Labor Practices" printed on them, so that every worker has the possibility to contact FWF in case of difficulties. The name of the person is not disclosed to Maier Sports GmbH, nor to the factory. This way, the person filing the complaint can feel safe and express themselves freely - without having to worry about possible consequences.

Once a year, we, Maier Sports GmbH, are audited by the FWF - in the so-called Brand Performance Check. Of course, travel was unfortunately not possible in the last fiscal year due to the pandemic, but that was an exceptional situation.

Thanks to these far-reaching commitments, which have been implemented in clear processes, we have already achieved a great deal in terms of social sustainability. It is now imperative that we follow suit in the area of ecological issues. That is why I am currently devoting myself more intensively to environmental issues, which are also very close to my heart, in order to drive them forward directly.

Is the 3-year plan fixed and is the overall project therefore completed in 3 years?

The plan is by no means static - on one hand, it is updated every year for another year, and on the other hand, it is also constantly questioned, reviewed, adapted, and further developed during the processes. The vision clearly goes beyond a 3-year plan. We will achieve many milestones, but new goals will be defined continuously, and we will deal with topics in the future of which we can have no idea today.

How will the topic of CSR be communicated to individual employees?

At the moment, the management, the head of production monitoring and production management, and I are giving a lot of thought to how we can best position and promote the topic at our production sites in the most promising way. In the next step, we will sound out these ideas and formulate them into wishes, which we will discuss in planned kick-off meetings with those responsible at the production sites. At the same time, we will also sensitize and motivate all colleagues at our headquarters in Köngen for the entire CSR area. At these meetings, we communicate our ideas on how we would like to live CSR together in the future, for example, and present the 3-year plan. We would also like to include topics on how we can jointly achieve better communication with our suppliers - in other words, not only CSR-based topics will be on the agenda. 

How do you initiate the implementation of the individual projects and by whom will they be implemented?

The topic cannot be prescribed hierarchically from the top down or from the outside in - that would be doomed to failure. It has to be lived from the inside out. That's why my most important tasks are to motivate and inspire every colleague for this topic and to raise awareness. It is important for me to create a framework for a level of communication in which everyone can find themselves and in which grievances can also be addressed openly.
Each of my colleagues is so deeply involved in the tasks, processes, and issues he or she is working on and knows the procedures. We have already succeeded in igniting a passion for CSR. Everyone is looking at their areas of work, recognizing potential and we are getting great internal suggestions for improvement in terms of sustainability. It's a super exciting process.

Are there any examples of internal suggestions that have already been implemented?

The CSR manager beams all over her face and reports enthusiastically.

Yes, we receive suggestions for improvement again and again, and fortunately more and more often. One result of this, for example, is that every item repaired in our sewing room now leaves our premises wrapped in paper instead of being packed in a plastic bag. We communicate this on a flyer that we enclose to make even more people - even outside our company - aware of sustainability.

And our "Paperless Project" also emerged from an internal suggestion. This suggestion has now developed into a project that has been active for over two years. Since the kick-off, many things have changed at our headquarters in Köngen. Since then, we have tried to work as paperless as possible. We decided that we would like to use the saved printing and paper costs for a good cause and decided on a cooperation with the forest kindergarten in Köngen. We are planning a tree planting campaign here in the fall of 2022.

Which topic do you prioritize for yourself or from which do you expect the most?

Lisa Marie thinks about it for a moment, lets her gaze wander in the direction of the Three Emperor Mountains and immediately provides comprehensible reasons.

Every topic deserves to be prioritized and we expect a sustainable result from each of them. However, for me personally, the "Better Together" theme has an immense key function. With "Better Together" we are pursuing the goal of improving the relationship, mutual understanding and communication between and within our sites. Through an open, transparent corporate culture, we want to open up perspectives in order to better understand cultural differences and, ideally, transform opportunities into synergies.

If we succeed in this, misunderstandings can be ruled out and we have a promising basis for the placement and acceptance of all topics - worldwide - including CSR topics.

What do you hope for in 3 years?

That we have achieved effective, sustainable improvements in all areas and are acting more consciously overall. That we have a person as CSR contact in each department who has internalized the importance of the topic, enjoys working with me, and is in lively exchange. CSR absolutely needs passionate, authentic people who have recognized how explosive the topic is. This way, we will be able to achieve and move much more together in the future.