Croozer Blog: Sustainability

We at Croozer are very committed to protecting our planet. Although our bicycle trailers already make an active contribution to climate protection, we want to do even more – this includes taking responsibility for the impacts of our business activities. Jonas joined Croozer as the sustainability manager in early October to help us achieve this goal. In an interview with him, you can find out how he came to Croozer, what a typical work day looks like and what he’s working towards!

Hi Jonas, can you start by introducing yourself?

Yes, I’m 34 years old and originally from the Cologne area. I have a few other interest in addition to sustainability. For example, I enjoy playing football and going to concerts. Before starting my career in the field of sustainability, I studied geography.

And since October, I’ve been working here at Croozer as the sustainability manager.

And we’re delighted to have you! We, along with our community, would like to know how you first came into contact with the subject of sustainability?

I think it was at a very early age. Because of the family I grew up in, I just knew from the very beginning that it was up to me to help protect the environment – as a small child, it was mainly with simple things, like never throwing rubbish on the ground and never leaving anything behind in the forest after playing. Over time, I began to ask more and more questions about the environment and nature and was lucky that I could always get answers and input at home. At school I was very interested in geography, and on our holidays in the Alps, I was unfortunately able to witness the issue of melting glaciers, which was one of the topics we had covered in class. As a teenager, I just thought it was interesting to observe what was happening there and what the causes were. At the time, I hadn’t really started to put any real thought into possible solutions, though. For me, as someone who grew up in a village, I pretty much had to use a car – probably because there was often no alternative, with friends that lived 10 km away, and the bus would have taken me halfway around the world. But of course, I was also starting to develop a consciousness for sustainability: When I was 16, for example, I decided to start eating a mostly vegetarian diet.

But it wasn’t until later that I began to understand the concept of sustainability in its entire context and also in connection with possible solutions.

You’re probably talking about your studies, which is why the next question fits well: How did you decide to become a sustainability manager?

As I already mentioned, I had been very interested in geography since school. After graduation, I decided to study it in Cologne. Over the course of my studies, I began specialising in the relationship between humans and the environment. After that, I did a masters in resource analysis and management, which focuses on what humans do with resources, where these resources have become scarce and, then conversely, what effects this scarcity is having on us. In this programme, we also dealt with approaches to problem solving, which I really liked. From this point on, I knew that I also wanted to work in a solution-oriented manner and, in this way, would be able to promote sustainability. Funnily enough, I then – as if I already knew what was coming – wrote my master’s thesis on the subject of Sustainable Urban Mobility in Cologne.

After my studies, I spent four years working in the field of sustainability consulting. In this role, I started having a desire to focus on a single company and provide holistic, long-term guidance – and Croozer fulfilled this desire.

What does your typical workday at Croozer look like?

At the moment, I’m just trying to take everything in: understand structures, analyse processes that have been taking place to date and recognise problems and potentials. Croozer already offers a sound basis, with the emission-free use of bicycle trailers and the existing sustainable mindset of the employees and management. I’m responsible for integrating the issue strategically and professionally into the company – and for accomplishing this with clearly defined, measurable targets and measures. In this context, I have regular meetings with the sustainability team and the management in order to recognise obstacles and potentials. Then I draw up plans and of course start working on their implementation. My duties also include maintaining a sustainability network for Croozer and staying in touch with other companies or general stakeholders.

You’ve already mentioned the subject of aims: What aims do you have at and with Croozer? What has the company already done with respect to sustainability and what comes next?

As I said, the great advantage with Croozer is that I don’t have to start from scratch. There is already willingness and awareness among the management and employees, and several measures, like product durability and environmentally friendly textile dyeing, have already been implemented. Nevertheless, there’s still a lot to do: I’m talking about the 50 sustainability targets that we are currently defining and that we want to achieve by 2025. These include not only environmental topics, like logistics and materials, but also
social sustainability.

In this area, I have the impression that Croozer is already doing a lot of things right: as an employer, Croozer is very concerned about work-life balance. I noticed this right away when we were discussing the weekly work hours and time planning for my position. In my eyes, Croozer is very family friendly and flexible. Unfortunately, that is not always that easy to find in today’s world. In addition, the work atmosphere and communication are very open, and it’s really easy to assimilate! That said, we are not going to rest on our laurels, which is why the planned 50 sustainability targets also take social aspects into consideration.

The aim is for me, together with Croozer, to clearly define problems, strategies and targets and to establish sustainability as a firm criterion in decision-making processes. Transparency is very important to me in the establishment of targets and measures: We want to share information about not only our aims and successes, but also the associated problems and challenges. This is why I’m already working on the sustainability report for Croozer.

Thank you for the interesting conversation, Jonas – we are already looking forward to the next tasks and successes!