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The CSR.digital Roadshow: Collaborating for Corporate Digital Responsibility

In late summer 2020, the team of CSR.digital went on the road. The agenda: conducting small Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) workshops with Chambers of Industry and Commerce (IHK) of North Rhine-Westphalia. The goal is to develop a comprehensive concept that can be used by various Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) as a framework for defining their role and action in the field of CDR.

The CSR.digital project created basic workshop formats by locating CDR action fields within a matrix of development. This basic format was tested and expanded at the respective chambers with the direct participation of SMEs.

The kick-off workshop took place in July at the IHK Bonn. Two SME representatives, Sandor Krönert from Tanzhaus Bonn and Holger Schwan from Projektservice Schwan shared experiences regarding their companies’ reaction to the ongoing pandemic. Mr. Krönert talked about their recently developed app for planning dance courses in ways that meet hygiene requirements while fulfilling the courses’ programme. Drawing on such particular examples, the project team and the SME representatives engaged in discussions about the various fields of action in CDR, such as the zero-waste principle, the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in support of sustainability goals, and the concept of the sharing economy. The participants also looked into areas with the greatest potential for positive impact at the SME level.

During the second workshop, which took place at the premises of IHK Düsseldorf, Thomas Götzen from the construction company Interboden shared more about their project ‘The Cradle’, in which they are using the Cradle-to-Cradle concept for the construction of an office building in Düsseldorf. Such experiences will be shared and discussed with other SMEs in order to find ways of replicating and upscaling them.

CSR.digital is planning to conduct further meetings with all IHK offices in North Rhine-Westphalia and jointly develop a comprehensive workshop concept that can used by SMEs to define their actions in the field of CDR. The next meeting will take place at the IHK Mönchengladbach on 8 October 2020.

CSR.digital – Sustainably Competitive is funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs NRW via the EFRE fund.

For further information, please contact Anna Hilger.

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