On supply chains and energy-efficient algorithms
Mr. Bauer, you’re now in your 5th semester of Computer Science. Mr. Hippert, you are in your 6th semester of Business Administration.
What does sustainability mean to you, Mr. Hippert?
Hippert: It’s a huge concept that often gets misinterpreted. To me, it means we leave this world better than we found it. Sustainability is not just about ecology and environment but also about human resource management. The fact is that people are directly impacted when external conditions begin to deteriorate. Poorer countries, for example, have higher unemployment, which affects people’s living situation. Businesses are in a position to offer their staff motivating guidance to act sustainably also in their private lives.
Mr. Bauer, what is sustainability for you?
Bauer: It’s an exercise in problem-solving to achieve a better result for all areas on a lasting basis. It means not looking for a quick and easy solution but coming up with a permanent one instead – and coming up with a good one at that. Considered from that angle, sustainability will always pay off.
The University has adopted a Sustainability Strategy. Is this fact on its own important to you?
Bauer: The Strategy encompasses many important points, a central one of which I introduced: Our sustainability practices and the changes we initiate are monitored on a dashboard to see where we stand in terms of realizing the Strategy.
How did you become involved in the process of co-developing the Sustainability Strategy?
Bauer: I was one of the founders of the Students for Future group at the University. There are around 20 of us in the group. Someone from the group heard that the Strategy was in the process of being developed, so contact was established.
Hippert: Inspired by Frankfurt’s being awarded Fairtrade Town status, in 2018 I put forward a suggestion to the Student Parliament and to the University Administration to turn us into a Fair Trade University. In fact, our Vice President Prof. Dr. Klärle took up her post pledging her commitment to sustainability, and the idea sounded great to me, so that’s how I came to join the Sustainability Strategy group. As former president of the General Student Committee [AStA], I had already campaigned for waste separation at the University, as well as environmentally friendly photocopy paper and digitalization.
Mr. Hippert, which aspect of the University’s Sustainability Strategy is important to you?
Hippert: Each aspect is important. What strikes me as most particularly important is not only that we take sustainability seriously but also that it is embedded in our teaching practice.
How do you study sustainability in Business Administration?
Hippert: Studying value chains and supply chains, for example. In supply chain management, cheapest isn’t necessarily best – rather, sustainability is the determining factor for the quality of the chain. Supply chains broke down during the pandemic. They weren’t sustainable. What is also important is a good working environment without discrimination and bullying so that fluctuation is kept to a minimum. That, too, is sustainability.
Mr. Bauer, how do you go about studying sustainability in your degree program?
Bauer: There is still room for improvement in Computer Science. But we have been discussing a number of different algorithms already and raising questions pertaining to their sustainability. When I’m writing codes, for example, I can do so in a more or less resource-efficient manner given that computational operations are energy-consuming. An efficient algorithm saves energy because our electricity consumption increases significantly as a result of digitization.
To what extent will electricity consumption increase due to digitization?
Bauer: To cite just one example: plans are underway to build a data center on a former military garrison property in Hanau. The data center will foreseeably require twice as much electricity as the entire city, which, after all, has a population of just under 100,000.
Hippert: I just ran a quick fact-check... The information I’m looking at ... puts digitization’s share at 3.7 percent of CO₂ emissions ...
Bauer: Shutting down the servers cannot be the answer. We must generate power from renewable sources and use digitization to optimize energy generation and consumption.
Will you personally include sustainability as a criterion for choosing an employer one day?
Hippert: My personal ambition is to go into social entrepreneurship. It is important to me that a corporate culture be sustainably modelled so that the company or organization leave behind something better than when they began operation. My aim is to build an NGO or to develop social projects.
Bauer: I myself founded a company that not only uses digital signage to combat paper clutter and information overload but also develops standard business processes for organizing events. As an entrepreneur, I am committed to sustainability. Given the recent surge in the number of servers that exploit verifiable green energy resources, I am also keen to use only these servers as soon as feasible.
For young students like yourself who are open to the idea of sustainability and who are entering a profession, will this trigger a push for corporate change?
Hippert: Yes. Customers themselves are becoming increasingly paying attention to sustainability, so companies for their part will have no choice but to take sustainability seriously. Companies that do not embrace sustainability will get squeezed. Of course, the demographic change is also looming large, with the number of elderly people growing rapidly.
Can it be that the elderly are not interested in sustainability?
Hippert: Sustainability is crucially important, particularly in education, which lays the groundwork for rethinking. Such a rethink is difficult for the elderly since they were not concerned with the topic for years on end.
Mr. Bauer, will we be seeing greater sustainability around the world?
Bauer: It is not just the younger generation that is at the fore-front of working for more sustainability. All companies will have to address this issue as well. This is yet another reason why even more potential for change will continue to be tapped. And we at the University are coming up with ideas and concepts of our own.
Who‘s raising whose awareness here: Is the University raising young people‘s awareness — or is it the other way around?
Bauer: We students are doing our share to push the envelope. Yet there is still scope for improvement...
Is it a good thing that we now have a Sustainability Strategy at the University?
Hippert: Yes, it is, and yet – as Mr. Bauer just pointed out – there is still room for improvement on the teaching staff side. Thanks to the Sustainability Strategy, it’s no longer tenable for someone in a logistics seminar to say that the fastest and cheapest supplier is the best. We can now cite the Sustainability Strategy in seminars and object: That is not the case. As the Sustainability Strategy enjoys the full backing of the Committees, we can raise an objection whenever someone says something that is just plain wrong. Developing the Strategy is not the main thing – the main thing is to abide by it and to make sure that the results are cross-checked. And to make certain that it is not used for the purpose of greenwashing, which is common practice in not a few businesses.
Bauer: There are a lot of great points included in the Strategy to further the University‘s mission. It is important that we act on the principle of sustainability. That we put our words into action.