20. June 2023
Julia Kriegel

Corporate Communications: Learnings & Successes from 2022

Since the start of our sustainability initiative VAST GREEN, we have been documenting our journey on our blog and also on our social media channels.
In 2021, we primarily focused on the basics of our sustainability initiative; since the beginning of 2022, we have expanded our external sustainability communication in line with our transparent reporting.

Of course, public relations also existed at VAST FORWARD before the start of our sustainability initiative: Maren and Matthias have been sharing insights into our day-to-day work as a remotely structured team for many years on the blog and Instagram channel of @vastfloating, as well as in talks and a variety of media channels.

With VAST GREEN, we repositioned ourselves and have learned a lot as a communications team since then – our blogposts and our community shares are also a form of documentation that we can always refer back to.

Our blogposts and our community shares are also a form of documentation that we can always refer back to. Julia Kriegel

Do good and talk about it

We’re a small organization, a classic service SME – and we’re not required to do CSR or related reporting – even the sustainability reporting guidelines and regulations that will tighten supply chain transparency in 2023 don’t affect us.

So when we talk so aggressively about sustainability today, we are doing so voluntarily – and in compliance with the guidelines!

When asked why we’ve been talking so aggressively about our VAST GREEN journey on our blog and our various social media channels since 2022, there’s a simple answer: “We do good, so we talk about it.”

Sustainability has been an expanding value in our corporate self-image since 2020 – our experiences, the stumbling blocks we have encountered from the beginning and our very own path are, for example, the content we talk about with our community transparently and with a lot of personal accomplishment.

The topics are constantly evolving – the fact that we work together as a team in working groups on the sustainable future of VAST FORWARD with our sustainability initiative VAST GREEN is just as important to us as our “VAST GREEN Framework”, the process we developed specifically for this purpose and have been constantly developing since 2020.

Our communication working group is responsible for selecting topics, like an editorial team, and stays close to our sustainability strategy, in which we have defined the goal of sharing our experiences with other companies so that they are not alone for their own first steps or sustainability journey.
Our challenges and lessons learned are documented in blog posts, and the annual Impact Report summarizes our sustainability transparency.

After more than two years of consistent, joint work on our sustainable future, we can say: Sustainability is a journey that works when all people in the company recognize the relevance and contribute their ideas and impulses to implement sustainable goals – and we talk about it!

Our "main outlets" - our social media channels and websites

Even in 2023, there is still no blueprint for SMEs on the way to more sustainable business - that a responsible change towards more sustainability is possible is shown by our Impact Report! The Report is based on the GRI guidelines, it summarizes our most important environmental, social and economic developments and meets the European reporting standard.

We implement our sustainability strategy under the motto "We Do Not Just Compensate." But of course, VAST FORWARD also has to compensate for emissions. Together with CODE GAIA, we have closely coordinated emissions calculations to put our remote structure under the microscope: The dashboard on our Impact Report shows as a result which emissions we have caused since mid-2022 and which measures we have taken to minimize them.

Perhaps what makes our blog special is that the posts are written by the entire VAST GREEN team - we all find a voice here. As a result, the blog is much more than a reporting medium; you'll find regular updates, our VAST GREEN milestones, and progress on implementing our VAST GREEN strategy. In 2022 alone, we published 24 posts on our blog. For inspiration, we also share our Sustainable Friday here each week! In short presentations, these are diverse topics and research on various sustainability topics. Sustainable Fridays are also a true team project, as each team member presents the topics he or she is interested in. Since 2021, we have shared 53 posts on the blog and in our social media outlets.

Our podcast is the audio accompaniment to our sustainability initiative as well as outlet for various conversations between experts from our business environment and our management and sustainability manager.

Since November 2021, we've been sharing diverse sustainability content via Instagram several times a week. Since November 2021, we have published a triple-digit number of posts and are excited about a slowly, organically growing community size!

Focused into the Future

With VAST GREEN, we have grown closer as a team and with each other!

In the communications group, VAST GREEN and the many others are creating a diverse mix of topics – and that’s exactly what we want!

We want to be loud and diverse and encourage our followers, customers, service providers and partners to engage with the topic of sustainability.

RELATED ARTICLES

Apr 2023

Our ‘Viertel Eins’ Podcast

We have set out regular reporting in our sustainability strategy, which forms the basis of our VAST GREEN sustainability initiative. With our podcast 'Viertel Eins' (Quarter to One), we are now using another space to report on our progress: How did we start our sustainability journey as a digital company, and how does one actually become 'sustainable' as a company?

Dec 2022

Our Highlights from 2022

2022 - A year in which a lot happened in terms of sustainability - not only internally at VAST FORWARD, but also externally. In this blog article, we would like to review this eventful year and above all, look back at the highlights.