Maintenance and milestones in ESG with Zizzi

The last decade, sustainability has been on the agenda all over. Most companies, including Zizzi, wants to make a change, but where do you begin? Back in the early days of Sustaina Company, Zizzi participated in Sustaina Company’s workshop, “The Elephant Approach”. It became the beginning of a long journey.

The first of many

When Zizzi and Sustaina Company first met, Zizzi had two employees working with CSR as an additional area of responsibility to their regular tasks. It did not take long after they attended the workshop before we partnered up and started working together. As Zizzi puts it: “We fell in love with the practical knowledge, the straightforward approach, and the relaxed attitude.”

Zizzi was one of the very first companies to purchase the part-time CSR manager service. Since then, more than 20 different companies have enjoyed the flexible solution.

With a part-time CSR manager from Sustaina Company, the purchasing department receives on-site assistance from a specialist employee two days a week. For Zizzi, this meant the start of a long list of CSR initiatives, such as structured mapping of the supply chain, development of a material strategy, responsible marketing and so forth.

Fast forward three years, and the collaboration is still going strong.

The value of real-life experience

When working with ESG, it is a great advantage to have some kind of background knowledge. There are many aspects of sustainability, and knowing how to navigate them all is not something you figure out overnight.

This was one of the reasons why Zizzi chose to work with Sustaina Company.

“The practical experience Sustaina Company brought along was a big help and great start. It is clear that they are people that know what they are talking about.”

Camilla Kjær Arentoft, Buying and Wholesale Director of Zizzi.

A team of specialists and bullsh*t detectors in one solution

Something we can all use when working in a new, relatively unchartered territory is a bull-sh*t detector. Someone who actually knows what’s up and down and what pitfalls to avoid. And of course – someone to provide you with valid feedback as you go.

When sustainability is properly implemented, it touches upon almost every corner of the business. Zizzi knew that the tasks varied so much that it would be practically impossible for one person to cover them all successfully.

Luckily, Sustaina Company has the solution to that: a team of consultants, specialising in different fields, so a great pool of knowledge and experience are available to their customers.

“We really appreciate the wide knowledge the full team of consultants at Sustaina Company brings to the table. Whether it’s creating structure, helping develop a carbon report, making guidelines for where to go and what to do, due diligence, communication or supply/product, there’s help to get. We feel very safe with our consultant, and she has become great partner of ours.”

Camilla Kjær Arentoft, Buying and Wholesale Director of Zizzi.

The big milestones

So – what can you do with a part time CSR manager on site two days a week?

Naturally, a part of the time will be spent on compliance and supply chain management. But you also have time to check off some big items on the to-do list.

In 2022, Zizzi became GOTS and GRS certified, with the help of their consultant from Sustaina Company. Getting certified is not easy, and it is an advantage to have someone who has done it numerous times to manage the process. That included conducting internal training, making sure that Zizzi had the right policies  in place, filling out the necessary forms and developing documents and procedures and preparing them for the audit day.

Another big milestone was the development of Zizzi’s 2030 strategy. Together with their consultant they made a tailored sustainability strategy. The strategy was built upon pillars of commitments, underlying objectives, and key targets, to make it easier for them to track their development.

This segmentation proved especially useful in the development of their annual sustainability report, where it was used as the governing structure in a brand-new report format. The report was finalized and published in the beginning of 2023.

Picking the right solution

Maybe you’re finding yourself in a position where you need more minds and hands working on your company’s ESG effort.

Are you going to hire someone on fulltime, bring in a team of consultants, or distribute the responsibility among a group of employees?

That is not always an easy decision to make, and you might not choose the right solution the first time around. For Zizzi, the part-time CSR manager solution from Sustaina Company proved to be just the right match in order to ensure continual progress and the reaching of big milestones within the ESG area.