Bertelsmann green.screen

Global Sustainability Reporting from over 500 Locations Worldwide

Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA was faced with the challenge of meeting the requirements of non-financial reporting Directive (as of 2025 Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and to establish sustainability reporting for all locations worldwide. Together with Arvato Systems and based on the digital platform green.screen the Group developed a solution that would make it possible to capture data transparently and reduce emissions.

Sustainability management for Bertelsmann

With its platform green.screen for strategic sustainability management, Arvato Systems supports its parent company Bertelsmann in establishing sustainability reporting for all locations worldwide and achieving the Group's own "Climate Target 2030".

Project Overview

Initial situation

Bertelsmann has been publishing a voluntary carbon footprint since 2008, which has since been expanded to include newly adopted regulatory requirements. Since 2014, reporting has been carried out annually in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

2014 the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) of the European Union, which is implemented in Germany with the CSR Directive Implementation Act (CSR-RUG).

This required the Bertelsmann Group to publish material environmental aspects and other sustainability disclosures in a non-financial statement since 2018 due to its size. In view of the numerous locations, this posed a considerable challenge. Bertelsmann initially relied on existing systems, but these were not optimally developed for the requirements of sustainability reporting. Even before the introduction of the NFRD, the company was concerned with the extent to which its actions had an impact on the environment. Although the traditional financial accounting and planning systems provided a wealth of data, there was no way of precisely recording the impact on the environment and collating it across the Group. In view of the Group's own CO2 reduction target of 50 percent by 2030, a strategic solution was needed.

Vision

Bertelsmann wanted a system that would make it possible to integrate data from over 500 locations and 300 reporting units into a comprehensive sustainability report - easily, traceably and at any time. It was essential that the system not only took into account all EU directives and offered audit compliance. Due to the constantly changing regulations, the solution also needed to be adaptable so that it could also meet the future requirements of the auditors. In addition, Bertelsmann was looking for a way to not only record energy consumption, but to present it as transparently as possible so that it could then take targeted measures to make savings and reduce emissions.

Solution

Because of the high requirements, Bertelsmann chose Arvato Systems and their digital sustainability management platform green.screen. The solution is originally based on an energy management and plant system and is therefore ideally suited to centralizing all the necessary data relating to energy consumption. It collects, calculates and documents all energy and resource consumption throughout the company, enabling sustainability efforts to be mapped. Bertelsmann provides accurate, consistent and always available data in the cloud-based environmental data platform green.screen precise information about its ESG data.

green.screen is continuously being developed so that new features can be integrated should changes in regulations make this necessary. Due to the size and international nature of Bertelsmann, Arvato Systems created around 800 users with appropriate access rights and designed the digital environmental questionnaires in multiple languages.

Our Services

Arvato Systems played a crucial role in the successful implementation of the sustainability management platform green.screen for Bertelsmann. At the beginning of the project, Arvato Systems held two concept workshops in which the company worked with Bertelsmann to determine the optimal data collection and structure. Arvato Systems then gradually filled the database in order to create reference values and establish orders of magnitude for energy consumption. Particular attention was paid to mapping Bertelsmann's complex organizational structure. Since the corporate structure is constantly changing - new locations are added, existing locations grow or shrink - the system had to remain flexible and adaptable. This flexibility was also necessary in order to continuously adapt to legal requirements and to ensure sustainability reporting in accordance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Since its successful implementation in 2019, green.screen for Bertelsmann climate-relevant environmental data such as energy generation, energy consumption, fuel use, waste generation, pollutants, water withdrawal and wastewater discharge and converts these into CO2 equivalents. In this way, the Group is now able to record granular data and a precise time grid and thus optimize its measures and reduce energy consumption. In addition, Arvato Systems provides support with data collection to counteract potential sources of error.

Customer Benefits

green.screen maps Bertelsmann's complex corporate structures and combines sustainability and energy management into a robust data basis in a single system. It fulfills the ESR standards and enables simple and efficient data collection, including the integration of online measurements. The process, which previously took almost a year, can now be implemented within 8 weeks. The high data quality and the quick visibility of the results thanks to the climate dashboard also help to identify CO2 reduction potential so that energy-related and other optimization measures can be taken if necessary. Continuous target monitoring also makes it possible to check progress. Thanks to Arvato Systems' extensive experience in this area and close strategic and operational collaboration, Bertelsmann is now ideally equipped to achieve its reduction target of 50 percent by 2030.

Connection of energy data management system and sustainability reporting

Simple and efficient data collection

Connection of digital data sources such as meters, sensors and upstream systems

Reliable data basis for Group-wide climate targets and strategic decisions

Auditor capability

IT security

Flexibility to define and map your own key figures

Automatic CO² calculation

Ability to map complex group structures and a detailed rights and roles concept for users

"If a book is published, we record in green.screen precisely how much CO² was generated for the ton of paper, which printer was used with which emissions, and how many emissions were caused by the transportation routes. Thanks to the high data quality and the transparent dashboards, we can then see at a glance where we can still save CO2 in order to achieve our climate target."

Mark Fabisch | Head of Environment & Safety

Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA

The Case at a Glance

Task

Development and establishment of a central data platform for the central collection and management of all relevant sustainability and energy data from over 500 locations worldwide.
Continuous adaptation to changing legal requirements to ensure sustainability reporting in accordance with the ESRS.
Setup of user accounts with corresponding access rights for 800 users in different languages.

Technology

SaaS
Microsoft Azure
MySQL
Apache Cassandra

Result

Through the implementation of green.screen Bertelsmann now has insight into the energy and resource consumption of all locations and organizational units
Bertelsmann's ESG reporting is much more efficient
The data collected helps Bertelsmann to implement targeted measures to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Since 2018, the Group has already cut emissions by 29 percent.
green.screen has proven to be a flexible and adaptable system that is continuously evolving will be used.

The Customer Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann is a media, services and education company with more than 80,000 employees and operations in around 50 countries around the world. The Group includes the entertainment company RTL Group, the book publishing group Penguin Random House, the music company BMG, the service provider Arvato Group, Bertelsmann Marketing Services, the Bertelsmann Education Group and the international fund network Bertelsmann Investments. Bertelsmann stands for creativity and entrepreneurship. This combination enables first-class media offerings and innovative service solutions that inspire customers around the world.

To the Bertelsmann website