Corporate Responsibility (4): How Stefan Neiske Takes Action

In our Group’s just-published Corporate Responsibility Report 2010/2011, five Bertelsmen and –women talk about how exactly they put Bertelsmann’s corporate culture into practice in their workaday life, and why and how they do so at their company – and often beyond it. We will gradually introduce these colleagues, whose portraits incidentally grace the five different covers the report was published with.

After RTL TVI presenter Sandrine Corman and Ceneta Lee Williams of Random House New York, this time Stefan Neiske, Emissions Control Officer at Mohn Media in Gütersloh, talks about his experiences with protecting the environment.

“Environmental protection usually conjures up images of green: backlit forests or the green-arrow logos used by recycling organizations. Me, I tend to think of tables, figures and diagrams. The technical aspects of protecting the environment have fascinated me from an early age. It may sound trite, but I want my work to help preserve the planet for future generations. The fact that Mohn Media was named ‘Environmental Company of 2008’ was one of the reasons I applied to work here after graduating in 2010. We print about 30 million phone books, one billion mailshots, 30 million color directories and more than 600 million magazines and catalogs a year here, among other things. And each year, these numbers go up. Yet, consumption of the carbon-containing solvent isopropyl alcohol has been reduced by about 75 percent per printed sheet in the last ten years. This is proof of our successful environmental commitment.

So my motivation is not to simply ensure that the 25 offset-rotogravure printing presses I am responsible for at Mohn Media comply with permit conditions and statutory requirements. I want to do better. Regular measurements of emissions and inspections of the facilities that go far beyond the required minimum are part of how I define environmental protection in action. I’m obviously on the right track because after a year, I was asked to take over further roles in the environmental sector. So now I’m in charge of organizing waste disposal with a co-worker. I am also in training to become a health and safety expert and will be working in this area on completion of the course. The only drawback at the moment is that this leaves me no time to get involved in my hobby – the local soccer club. But hopefully, in return, everyone who works here can go home safe.”

In the next installment, we introduce Heribert Sangs, Head of Corporate Education at Bertelsmann’s Corporate Center in Gütersloh.