“We used the time and had the Axica common good economy assessed,” reports Cathrin Mühlbauer, Director of Key Account Management at the Axica congress and conference center at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The Common Good Economy (GWÖ) refers to an economic system that is built on values ​​that promote the common good. The well-being of people and the environment becomes the primary goal of business and a lever for changes on an economic, political and social level.

“For me, orientation towards the common good is the most important foundation of the future and therefore of any future increase in productivity.”

HELMUT LIND, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, SPARDA-BANK MÜNCHEN EG AND AMBASSADOR FOR THE COMMON GENERAL ECONOMY.

The central pillars of the common good economy are the values ​​of human dignity, solidarity, ecological sustainability, social justice as well as participation and transparency. These values ​​are important to Mühlbauer. For them, the instrument of the common good balance sheet is a comprehensible option for putting values ​​into figures. “The goal is an accurate and consistent assessment of where we are as a company on the path to the common good,” explains Mühlbauer and adds: “The basis is a matrix to classify and measure the company in terms of ethical values ​​and efforts.”

The economy for the common good briefly explained

The Common Good Economy (GWÖ) is an alternative economic model that is based on values ​​such as sustainability, cooperation and justice rather than on profit maximization and competition. It's about transforming the economy into an ethical market economy that puts the common good at the center of economic decisions.

Not only companies, but also municipalities and educational institutions can balance their accounts according to the common good economy. This requires three steps: create a common good report, have the result audited externally and publish the common good balance sheet. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) recommends the model of the common good economy for the establishment of an ethical economic system in Europe. Companies and organizations go through the process of GWÖ accounting in the so-called peer groups. In the Axica case, these are be4energy GmbH, Jacobin Magazine and the Steglitz district center. Mühlbauer experiences the meetings with her peer group and the two GWÖ auditors as “interesting and instructive”. They show her how different organizations and companies approach the topic.

Mühlbauer describes the process as an “unvarnished look in the mirror”. This view extends beyond their rooms in the award-winning location designed by architect Frank O. Gehry for 600 people with a lounge, foyer, auditorium, sky lobby and digital studio. She asks herself questions like: What are you doing? How are you contributing to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals? Why does humanity need you?

Right at the beginning, the team had a painful experience, remembers Mühlbauer. “It was about the meaning and social impact of our products and services. We honestly realized that our product is mainly dispensable luxury and not really socially relevant in the first place." The question for them is therefore: "What can we do so that we are not just dispensable luxury?" This was already the case before the balance sheet Axica team with the 17 United Nations Sustainability Goals and recorded its contribution per goal, such as Goal 5 Gender equality: women occupy 60 percent of management positions in Axica; or Goal 12 Responsible consumption and production patterns: At the end of the month there is a charity lunch to avoid leftover food. 50 percent of the proceeds are donated to the vegetable field demie.

Economy for the common good – economic model of the future?

Recording of the ideas breakfast “Common Good and the Way Thereafter” in the Axica on November 2nd, 2021. In a talk with Madlen Sanchino Martinez and Dr. Arndt Pechstein presents the common good economy as an ethical economic model and shows how a transformation can succeed: from thinking in numbers to thinking in values.

The central pillars of the common good economy, i.e. human dignity, solidarity, ecological sustainability, social justice as well as co-determination and transparency, are compared to the stakeholders in a matrix: suppliers, customers, employees, society and the owner or financier as in the Axica the DZ Bank. These values ​​must be quantified in order to create a balance sheet for the common good. For assessment purposes, there are interpretation aids and introductory questions for each matrix field in addition to the reporting questions and mandatory indicators. Companies enter their data, facts and answers into the report template and rate themselves on a scale of zero to ten, from “baseline” to “exemplary”. The results and evaluations are presented in the peer group meetings. The companies then evaluate each other and agree on a rating.

“The goal is an accurate and consistent assessment of where the company is on the path to the common good,” reports Mühlbauer. The Axica scores the most points in the “Ecological Sustainability” score. The certification at Sustainable Meeting Berlin contributes to this and with it measures such as the sustainability working group. In “Ethical Customer Relations”, Axica achieved six out of ten points and “experienced” status. This means: “In addition to ethical guidelines in sales, all contact points with customers are regularly reviewed and improved with regard to meeting customer needs and designing on an equal footing. Accessibility is widely implemented in the company.” When it comes to contributing to the community, Axica only gets two out of ten points and thus achieves “First Steps” status: “The company is aware of its contributions to the community and discloses them. Minor, selective voluntary services are provided without any review of their effectiveness.”

“In the best case scenario, humanity needs us as a meeting place in a place that is shaped by history and culture and from which the future emanates.”

Cathrin Mühlbauer, Axica

“We see the greatest need for development in the values ​​of solidarity and justice as well as transparency and co-decision,” sums up Mühlbauer. “The most important thing is that we offer our house to non-profit organizations under different conditions, so we offer these organizations more 'closeness' to politics and for us there is 'more value' in the house in terms of content - a win-win situation!” For For Mühlbauer, it would be “fantastic” to know that every second event in its location has meaning and value-oriented content, but has low economic facilities. Axica offers special conditions to non-profit organizations for this purpose.

The process lasts from November 2020 to June 2021 and the creation of the 80-page report takes around 200 hours (here is the short version). “This report should be written in such a way that everyone can understand it, because everyone should read it,” emphasizes Mühlbauer. The common good balance sheet is controlled in a similar way to the financial balance sheet. However, it is not auditors who are used, but public interest auditors who check the balance sheet prepared by the company and create a public interest certificate that is valid for two years. Axica received this certificate in September. Cathrin Mühlbauer is very happy, but she knows: “If life had continued normally, I would not have been able to dedicate myself to this topic so much.”

The Common Good Atlas

André Kaldenhoff congratulates Axica on its public good certificate. The Executive Director of Congress Centers Leipzig (CCL) also came across the topic of the economy for the common good during the pandemic. Finally, at the Leipzig Business School (HHL) Prof. Dr. Timo Meinhardt deals intensively with the topic. His team of Dr. Arend Oetker's Chair of Business Psychology has, under the leadership of his university, in cooperation with the Center for Leadership and Values ​​in Society at the University of St. Gallen, the Common Good Atlas for Germany published and in 2020 for the city of Leipzig.

HHL Expert Talk: The Leipzig leadership model -– New questions in the crisis

In his expert talk, Prof. Dr. Timo Meinhardt answers the question of whether the Leipzig leadership model will remain in place in times of crisis and how the definition of the common good must change in the wake of Covid-19.

Im Common Good Atlas Leipzig shows what contribution the leading private and state organizations make to the well-being of everyone in the city. To this end, the Leipzig Commercial College surveyed the Leipzig population in a representative study. Leipzig is the first German city for which a public welfare atlas was created. In places one to ten are: the Leipzig Fire Department, the Leipzig Zoo, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Leipzig City Cleaning Service, the Leipzig University Hospital, the University of Leipzig, the Volkssolidarität Leipzig association, the St. Georg Hospital, the handball club SC DHfK Leipzig and the Leipzig people Fair. What “totally surprised” Kaldenhoff is the role the Leipzig population gives to his company, the Leipzig Trade Fair, and how positive their view of their work is. “In tenth place, the Leipzig Trade Fair is ahead of the police, the Leipzig scientific institutions, the transport companies or the city administration and far ahead of Porsche and BMW,” he notes.

Anyone who seriously deals with the topic of sustainability inevitably comes across the economy for the common good, says Kaldenhoff. In his opinion, sustainability is still too often reduced to ecological approaches and often devolves into activism. “Basically, we need to have a discussion about values,” he says. For him, this has a lot to do with change and change and perhaps also with East German biography. Kaldenhoff: “With a little observation and a critical eye on social developments, we have to ask ourselves the question of the direction of our living and working world.”

An accounting based on the economy for the common good is not a top priority for the head of the Congress Center Leipzig. First it must be analyzed why the population has assigned this role to his company. For him, this also entails a responsibility that must be lived up to. “Obviously we did a lot right. “But the question of why and how is still up in the air,” says Kaldenhoff. For him, the ranking in the Public Good Atlas is similar to the audience award at an awards gala. “It's not about how we see ourselves, but what value we have for others through our work.”

When it comes to the common good economy in the event industry, the director of the Congress Center Leipzig sees two directions: “Are we doing things because of the certificate or because we want to change something, do something better?” He gives an example: “If a human doctor If you say after a world congress that patient care is probably better after the congress than before, then this is more relevant than if the Congress Center Leipzig improved from position 99 to position 83 in the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranking .” Kaldenhoff does not believe GWÖ certification is necessary. “I am of the opinion that this economic and social approach cannot be sealed with a title. We should first take a step back and not only focus on ourselves, but also put ourselves even more in the mindset of our customers and partners.”

The pioneer

For Michael Stober this is not a contradiction. Stober runs the business at Landgut Stober on Groß Behnitzer See in Havelland, 30 minutes from Berlin. In 2000, he acquired the former Borsig family estate from the 19th century and revitalized it as an organic hotel with 30 salons for conferences and events. The spirit of the Borsigs guides him. “August Borsig was one of the first major industrialists to set the course for today’s welfare state by building a social infrastructure for his workers,” says Stober. In 2012, the estate was named Germany's most sustainable conference hotel, and in 2017 and 2021 it was named Europe's greenest hotel. To Stober's knowledge, his country estate is the first German conference hotel to submit a Common welfare report from. That was in 2018. For him, joining the common good economy is a logical step in the pursuit of sustainability and transparency.

At that time, the team examined its supply chains and production processes and made them transparent. “We checked our suppliers ourselves, looked at the companies and the people behind them, and found that it’s really fun to work with producers and suppliers who love their products, animals or food as much as we do,” says he. In this process the question arises: What happens to our profits? What are we doing for the region, for our fellow human beings and for the nature that surrounds us? The Stober estate begins to publish its profits.

“I have a vision: If all entrepreneurs and companies gave just 10 percent of their profits after taxes to charitable purposes, then we would have a completely changed society.”

Michael Stober, Managing Director of Landgut Stober

Re-certification is currently underway, as an evaluation takes place every three years at the latest. Stober is excited to see where his company stands now in terms of the public good. His country estate is family-run. Structures or behaviors with inhumane working conditions are not supported. Since most products come from regional or certified suppliers, compliance with human dignity in the supply chain is assured. The herb and vegetable garden and training courses on sustainability management promote the ecological behavior of the workforce. The photovoltaic system produces more electricity than the hotel uses. Heating is done with two wood chip heating systems; Half of the biomass needed for heating over the winter grows in our own 12.5 hectare forest, and the rainwater is collected in cisterns. All 400 toilet facilities run on a secondary water system. Organic bed linen, organic cosmetics and organic terry cloth are used in the rooms. “The carpet that we laid in the hotel hallway can be taken to the sheep pen to feed after seven years, when it has expired, because it consists of almost 100 percent corn,” says Stober. The CO2 balances are published like certifications or reports from third parties, for example Bioland, Visit Berlin, ÖkoP certification body or Co2OL.

Employees who come from the town come on foot or by bike, others sometimes carpool. Michael Stober and Tanja Getto-Stober are foregoing their salaries in management. Stober takes care of the strategic business, his wife takes care of the operational one. Department heads support them. On Wednesdays, the overarching topics are discussed and decisions are made together. “The certification showed us some deficits in the company,” says Stober, “but also deficits in the matrix of the common good economy.” A central point is currently being worked on there, namely employee participation. If a large investment were to be made in a company like the estate, the majority of the workforce would be unlikely to take any financial risk, even though the measure would be absolutely necessary in the long term.

Michael Stober on the economy for the common good or: What do I do for my region?

The most important thing about the common good economy is that as a company you see yourself as part of your district, your city, your municipality, your region or Germany and ask yourself: What am I doing for this region? Or am I just making my money there – and I don’t care about the rest? It won't work like that in the future! More and more people are fed up with others lining their pockets at their expense. And this movement can no longer be stopped. Consequently, it is better to decide which side you want to be on as a company. We have decided to see ourselves as part of our region and to give something back to the region and its people. We donate 20 percent of our profits to charitable, social or humanitarian causes; from children's hospices to bush hospitals. Our employees can now make suggestions as to where we should donate.

We are currently implementing an instrument so that our guests can also make suggestions. This gives them the feeling of being part of the estate community. 20 percent of our profits go to the workforce in the form of higher wages or benefits. Since September 1, 2021 we have had a minimum wage of 12 euros. 40 percent of our profits are reinvested and remain in the company. Stober explains that the common good economy is still relatively unknown in the event industry by saying that many people still see sustainability as an annoying handicap - despite the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the European Green Deal. “Anyone who has not recognized the signs of the times will not survive,” he is certain. Today, over 50 percent of his customers already come because of sustainability; and for him, sustainability and transparency are followed by the economy for the common good. That still takes time for many people. But Michael Stober knows that. When the Stober estate became climate neutral in 2013, he was laughed at. The estate has been climate positive since 2018, and now there are a lot of people on the move.

Kerstin Wünsch