Hellmann Worldwide Logistics is a global, family-owned logistics provider based in Osnabrück, Germany. Its portfolio covers air, sea, road and rail transport, as well as contract logistics. Sustainability plays a key role in the company’s culture and is firmly embedded in its long-term strategy.

Operating in a dynamic global regulatory environment, Hellmann must comply with a range of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting obligations, especially under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The CSRD significantly expands the scope of relevant ESG topics and KPIs while introducing an integrated approach to financial and non-financial reporting across Europe.

To respond to these regulatory requirements and structure its sustainability transformation roadmap, Hellmann searched for a trusted partner with profound regulatory, reporting, and industry expertise as well as a tailored approach that fits its mission. This would involve identifying necessary steps to achieve CSRD-compliant reporting, clarifying the required data provision, and implementing the initial set of mandatory datapoints – all while taking Hellmann’s strategic sustainability ambition into consideration.

Building on a trusted partnership from several prior projects, Capgemini Invent applied its regulatory expertise to support Hellmann in shaping its sustainability organization and preparing responsibilities from a CSRD perspective.

Defining the path towards reporting readiness

At the start of its journey, Hellmann needed to understand the scope of regulatory requirements and its current maturity in terms of CSRD reporting readiness. In response, Capgemini Invent collaborated with key stakeholders representing various products and functions to conduct a gap assessment that identified qualitative and quantitative data gaps in the company’s existing ESG steering and reporting. Afterwards, the project team prioritized open gaps and developed a comprehensive transformation roadmap.

To prepare the company for the creation of its first CSRD report, Capgemini Invent and Hellmann developed the target structure for its CSRD-aligned sustainability report based on industry best practices.

Enabling effective sustainability guidance

Enabling effective guidance in this area required the team to ensure that all reporting activities were not only aligned with but actively supporting the organization’s sustainability ambition. To achieve this, Hellmann implemented a cross-departmental platform that coordinates sustainability challenges agilely across all business divisions, otherwise known as the ESG Accelerator.

Capgemini Invent worked closely with Hellmann’s newly appointed Heads of Sustainability to ensure that the company’s internal sustainability initiatives were also integrated. For this reason, the project team analyzed the synergies and overlaps between these internal initiatives and external requirements, such as between science-based targets (SBTs) and ESRS requirements.

Capgemini Invent also supported adjustments to the existing steering process at Hellmann to actively manage sustainability impacts, risks, and opportunities. Moreover, because the CSRD requires companies to reflect regulatory requirements in existing management processes, Capgemini Invent analyzed the existing steering and risk management process and identified potential opportunities to integrate regulatory requirements.

In a major step towards achieving reporting readiness, the team implemented 84 quantitative data points related to Environment, Social, and Governance sustainability in Hellmann’s current reporting landscape.

To prepare the company for the next step of its CSRD reporting journey, Hellmann took the lead in establishing audit-ready processes, with Capgemini Invent providing valuable expertise and alignment with regulatory updates.

A strong foundation for the future

Through this joint project, Hellmann laid the foundation for its first CSRD-compliant sustainability report and set up an integrated steering process to manage its sustainability initiatives. This report will not only ensure compliance with mandatory reporting requirements, but most importantly provide a steering instrument that enhances visibility and drives progress across Hellmann’s sustainability initiatives.

The project had an impact on the strategic prioritization and operationalization of the company’s sustainability activities and has further increased their importance within the organization. It has also helped Hellmann quantify existing sustainability initiatives, thereby improving Hellmann’s potential to steer sustainability goals and progress. As a result, the company now operates with improved transparency into its sustainability performance, enabling optimized decision-making and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Hellmann is ready to continue its sustainability journey by building on the success of this project, which has left the company well equipped to create its first CSRD report.

“What we achieved with the ESG implementation project would not have been possible without the tremendous effort of the team and the outstanding support from Capgemini. The collaboration was crucial in not only meeting but exceeding our goals.”

Sven Jansen, Global Head of Finance at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics