Process for Climate Strategy Development in Industrial Companies

Abstract

Climate neutrality has been gaining more and more attention as a long-term goal for companies among different industries. Since this goal can hardly be achieved in the short term and requires a complex interaction of different measures, it calls for a strategic approach. This article presents a strategy process for manufacturing companies striving for climate neutrality. The strategy process consists of three macro phases: preparation phase, strategy development phase and operational implementation phase, which are iteratively carried out. The macro phases are each divided into different meso phases, which include guiding questions that must be answered by different internal stakeholders and process participants. Moreover, necessary results are described which must be available after each phase to enter the next one. The procedure is based on existing models for the description of strategy processes and approaches from the field of energy and environmental management. It combines them into a strategic approach for deriving climate strategies of industrial companies. The developed strategy process is applied to and evaluated at the ETA factory at the Technical University of Darmstadt.