First sustainability report for SME Desmedt Labels

As an SME, label manufacturer Desmedt aims to be as sustainable as possible. The company has shared its impact(s), ambitions and sustainability strategy in the form of a transparent report.

Our client

Desmedt Labels

Our challenge

Co-shaping the client’s first integrated sustainability strategy and sharing it with internal and external stakeholders

Our solution

A fair and transparent sustainability report giving stakeholders insight into Desmedt’s impacts and ambitions

Ambitious SME

For four generations, family company Desmedt has been working on ‘next generation labels’. Like many other companies, the label producer has been faced by multiple new challenges in recent years: scarcity of raw materials, rising energy prices, the need to emit less CO2, to name but a few. Sustainable entrepreneurship is crucial to tackling all these issues. That is why Desmedt, with the help of Pantarein, developed its very first overarching sustainability strategy in 2022. The ambitious SME partnered with Pantarein to share its Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) approach with stakeholders.

Approach

Setting priorities

To shape its new sustainability strategy, Desmedt first had to identify the topics that were material to the company. This materiality analysis was undertaken in cooperation with internal and external stakeholders. Pantarein organised a number of interviews, as well as a workshop with the management, in order to identify and define all relevant topics. Through a survey for employees, customers, suppliers and financial partners, we checked which topics are important to the various stakeholders.

Interviews with the management also offered us more insight into Desmedt’s sustainability initiatives and actions. We supplemented qualitative input with quantitative data on the chosen topics. Combining all this information, we were able to draw up an integrated sustainability strategy. This strategy maps Desmedt’s ESG approach and is in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Objective monitoring

The new sustainability strategy puts Desmedt Labels’ ambitions into words. The strategy builds on three main goals: Protect our planet’s natural resources, Create a motivating working environment for our people, and Contribute to a prosperous future. Each main goal is further divided into three underlying commitments. Linked to each of these commitments are quantitative targets and milestones, which are monitored through KPIs. In this way, Desmedt can map its ambitions and achievements clearly and objectively. The three goals and their targets form the framework for Desmedt’s first sustainability report.

It was inspiring to work with the Desmedt team because it was clear that they are intrinsically motivated to move towards sustainability. They fully go ‘beyond compliance’ and exemplify the notion that even an SME can meticulously deliver a sustainable strategy.

Iris Penninckx
senior sustainability consultant at Pantarein

Our contribution

Honest storytelling

Through workshops, interviews, data collection and visualisation, editing and lay-out, Pantarein took on the entire supervision of the materiality analysis and the realisation of the sustainability report. To distribute the report as widely as possible, it was created in English. Case studies and infographics ensure that the publication appeals to readers, and that stakeholders recognise themselves in it. In the coming years, the chosen strategy will continue to be the foundation of honest and consistent reporting on sustainability and ESG at Desmedt.