John van Hoof, chairman of CSU's Board of Directors, explains why it is so important for an organisation to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner. CSU is a national cleaning organisation; we are active throughout the country. At a lot of locations. With many employees and we are a family business, already for 52 years. That means that you go from generation to generation and, as a family business, we are very keen to prepare for the next generation. And that means you have to do business in a very responsible and sustainable way.

IT IS A PEOPLE BUSINESS AND WHAT FOCUS DO YOU HAVE ON THE PEOPLE?

On the one hand, of course, you look at materials and resources, the things you use, the CO2 you emit, that sort of thing. The other side, which is very important to us, is of course the people side. It is peoples business and what focus do you have on people? If I go to the first thing, materials and means, then sustainability has also become a bit of a circularity. And you can see that we have taken some nice initiatives there. I would like to mention the corporate clothing. It is now completely circular. I am extremely proud of the fact that we have made this step.

WITH A CONSIDERABLE SIZE, YOU WANT TO LOOK EXTRA CLOSELY AT WHAT YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE.

But that also applies to our materials and resources that we use. That goes for your CO2 emissions, of course. Of course, you look at your vehicle fleet and the energy requirements of your office. As a company of considerable size, you want to take an extra close look at these things in order to make a contribution.

How high do you want to set the bar there? This is also a current topic of discussion within our Board, to see what more we can all do. And we have been working on the human side for a long time.

FROM A TASTER INTERNSHIP TO A REGIONAL MANAGER.

Of course, we are not only dealing with a lot of people, we are also dealing with the basis of the labour market. This also includes people with a distance to the labour market. And it is nice to see that in our companies, for example, we have about eight percent of people who are a little more or a little less distant from the labour market. And then we give those people a chance, to get them to work. And that can start with a trial period or a nice job, but also with the perspective of, for example, developing into a property manager or a district manager. Yes, and one of the questions you can ask yourself is, how can you give sustainability a new and beautiful impulse in your own company?

SUSTAINABILITY IS NUMBER ONE FOR OUR CUSTOMERS.

Well, I would say: bring the outside in; for example, in the autumn we will once again be presenting the CSU innovation award. And then we actually invite everyone to come up with nice innovative and interesting ideas, in which of course the aspect of sustainability becomes increasingly important. We also noticed this in our recent benchmark report among our clients, in order to find out which themes are important to you. In other words, among our customers. Yes, perhaps not very surprisingly, but sustainability is now really at number one in rankings. So that strengthens our minds to also look at each other in the chain, both with customers, but also with your employees and certainly also with your suppliers. How can you make the connection? Well, let's not forget to tackle digitalisation at this time. That also offers great opportunities and of course all kinds of other innovative things.

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