About Sustify | Our story, mission and team

Our story

Sustify was inspired by a simple idea: that our global supply chain would be more sustainable and resilient if every single worker understood their rights and responsibilities.

Years ago, when I was working in training in global supply chains, I witnessed a huge gap between the facades that businesses present to the world and the reality behind the scenes. I saw companies cut corners to get A-ratings in audits: they handpicked workers and instructed them to give the "right" answers when questioned by auditors. They trained 20 people in a factory of thousands and called it "workforce training." But the workforce isn't 1%.

These shortcuts make the global supply chain less safe. That's true for workers, who deserve to understand their rights and how to stay healthy in the workplace. But it's also true for companies: workplace hazards and human rights violations put their business at risk.

I wondered: how could we train everyone - every single worker?

In 2018, I founded Sustify. We focused on developing low-threshold digital training that would be accessible to workers in a range of countries and industries. We started with a small course on fire safety for textile workers; now we offer 3 courses in 20+ languages across 4 industries.

Sustify is a social enterprise. We're a business, but we serve the common good. We embed our values: honesty, appreciation, and trust into our products and our practices. We've stayed independent, with no outside investors, so we never have to compromise.

One worker at a time, we'll keep working toward our goal: the global strengthening and safeguarding of dignified work.

We are independent

With our work, we strive to play a part in overcoming social challenges, in other words, to create a positive impact. We apply our bold, creative and entrepreneurial mindset to developing and spreading innovative ways of solving societal problems. Our mission is to identify new pathways toward collective wellbeing: not just to alleviate symptoms, but to address the root causes of social harms. To this end, all our activities are geared towards adding social value.

Our Values: Inside and Out
As a social enterprise, we examine what goes on inside our organization just as closely as the world outside. We care about dealing with suppliers respectfully, encouraging employees to reflect on and reduce their own CO2 emissions, and making a considered choice about who we bank with. Through steering and controlling mechanisms, we ensure that we put our social values into practice, both externally and internally.

Profits for purpose
Unlike conventional start-ups, we reinvest our profits to achieve these social goals. Our organizational and ownership structure reflects this goal, being based on principles of co-determination and employee participation and geared towards social justice. In contrast to many European countries, Germany has yet to formulate a definition of social entrepreneurship at the state level. That's why we decided to seek certification with SEWF and make our data transparent.

Purchasing with Impact
Social procurement, i.e. purchasing from social enterprises like Sustify, represents a fundamental change in approach. It allows conventional companies to integrate corporate responsibility (CR) and ESG criteria into their own processes, thus making their core business more sustainable throughout.

Honesty Appreciation Trust Sustainability Reliability

Let's talk about how Sustify can help you meet social standards and prevent risks in your supply chain.