Sustainability Workshop – Innovation with Responsibility
Sustainability as an obligation is a cost. Sustainability as a strategy is a competitive advantage. Most companies are still operating in the first category. Sustainability workshops with the verrocchio Institute help you move into the second, drawing on our standard reference work “Das große Handbuch Nachhaltigkeit.”
What Is a Sustainability Workshop?
The regulatory and societal pressure toward sustainability is growing faster than most strategies can keep up with. CSRD, supply chain due diligence obligations, shifting customer preferences, investor requirements — the list keeps getting longer. But treating sustainability as a pure compliance exercise gives away a massive strategic opportunity. The companies that understand sustainability as an engine of innovation are developing today the business models that will win tomorrow.
A sustainability workshop helps make this shift: from a compliance perspective to an innovation perspective. Together we work out which topics are truly strategically relevant for your company, how to translate them into concrete initiatives, and which innovation fields emerge from them. The result isn’t an ESG report that ticks boxes, but an action plan with genuine entrepreneurial substance.
Our advantage: we are innovation experts, not compliance specialists. We connect sustainability requirements with innovation methods and help your team turn ecological and social challenges into real innovation opportunities. Obligation becomes possibility. The joy of implementation instead of burden.
Who is it for?
A sustainability workshop is the right format for companies that want to think beyond mere compliance. Particularly relevant for sustainability teams that need internal support and fresh perspectives, for leadership teams that want to develop a clear sustainability strategy, and for innovation teams that want to open up sustainability as an innovation field.
Typical occasions: developing a sustainability strategy, preparing for CSRD reporting obligations, circular economy initiatives, supply chain development, ESG-driven product innovation. The format is suited to companies of all sizes and industries, from mid-sized businesses to large corporations.
Our Workshop Formats
No company is like any other, so we don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all format. We always adapt length, depth, and methodology to your specific situation.
Half-Day Workshop (4 hours)
The compact kickoff for teams of up to 15 people. Focused on one concrete topic, with immediately usable results. Ideal as an entry point or as a complement to an existing event.
Full-Day Workshop (8 hours)
Our most-booked format. Enough time for a complete run-through: analysis, creative phase, evaluation, prioritization, next steps. For teams of up to 25 people.
Two-Day Sustainability Sprint
The complete sustainability innovation cycle: analyzing the starting situation and determining materiality, identifying sustainability potential within the business model and along the value chain, innovation ideation for sustainable products and processes, prioritization and implementation planning.
In-house, hybrid, or online
We run all formats at your premises, at an external location of your choice, or fully remote. The quality of facilitation and results stays the same either way.
Our Methods
Methods from our Handbuch Nachhaltigkeit form the core of the workshops: SDG Compass, SDG Focus Finder, and Planetary Personas. They help unlock sustainability as an innovation field rather than treating it as a compliance obligation, delivering genuine entrepreneurial value rather than reports that gather dust on a shelf. More than 1,000 additional methods on our innovation.wiki, from which we combine selectively depending on materiality.
Our Credentials
- 2,000+ international innovation projects
- 25,000+ people accompanied
- 1,000+ proven methods on innovation.wiki
- 15 books
- Experience in 32 countries
- Co-founders: Christian Buchholz & Benno van Aerssen
Why verrocchio?
he verrocchio Institute for Innovation Competence was founded by Christian Buchholz and Benno van Aerssen, two of the most experienced innovation coaches in the German-speaking world. Together they have accompanied more than 2,000 international innovation projects, inspired more than 25,000 people, and written six books, including the standard reference “Das große Handbuch Innovation.” Today the team is complemented by experienced innovation facilitator Christina Westing and a network of verrocchio experts.
What sets us apart from other providers isn’t the methodology alone, it’s the attitude. We work in the engine room of companies, where things get practical and where the new actually emerges. We don’t deliver presentations that end up on a shelf afterward. We work with you until the ideas are running.
Our name says it all: Andrea del Verrocchio was the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci, a master who didn’t put himself at the center but brought out the best in his students. That’s exactly our role in your sustainability workshop.
Sustainability Workshops throughout Germany
We come to you—throughout Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. We offer all our workshop formats in-person, online, and in a hybrid format. Our priority cities, each with its own page:
→ Sustainability Workshop Berlin → Sustainability Workshop Hamburg → Sustainability Workshop Munich → Sustainability Workshop Cologne → Sustainability Workshop Frankfurt → Sustainability Workshop Stuttgart → Sustainability Workshop Düsseldorf
Related Formats
In addition to the sustainability workshop, we offer other specialized formats:
→ Innovation Workshop — when sustainability is to be one aspect of a broader innovation initiative → Strategy Workshop — when sustainability is to be integrated into the company’s overall strategy → Business Model Workshop — when sustainability is to fundamentally transform the business model → Future Workshop — when sustainability is to be considered in the context of megatrends and future scenarios → Design Thinking Workshop — when sustainable products or services are to be developed in a user-centered way
Get in Touch Now
Talk to us about your project, free of charge and with no obligation. In a 30-minute initial conversation, we’ll clarify where you currently stand, which format fits your situation, what a realistic scope looks like, and how we can move forward together.
Christina Westing will answer your inquiry personally and quickly.
