An interview with Karin Fuhrmann, tax consultant and member of the management team at TPA
TPA - Our new Main Partner
We are delighted to be moving into a climate-friendly future with TPA as our new Main Partner and to bring climate action into the DNA of all companies! In this short interview, Karin Fuhrmann tells us why TPA is working with Glacier, what role climate action plays in her company and what further steps are planned.
What role does climate action play at TPA?
We only need to take a look at the current news to see that ecological and social sustainability are highly explosive and pressing issues. Climate action has long been a major concern for us and we actively implement various measures to this end. For example, one of the reasons that ICON Vienna was chosen as our largest office location was to meet the building's high construction-economic and ecological standards. Among other things, geothermal energy and groundwater are used to increase energy efficiency and promote resource conservation in the building. In addition, this has made it much easier for employees and customers to travel to the building by public transport.
We have also observed among our customers that sustainability has long since moved from its former niche into the mainstream. This means that it is explicitly demanded on the market - across all levels, be it real estate, investments or other purchases and projects.
We are convinced - and we also see this in our day-to-day work - that economic growth and climate protection are mutually beneficial and that many new ideas and projects will emerge with this new impetus.
What climate action measures are already being implemented at TPA?
Since we are a classic service company and our core business is consulting - we focus on our energy consumption and the efficient use of raw materials.
We subjected all of our fourteen Austrian TPA locations to an external energy audit in 2020. The audit focused on compliance with the Energy Efficiency Act in accordance with EN 16274. Of the more than 16,300m² of office space across Austria, 53% is already managed according to building ecology criteria or sustainably.
In order to meet our responsibility for climate action, we decided to implement carbon management at TPA in 2020 and thus make our contribution to reducing greenhouse gases. Our goal is to ensure climate-neutral operations by 2030.
Why did TPA decide to enter into a Main Partnership with Glacier?
We are deeply convinced of the work that Glacier does and want to support the company in the best possible way. As part of the Glacier Climate Academy, we would like to share our expertise in sustainability reporting and motivate as many companies as possible and make them "fit" for their own sustainability report. In any case, we are already very much looking forward to a good and inspiring collaboration!
What is planned for the future?
In our sustainability report, we have defined concrete goals that we will implement by a set deadline by means of specific measures. A few examples of our goals are to organize at least 50% of TPA's events as green events, to monitor waste volumes and to introduce an energy management system in accordance with ISO 50001.
And as already mentioned, our long-term goal is to actually be completely climate neutral by 2030 at the latest.