Forum ö 2025: Focus on data-driven sustainability
«Data + Stories = Impact» was the theme of this year's Forum ö, which took place in Zurich on October 30, 2025. Specifically, it dealt with the question of how corporate sustainability can be made measurable and tangible.
For many companies, sustainability is not currently at the top of the priority list: Geopolitical crises and economic uncertainties (US tariffs, stagnating markets in the EU) are currently dominating the agenda more than ecological aspects. This was also evident at this year's Forum ö, organized by öbu, the Association for Sustainable Business. Nevertheless, around 180 participants once again gathered on October 30, 2025 to discuss corporate sustainability. Keynote speeches and workshops this time focused on «data for the brain and stories for the heart», as the conference program promised.
Spaceship Earth on a wrong turn
Facts and data are needed to determine whether and how something is «sustainable». In his keynote speech, Dr. Alexis Katechakis from the consulting firm Hilda was able to provide the audience with these. The biologist, oceanographer and economist, who holds a doctorate, showed how we are traveling with our «spaceship Earth». And he presented some sobering figures: Seven out of nine planetary boundaries, for example, have been exceeded. This means that we have left the «safe harbor» in these areas, such as the climate. A further increase in the average temperature by 1 °C over the next 35 years «will be life-threatening for us humans», he warned. It is therefore important to overcome social polarization, global fragmentation and economic disincentives and to implement an economic transformation based on sustainable business models.
The practice: Making an impact with data
How this could be implemented in business practice was discussed in the subsequent breakout sessions and workshops. For example, SQS presented a pragmatic model for SMEs to record and improve sustainability performance based on ISO management systems. Opportunities and strategies for nature-positive and resilient business were highlighted in another workshop, specifically in the context of the objectives of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TFND). This provides guidelines for identifying, assessing, managing and disclosing nature-related risks and opportunities. Other topics covered in the breakout sessions included data and risk management, communication and working with stakeholders. The key finding: corporate sustainability is largely data-driven. Correctly collected and interpreted data is key to creating transparency and deriving credible measures.
Stories behind data
Markus Daniel, Managing Director of Menu and More AG, offered a «story for the heart» in his closing keynote. His company offers balanced meals for children in daycare centers and schools. He also presented a few figures: 48% of menu orders are vegetarian, his company employs 82 people from 28 nations and 48% of the shopping basket carries a sustainability label. A total of 203 key figures are recorded, which are reflected in Menu and More's annual sustainability report. «Collecting data is important, but always with common sense,» says Markus Daniel. Only when figures, data and facts can be combined with heart and mind will the world remain a better place. «Data generates impact when it tells stories. Stories make us human.» This vote aptly summarized the aim of the conference.
More information: www.oebu.ch
