Now a wheelchair or other tangible products are something where concrete consideration can be given to which materials can be reused or replaced. Are companies with non-tangible products, such as software or services, therefore exempt from sustainability considerations, or do they want to be? In any case, long-time REHACARE exhibitor opta data, which offers a billing service, is no exception. The German family-owned company is active in various projects to become more sustainable. Emily Benecke, Corporate Communications Manager at opta data: "First and foremost, we live the topic of sustainability on a holistic level in the sense of a family business. That means we look at the social and ecological aspects in particular. Thus, as a family business, we support numerous institutions, associations or organizations every year in the form of donations and sponsoring. Likewise, the well-being of our team is very important to us. We respect and protect the physical and mental health of our colleagues by working intensively with various health management players so that we can guarantee this and offer our employees numerous campaigns, courses, examinations to promote health. Furthermore, as part of our ecological strategy, we have launched a project with the help of our partner Green Solutions, with which we actively compensate for emissions. This is a tree planting project in which more than 2,200 deciduous trees were planted in a forest area in Essen, Germany in March 2022. Converted, opta data's planting campaign will compensate for an average of around 20 tons of CO2 per year".
The company's efforts in the work area are thus already well advanced. But can a company be sustainable if its products are not? Benecke says yes, because: "We are constantly working on optimizing our products, services and processes and making life easier for our customers. One example is that we are actively promoting the telematics infrastructure. Not only doctors, clinics and pharmacies should be able to be part of digitization, but also all other healthcare providers. How can this be achieved? The answer lies in interoperability, the meaningful networking between different computer systems. This is what the telematics infrastructure (TI) does. What sounds cumbersome at first offers considerable benefits to the entire sector and to patients, because the TI connects all sectors and areas of the healthcare system with each other. It serves as a kind of high-speed highway that connects doctors, clinics, pharmacies, and all service providers such as nursing homes, providers of medical and therapeutic aids, and midwives, and ensures the fast, secure exchange of highly sensitive data".
Better communication therefore leads to more time saved and optimized work processes. This, too, can contribute to greater sustainability. And it shows: there are many ways for companies to do something good for people and the environment. Whether it's a single product that is improved, or production cycles, or planting trees to offset emissions – as always, you just have to want to, and every step, no matter how small, is right and important.