Interview with our alumnus Philipp Hummel

Philipp studied at Alanus University and is now Sustainability Manager at MEGGLE.

Where am I & what do I do?
I work as Sustainability Manager at MEGGLE. As an internationally active company, MEGGLE produces fresh dairy products with a focus on butter, butter preparations and filled, chilled baguettes for wholesale and retail consumers. Dried milk products are manufactured as specialty products for the food processing industry and the pharmaceutical industry and distributed worldwide. With more than 2,500 employees, including 1,000 at the company headquarters in Wasserburg am Inn, the group generates annual revenue of around one billion euros.
In my position, I deal with all questions relating to sustainability at our central site in Wasserburg am Inn. This includes, in particular, developing and implementing our group-wide sustainability strategy together with the responsible departments and sites. In addition, initiating and implementing sustainability projects in various areas plays a key role. In our area, this includes topics such as animal welfare/agriculture, supply chain management, packaging development and resource-efficient production. I also conduct internal and external audits, complete sustainability ratings such as Ecovadis or CDP, and am responsible for our internal and external sustainability reporting. Sustainability is becoming increasingly important for us, as well as for our customers and other stakeholders, which is why ongoing dialogue with international stakeholder groups is another important part of the job.

How did I get here?
The professional foundation was laid by my bachelor’s degree in Business Administration – Rethinking Economics at Alanus University as well as my part-time master’s degree in Controlling and Management at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences.
After my bachelor’s degree, I worked for six years as a research associate for Prof. Dr. Götz Rehn at the Institute for Social Organics, where I was able to gain a great deal of valuable practical experience in the fields of controlling and sustainability management. In particular, the insights into Alnatura and other companies, as well as the academic exchange at Alanus University, were very helpful to me.
Since 2017, I have been a doctoral student at the Centre for Sustainable Management at Leuphana University of Lüneburg. I am currently finalizing my cumulative doctoral thesis, which is shortly before submission. In my doctorate, I examine ways of further developing existing approaches to sustainability controlling and reporting, as well as their opportunities and challenges for companies.

How did my time at Alanus University shape me?
Studying at Alanus University laid the professional foundation for my further career path. But even more importantly, my studies had a positive influence on my personality. Through the artistic modules, I worked a great deal on myself, my perception and my way of interacting with others, learned a lot and developed further. This is particularly helpful in my everyday professional life when I work with various stakeholder groups, such as customers, managing directors of international sites and associations.
Studium Generale helped me to reflect on myself and my attitude toward the world again and again, and to think critically about things. This repeatedly helps me to place strategic decisions and results in their context, rethink them and arrive at holistic decisions.