A friendly turtle welcomes us to a safety training session. Dynamic finger exercises loosen us up physically and reactivate us mentally. We hear about human evolution, risk hunting, and data gathering.
In between, a few people discuss the energy balance of a cup of coffee. Later, we witness how AI is used to generate a risk report from a collection of short cell phone recordings.
No, we are not at a big science slam, but at Quentic VISIONS 2025! And we are diving right into the complex challenges and potential that our modern, digitalized working world brings with it.
This affects us not only as individuals, but also influences occupational safety and environmental protection, which the audience here is responsible for every day in their own professional lives.
VISIONS: Meeting spot for the Quentic community
The Quentic user summit, featuring a visionary EHS and ESG conference, took place for the 16th time in Berlin from September 16 to 18. More than 200 participants followed the numerous specialist, trend, and product topics at VISIONS and received best practice tips and insights into future innovations in the Quentic software solutions for occupational safety, environmental management, and sustainability.
Workshops in smaller groups not only stimulated discussion of the latest compliance requirements but also provided applicable examples and success stories.
The spotlight on the VISIONS stages was not only on the Quentic team, business partners, and guest speakers, but also on Quentic customers from various industries. This created a lively exchange among participants, as did the evening social events.
Let’s review the topics, ideas, and solutions that shaped VISIONS 2025.
Considering EHS and ESG together
The requirements for corporate sustainability and ESG management have developed significantly in recent years. It is clear that EHS and ESG are considered related disciplines. In practice, however, companies usually still have to figure out the interaction between the two areas for themselves in order to exploit synergies.
Jan-Marten Krebs, founder and CEO of Sustainable AG, emphasized the global risks of advancing climate change and the public awareness that has now been achieved. Companies are increasingly noticing disruptive effects both directly and indirectly via their supply chains.
He advocated a shift from the prevailing compliance perspective to the business case perspective: companies should consider what advantages a sustainability strategy can have for their own business, evaluate, and seize opportunities – whether in terms of corporate image, the market and existing customer interests, or due to stock market listing and investments.
Martina Landertinger, from Enhesa, identified potential interfaces and synergy effects between EHS and ESG departments that many companies often struggle to exploit. In this context, the operational depth of EHS management could profitably complement the strategic breadth of ESG management. The experience of EHS specialists in setting up established management systems can be seen as an internally available knowledge resource and can also be applied to dealing with new ESG standards.
It is not always necessary to collect new information for reporting purposes. EHS and ESG managers should first ask themselves: what data is already available in my company, in other departments, and can be integrated into my analyses or evaluations? Publicly available data sources such as health insurance companies' health reports provide additional benefits.
Quentic also bridges the gap between EHS and ESG: common data points such as waste volumes, accident rates, or energy consumption can be recorded in the Quentic software and linked to the AMCS ESG Solution together with other EHS metrics. As one of only a few companies in the world to do this, Quentic/AMCS is listed as a “Leader” in both the 2025 Verdantix Green Quadrant reports for “EHS Software” and “ESG & Sustainability Reporting Software”.
Digitalization, AI, and the human factor
Society and the economy are facing two technological megatrends:
- Digitalization continues to expand, though some areas still need improvement
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly and becoming increasingly widespread
The two are, of course, interconnected. Collecting and processing data creates the basis on which AI systems can learn to recognize complex patterns and correlations or optimize content and processes. In this way, AI in turn drives digitalization forward.
Quentic users reported how they were able to replace manually maintained lists or training plans with the cloud-based EHS solution and subsequently benefited from centralized, secure, verifiable EHS data. Christopher Hertel, Head of Technical Program at Quentic, illustrated the enormous progress made by AI tools over the last two years and then moved on to AI scenarios for EHS and ESG management.
The key questions for AI integration in Quentic were:
- What are useful use cases specifically for EHS and ESG?
- How can AI best support specialists?
The Quentic Team is currently working on various AI cases, focusing on root cause and pattern analyses for incident management and intelligent reporting assistants. A prototype live demo showed how structured analyses can be extracted from short videos recorded with a cell phone camera, e.g., from a safety inspection, in a matter of seconds, including recommendations for action.
And the new partnership with doinstruct is already bringing expanded opportunities for accessible, optimally tailored online training: mobile usage, a comprehensive pool of ready-made EHS training packages, and the option to create your own video content using AI in just a few minutes and make it available in multiple languages simultaneously. These promise increased acceptance and learning success on the part of the workforce.
This means that Quentic focuses on users and their needs in software development. The fact that the human factor must not be overlooked in an age of rapid technological progress and increasing demands was made clear several times at VISIONS.
Katrin Zittlau from Arbeitsschutz 4.0 explained that hybrid and flexible models of new working environments offer people countless freedoms, but at the same time can cause stress due to acceleration and constant availability.
Dr. Friedhelm Kring from Redaktionsbüro Kring pointed out that digitalization is a relatively recent development, while patterns of thought and behavior from earlier evolutionary history are deeply embedded in our genes. It is therefore not surprising that people tire more quickly in digital meetings when a “real” counterpart and certain components of social interaction are missing.
Social accident insurances already publish guidelines on so-called “Zoom fatigue”. This example alone shows that EHS and management executives must open up to new, technology-driven topics, not only in terms of modernizing management systems, but also with regard to employees. It is important to tap into innovative technologies and at the same time use them responsibly, which also means taking human and technical limitations into account. Katrin Zittlau sees this as a future skill for occupational safety specialists.
It is undisputed that technical and digital channels remain an important tool for employee integration and participation. QR codes can be used, for example, to quickly establish contact when employees want to use their smartphones to report near-miss situations or disruptions in operations to the responsible parties.
Torsten Gutowski, hazardous materials officer and central occupational safety specialist at DMK, explained how audits, inspections, and findings in his own company are supported digitally with Quentic. This greatly facilitates planning, implementation, and documentation of results. However, it is important to continue to seek direct dialogue with employees and not to replace this exclusively with tools.
Corporate and safety culture in transition
Obligations and areas of activity in EHS and ESG are evolving, and organizations are undergoing digital transformation. All of this is changing not only tasks, work equipment, and processes, but also how we work together. More than ever, there is a need to show willingness to embrace innovation and successfully manage change. In practice, this is not always easy. It is not uncommon for employee initiatives to be hindered by belief in “that way we’ve always done it”. Or, general apprehension to change.
The VISIONS panel discussion yielded an important formula for change management: change requires openness. Security creates openness. Transparency creates security.
It is crucial to foster understanding among those involved for upcoming changes, to create meaning, and to take emotional aspects into account as well. Abstract figures and KPIs may provide clarity for setting and pursuing goals, but they alone are not enough to convince people.
In addition, every company should find the right focus for itself, i.e., first formulate an accurate problem statement as a starting point and then work on it – instead of simply following what is common practice in the industry because everyone else is doing it.
Leadership, corporate culture, and resilience play a significant role in transformation processes. In her speech, Dr. Stefanie Schöler, Managing Director of Arbeitsschutz Universum, emphasized the importance of psychological safety, which is promoted by closeness, interpersonal relationships, and appreciation, and ensures greater trust, openness, and willingness to take risks in teams.
Through their own behaviors, each and every individual can contribute something without much effort and be a role model by practicing respect through active listening, praise, or constructive feedback. Managers should also not be afraid to admit their own weaknesses or setbacks when the occasion arises. Good leadership knows when they’re wrong.
This ties in with the ideal of a “just culture” presented by Stephan Freundl from Frest Consulting. Here, the principles of “trust instead of fear”, “fairness instead of blame”, “responsibility instead of control”, and “learning instead of punishment” apply.
When it comes to occupational safety, he called for always putting people first, talking to each other on an equal footing, and finding pragmatic solutions instead of just applying rigid rules and principles.
These insights can also be applied to the role of an occupational safety specialist. Instead of being a “safety police” with a punitive outlook, they become “coaches” who engage in dialogue with the workforce. Their own function enables them to reach and sensitize managers in particular. In any case, the prerequisites remain the willingness to engage in self-reflection and a willingness to learn.
Get in touch with Quentic
We would like to thank all participants, speakers, partners, and employees for an inspiring VISIONS 2025 and are already looking forward to next year! If you would like to learn more about Quentic's software solutions for EHS and ESG and our latest product innovations, please feel free to contact us!
