Interview Series: Inga Cramer

This week’s read time: 5 minutes

Welcome to the Green Digest Interview Series, our new bi-weekly feature showcasing conversations with the industry’s leading voices—CSOs, sustainability directors, and other senior professionals shaping the sustainability landscape. Each edition dives into their professional journeys, hands-on insights, and outlook on the challenges and opportunities defining corporate sustainability.

These interviews are designed to be quick, insightful reads, offering you actionable takeaways and a personal glimpse into the people leading the way. Stay tuned for stories, strategies, and lessons that matter to you.

The insights presented in the Green Digest Interview Series are brought to you by a partnership between Green Digest and The Sustainability Circle, the invite-only community empowering senior sustainability leaders through peer-to-peer professional development. Check if you qualify for membership here.

PROFILE

This week’s guest:

Inga Cramer

VP of Corporate Sustainability at LANXESS

Inga Cramer is the VP of Corporate Sustainability at LANXESS, a leading specialty chemicals company based in Cologne, Germany. With around 12,400 employees in 32 countries, the core business is the development, manufacturing, and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives and consumer protection products. Inga shapes and oversees LANXESS’s sustainability strategy, leading the board-led Sustainability Committee and advancing LANXESS’s people vision as part of a broader transformation process. Before joining LANXESS, she worked for a globally operating German retailer, where she advanced various sustainability pillars, including supply chain management and sustainability strategy.

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Your career has been shaped by a commitment to sustainability. Was there a particular challenge, breakthrough, or experience that set you on this path?

Inga: My sustainability journey began during my year abroad in Buenos Aires, where I witnessed deep social inequalities. This experience left a lasting impression and motivated me to focus on sustainability, particularly on social and labor standards in global supply chains.

I started my career in the retail sector, working on supply chain risk management and social compliance. At ALDI Australia, I worked on their first national sustainability and community strategy and local supply chain monitoring.

Today, in the specialty chemicals industry, I drive our sustainability strategy and manage board-level sustainability governance. My focus has expanded from supply chains to a broader perspective encompassing all sustainability topics. While the industries are different, the core challenge remains the same: integrating sustainability into business strategy in a way that is ambitious, practical, and value-adding.

What has stayed constant throughout my career is my belief that sustainability is not just about compliance—it’s about driving meaningful transformation and business success.

The role of a corporate sustainability leader can be intense—balancing stakeholder expectations, regulatory demands, and long-term impact. What’s one unconventional lesson you’ve learned in your career that sustainability professionals often overlook?

Inga: My answer might not seem unconventional, but it’s a lesson many overlook: patience is key in sustainability. Change takes time, and success depends on engaging, influencing, and aligning diverse stakeholders toward common goals.

Another important lesson is knowing which battles to fight. Sustainability professionals often want to tackle everything at once, but very often progress comes from focusing on the right things at the right time. A mix of strategic persistence and quick wins is crucial—quick wins create momentum and demonstrate progress, while long-term initiatives drive lasting transformation. Data-driven insights help strike the right balance between impact and feasibility.

How do geopolitical tensions, and factors such as trade restrictions and energy security, impact LANXESS’s sustainability strategy? Have recent global events forced any major pivots?

Inga: Geopolitical tensions, trade restrictions, and energy security impact LANXESS’s sustainability strategy on multiple levels.

On the one hand, we have taken early measures to remain resilient against trade barriers and market disruptions. With a third of our production sites in the U.S., we are well-positioned for potential import tariffs.

On the other hand, sustainability remains a core pillar of our strategy—regardless of geopolitical uncertainties. Regulatory requirements such as the CSRD certainly require additional effort, but they improve the comparability of sustainability information for key stakeholders—including investors, customers, and other interested parties—making sustainability performance more transparent and potentially driving progress in the field, particularly for companies that were not previously required to report but will now be obligated to do so.

One particularly pressing issue has been energy supply and costs. To address this, we are intensifying our focus on energy efficiency and expanding the use of renewable energy wherever it is economically and technologically viable.

While geopolitical developments may require short-term adjustments, our long-term goal remains clear: to drive a sustainable and competitive specialty chemicals industry forward.

Supply chains are the Achilles’ heel of many sustainability strategies. What are you doing to ensure your suppliers, especially in high-risk regions, adhere to high environmental and ethical standards?

Inga: Global Procurement & Logistics monitors sustainability risks at our suppliers and ensures compliance with the LANXESS Business Partner Code of Conduct. In addition to the supplier information questionnaire, we conduct a detailed sustainability risk analysis as an additional safeguard. To enhance this process, we are introducing a Group-wide IT system that strategically assesses our suppliers’ economic, regulatory, environmental, and social performance, enabling us to identify potential risks at an early stage. This system evaluates suppliers based on more than 600,000 data sources and generates individual risk profiles. By the end of 2021, we had integrated over 7,000 suppliers into the system, and we continue to expand its coverage.

Beyond data-driven analysis, our supplier screening also relies on detailed Together for Sustainability (TfS) reports. The TfS sustainability assessment is embedded in our strategic process and is mandatory for every contract negotiation or renewal exceeding €5 million. This approach, known as XCORE, ensures that high environmental, social, governance, and business standards are upheld across our supply chain. The supplier screening methodology takes into account country-specific, sector-specific, and commodity-specific risks.

LANXESS has set ambitious climate targets, including achieving climate neutrality by 2040. What specific measures are currently making the biggest impact toward reaching this goal?

Inga: To achieve climate neutrality by 2040, we are focusing on three key levers: launching impactful climate protection projects, decoupling emissions from growth, and driving process and technological innovations.

A crucial part of our strategy is implementing major emission reduction projects. Since announcing our “Climate Neutral 2040” initiative in 2019, we have allocated up to €100 million to projects that significantly reduce our carbon footprint.

Similarly, at our Indian sites in Jhagadia and Nagda, we are transitioning entirely to renewable energy sources, eliminating the use of coal and gas, which will cut our emissions by 150,000 metric tons annually.

At the same time, we are committed to decoupling emissions from business growth. As LANXESS expands, we ensure that greenhouse gas emissions continue to decline, integrating carbon footprint considerations into investment decisions. This means that business units achieving above-average emission reductions receive preferential treatment when allocating investment budgets.

Another key aspect of our approach is process and technological innovation. Energy efficiency plays a crucial role in our operations, not only in reducing emissions but also in maintaining cost competitiveness. 

Since reducing energy demand to zero is not technically feasible, we are also shifting to renewable energy sources. We are also continuously exploring new energy supply contracts with lower greenhouse gas emissions across all our sites. 

Our key takeaway: Strategic investments in efficiency, renewable energy, and process innovation are essential for real progress.

We ask all our guests this question— how do you personally stay resilient and motivated? Are there any practices, philosophies, or sources of inspiration that help you recharge outside of work?

Inga: I have a naturally positive and optimistic mindset, along with a lot of energy. As a mother of three, I’m used to managing multiple tasks at once and adapting when things don’t go as planned—all while trying to stay calm and focused.

Outside of work, my family and sports are essential for me—they help me recharge and shift my focus completely. At the same time, sustainability is more than just a professional responsibility; it’s a personal passion that fuels me. That’s why my colleague and I started The Greener Business podcast—to keep learning, inspire others, and drive greater impact. It also gives me energy, especially when progress feels slow. Having a space for exchange and fresh perspectives keeps me motivated and reminds me why this work matters.

And with these inspiring words, we bring this conversation to a close. A heartfelt thank you to Inga for sharing her wisdom, passion, and invaluable insights with us!

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