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Best Practice in Sustainable Business Transformation
Dealing with pressure: How Kärcher turns compliance into operational strength
Working across the globe, Kärcher has adapted to a complex business environment by embracing environmental and social regulation and thrives by turning constraints into principles
For Paul Zimmermann von Siefart, Vice President of Corporate Sustainability Management at Kärcher, regulation isn’t just a constraint; it’s a catalyst. As global sustainability legislation grows more complex and fragmented, Zimmermann von Siefart is leading the cleaning technology company, best known for its high-pressure equipment, through a transformation that treats compliance not as a burden but as a driver of innovation, alignment, and long-term resilience.
Operating in 85 countries, Kärcher faces a wide array of environmental and social regulations, often with overlapping or conflicting requirements. But the company’s challenge runs deeper than regulatory overload. Customers and stakeholders now expect proof of progress – on emissions, circularity, and accountability – across markets and product lines. For Zimmermann von Siefart, the goal is not just to keep up with evolving rules but to use them to strengthen Kärcher’s business from the inside out.
“We have hundreds of regulations we need to comply with,” he says. “But if we build that into how we work everywhere, it becomes a strength, not a burden.”
By embedding regulatory foresight into decision-making, driving sustainable innovation through product design, and aligning teams around a shared sustainability framework, Zimmermann von Siefart is helping Kärcher do more than adapt. He’s turning external pressure into internal capability and proving that even in a legacy industry, transformation can start with how you respond to the rules.
The Challenge: Aligning global operations in a fragmented regulatory world
Kärcher’s global footprint means navigating a constantly shifting patchwork of ESG regulations. From Europe’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive to varying product and packaging laws across Asia and the Americas, the legal terrain is both dense and dynamic.
For Zimmermann von Siefart, the difficulty isn’t only the complexity, it’s the inconsistency among the rules. What’s expected in one market may not yet be recognized in another. That makes it harder to set a single standard, harder to communicate clearly, and harder to act quickly.
“Our corporate goals are global. We don’t differentiate between regions,” Zimmermann von Siefart explains. “That makes us more expensive, but also more resilient.”
At the same time, customers and stakeholders expect more than basic compliance. They want durable, repairable products; transparent supply chains; and credible data on environmental impact. And as a family-owned company, Kärcher faces even greater expectations to live up to its values, publicly and consistently.
The challenge is to build a global sustainability system that is rigorous enough to satisfy regulations, flexible enough to work across regions, and strong enough to signal leadership to customers and competitors alike.
“Collaboration is another key element.”
The solution: Building strategic capability from regulatory complexity
For Zimmermann von Siefart, navigating regulation isn’t about meeting minimum standards; it’s about building a company that thrives within these constraints. To do so, Kärcher is creating a decentralized compliance network that draws on local regulatory experts embedded in regional markets, who track policy developments and interpretation of requirements across 85 countries.
This setup identifies risks early, giving the business time to act. “We have hundreds of laws and regulations around the globe we have to comply with,” Zimmermann von Siefart explains. “This is quite a risk.” Rather than passively manage this risk, he’s turned it into an early-warning system that allows Kärcher to prepare, adapt, and often pre-empt compliance pressure.
Internally, Zimmermann von Siefart has invested in turning compliance into shared responsibility. Extensive employee training programs across regions ensure that local teams understand both the letter and intent of new rules. By empowering functions like procurement, product management, and engineering to own compliance directly, he has helped shift the perception of regulation from an obstacle to an enabler.
That mindset, focused on using regulation as a catalyst for innovation, has shaped Kärcher’s product and process innovation, particularly in circular design. Products are now being developed with longer lifespans, modular repairability, and higher use of recycled content. One standout initiative involves repurposing polyamide from used airbags into product components, an approach that reduces virgin material demand and anticipates stricter future regulations on resource extraction.
Collaboration is another key element. Kärcher engages in formal industry alliances and global standards committees, but Zimmermann von Siefart also practices on-the-ground exchange.
“We maintain a lively exchange with numerous companies and frequently discuss how to overcome certain challenges.” Zimmermann von Siefart highlights. That openness accelerates progress across the ecosystem and reinforces Kärcher’s role as a credible contributor to collective solutions. “I think the exchange of experience with other companies is a very important factor for us at the moment,” he adds. “Sharing experiences and knowledge is also sharing problems. This is a big thing.”
The result is a compliance strategy that does more than protect the business; it strengthens it. Through proactive systems, cross-functional integration, and product innovation, Zimmermann von Siefart has positioned Kärcher not just to meet expectations, but to shape them.
5 key takeaways
Kärcher’s transformation under Zimmermann von Siefart offers valuable lessons for companies navigating complex compliance environments while trying to lead on sustainability:
- Build regulatory complexity into your operating model
In a world of fast-evolving ESG rules, treat compliance as a strategic input, not a constraint. Designing for regulation from the start enables consistency, speed, and resilience. - Invest in internal ownership
Distribute compliance responsibilities across teams and regions. When employees understand and act on sustainability goals locally, transformation becomes scalable. - Use regulation to drive innovation, not delay it
Anticipate where standards are headed and let them guide product design, materials, and manufacturing. It’s often the fastest path to durable, differentiated offerings. - Design systems that translate complexity into clarity
Global compliance demands real-time coordination, not static policies. Build tools and knowledge flows that help your teams navigate fragmentation with confidence. - Treat collaboration as a business enabler
Whether through formal alliances or peer learning, proactive partnerships can accelerate compliance, reduce costs, and unlock new ideas, especially when no one can solve it alone.
But Zimmermann von Siefart also knows that transformation won’t hold without cultural depth.
What’s next?
As Zimmermann von Siefart looks ahead, he knows the real test is scale. The systems are in place, the mindset is shifting, but embedding transformation across a company of this size means turning pilots into platforms and best practices into global norms.
His next move: expand the reach and rigor of Kärcher’s compliance network, ensuring that every region has both the autonomy and intelligence to stay ahead of evolving rules. Real-time insight, not reactive response, will be the backbone of the company’s resilience.
Innovation remains a central lever. Zimmermann von Siefart is accelerating investment in circular product design and zero-waste operations, with new pilots focused on regenerative materials and extended product life. The goal isn’t just efficiency, it’s relevance. “Our targets are global,” he says. “We want to meet the highest standards, everywhere. That’s who we are.”
But Zimmermann von Siefart also knows that transformation won’t hold without cultural depth. His focus now is on reinforcing sustainability as a shared mindset, woven into procurement decisions, engineering processes, and leadership expectations. It’s not about compliance culture. It’s about capability culture.
What began as a response to regulatory pressure is now becoming a source of strategic strength for Kärcher.
This case series was developed as part of a research project supported by Capgemini Invent.
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