Over 13,000 people develop leukemia every year. Bone marrow donations as the basis for stem cell transplants can help. To help more people find matching donors, Patrick Fruth, CEO TÜV SÜD Division Mobility, is pouring his efforts into supporting donor recruitment drives. Every Christmas he launches donation campaigns at service centers and customers’ companies and raises awareness among his colleagues in the company, encouraging them to sign up for tissue typing. A broadly based campaign at TÜV SÜD offers a straightforward process for employees to register as donors – and save lives.

Masks and more: Yenifers Sacchetto, Product Service TÜV SÜD America, places some of the currently most sought-after protective products on the market. She coordinates a roughly 20-strong team and serves some four dozen customers in the healthcare sector. Her vision is to help develop new technologies that improve patient care quality with all kinds of medical products and devices. It’s a job which can change people’s lives – and that’s clearer today than ever before.

In a society where some people have absolutely nothing, community engagement is all the more vital. Elaine Machado, TÜV SÜD Brazil, seeks to make those people’s lives a little better. She joined forces with colleagues to found a committee that organizes regular private fundraising activities and collects donations. Their dedication has sweetened orphans’ lives with gifts of chocolate, provided the homeless with toothbrushes and hygiene kits, and arranged communal meals for older people. “Making other people’s day better and spreading happiness is a great source of personal satisfaction and joy for me,” affirms Elaine.

Many employees in Division Mobility could be said to have ”gasoline in their veins,” a lifelong passion for cars, trucks, and motorbikes. Michael Neuburger, assessment expert at the Heidelberg, Germany, service center, is no exception – and yet he has a vision of working with his colleagues to set up the first carbon-neutral testing facility, at least with respect to mobility. But this is by no means at odds with his passion.

Neuburger not only cycles the 18-kilometer route from home to workplace and back every day. He also takes a bike from the cycle pool whenever he has to visit a customer. Others are echoing his commitment; many of his Heidelberg colleagues have likewise switched to pedal power. And their new habit has been met with great approval by customers.

Road safety is a priority for Philip Puls and Jochen Krebs from the TÜV SÜD Division Mobility. Both are voluntary board members in Verkehrswacht München, a nonprofit road safety organization based in Munich, Germany. Their aim is to hold information events and training courses in kindergartens and elementary schools that educate children in road safety – and help prevent accidents. “We both have children of our own, so we’re particularly conscious of children’s safety on the roads,” says Puls. Verkehrswacht is also addressing the ever-growing category of elderly people. Its dedication is paying off; while over 200 people died on the roads in Munich in the year 1949, this figure had fallen to 17 at the last count.

Nirali Dwinell spends her days working for TÜV SÜD in the USA – and her free time saving lives. Based in Massachusetts, the dedicated animal-lover volunteers with a rescue organization for abandoned and mistreated dogs. She often ends up taking animals home herself and looking after them until a new owner can be found. “I’ve always loved animals and find it incredibly fulfilling to take in a scared, sick, or unloved pup and turn its life around,” says Nirali.

Over the past few months – especially in the light of the coronavirus pandemic – the crucial importance of daily hygiene routines has become startlingly clear to people all over the world. But this is bad news for the billions of people worldwide without access to clean water or functioning sanitation. Singaporean Mei Yee Chan is working on improving the situation. As part of a TÜV SÜD team, she developed standards for toilet systems that worked with a minimum of technology and without the need for sewage systems. Simple, low-cost ideas that function in even the poorest areas of the world – and help prevent sickness.

When do we ever take the time to help the people around us? When we are young, with our focus on training, qualifications, and starting a career? In life’s “rush hour,” with work and family devouring all our energy? Or at retirement age, just as our strength may be starting to fail? For Misha Lu, Head of Marketing TÜV SÜD China, there is only one answer: follow your heart, and any time will be the right time! Two years ago, in his late forties, Misha decided to embark on something completely new and began to train as a volunteer firefighter. For six months every weekend was taken up with seminars and drills where he was usually the oldest in the team. He ignored what others said and soldiered on. Now Misha can look back on numerous call-outs to accidents and fires where he helped people and saved lives. Because it is never too late.