The employees of Chinese company AP Winner swapped their desks for spades for a while. Wildflower meadows have been created on an area of 500 square metres around the company building. Managing Director Thomas Isleib talks about the special project, Chinese culture, and missing insects in an interview.

Together with your wife and employees, you performed some hard physical work at the Changzhou site and dug up the area around the company building, which is not exactly typical for a company operating in the chemicals sector. What had happened exactly?

The area around our building was a desert. This is not in line with Chinese culture, where people pay attention to an appreciative reception.

You wanted to create a representative entrance?

More than just representative. There is a Chinese proverb: "Whoever plants a garden, plants a piece of luck." A well-tended green space and blossoming flowers symbolize a flourishing and growing business in China. As a traditional, cultural symbol that stands for the will to succeed.

Why did you dig up the earth and sow the flowers yourselves? You could also have commissioned a gardener?

We really felt the need to do this together and combine innovation and tradition ourselves. In many places in China, you see entire streets and access roads to cities lushly planted and a lot of money and time is spent on maintenance. We wanted to live these aspects together. With this flowery welcome, we not only welcome our guests and customers, who actually approach us about it, it is also a daily treat for all of us.

Your sea of flowers is also very special...

Yes, we have sown a wonderful wildflower meadow. If you drive a car around here, you will never have insects on your windshield, because there are no insects left. In order to do something for nature, even if it is just this little contribution, we have chosen insect-friendly flowers. We try to make our own contribution at all levels.