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Environment and Energy Concrete measures in terms of sustainability
Specific measures Our sustainability strategy
Corporate responsibility – for over 90 years
Increasing efficiency, reducing wastage, and respectful treatment of employees have always been key concerns in the Coroplast family firm since its founding long ago.
Corporate social responsibility requirements have become more stringent in recent years as a result of market, political, and societal developments, indicating how our orientation as a firm has been correct. Now, taking our stance even further, the recently adopted Corporate Social Responsibility strategy serves to focus our activities as we step up existing measures and introduce new, compatible initiatives.
The cornerstones of the new Corporate Social Responsibility strategy:
- Seeking to reduce our carbon footprint at all times.
- Systematically promoting electromobility.
- Adding initiatives to go beyond the already broad scope of legal requirements in the areas of waste avoidance, recovery, and recycling.
- CSR considerations are being considered already during product development.
- We are seeking external auditing of our CSR activities.
If environmental policy does not become a prohibitive dogma, the development of an environmentally friendly future can even be fun and offer plenty of opportunities.
1. Reducing our carbon footprint
The technology hub of the Coroplast Group is in Wuppertal, where the company is executing on a two-pronged strategy for minimizing its CO2 footprint.
Efforts are underway there to save energy and switch over to more sustainable energy sources. More efficient energy usage lowers consumption but also reduces costs.
In parallel we are increasing our purchasing of certificates to compensate for our remaining CO2 emissions.
Current measures and planning
- Starting in 2020, offices and production areas will be heated by natural gas instead of oil in a move that will cut CO2 emissions by around 20%.
- The sub-project of switching over to a natural gas-powered black radiator heating system in one production building has already been completed.
- Our energy management team in Wuppertal systematically records and evaluates consumption data to uncover opportunities for reducing costs and boosting efficiency. For example, possibilities are currently being studied for using waste heat or implementing cogeneration.
- We purchase carbon-neutralizing certificates to cover our total car fleet emissions.
- Carbon-neutral green electricity purchased covering 100% of consumption at the Wuppertal site since 2019.
- We are currently analyzing the compensation of our remaining building and process heat to obtain the “CO2-free production” certificate.
2. Promoting electromobility
We are a leading international innovator in electromobility, supplying cable and adhesive tape solutions to prominent players in the sector. Electromobility is also gaining momentum at our headquarter.
Current measures and planning
- We will install electric car charging stations in our parking lots starting in 2020, which will eventually become one of the largest charging centers in the region when complete.
- Since 2019 our company car policy provides additional incentives beyond existing tax breaks to choose hybrid or electric vehicles.
- We conducted an internal contest to come up with the best usage concept for the e-bike fleet at our Wuppertal location. Employees can use a mobile app to locate, reserve, unlock, and return bikes.
- An e-Mobility Days event was a core element in the activities surrounding our 90th corporate anniversary. Employees and their families got a first-hand look at the world of electric mobility, ranging from cargo bikes to e-SUVs.
3. Waste avoidance, recycling, and upcycling
Employee awareness is key in order to shift behaviors, enabling continuing progress in the area of sustainability. Sparing usage of materials, stringent waste separation, and waste avoidance are the keys to success. In parallel to taking energy efficiency measures, we offer training courses and educational seminars.
We aim to not only comply with regulatory requirements under the Recycling Act, the Commercial Waste Ordinance, the Electronic Equipment Act, and the Waste Wood and Waste Oil Ordinances, to name just a few, but to adhere to higher standards set by ourselves.
Current measures and planning
- Data gathering to point out savings and efficiency potential in cooperation with our disposal specialists. This is to enable production efficiency gains, such as by eliminating production overruns and rejects.
- The steps taken boosted our recycling ratio by more than 25% from 2016 to 2019. We are pursuing further improvements in this area as well.
- In an internal innovation project, we developed the idea to create handsomely designed consumer products from high-quality scrap material. We are currently implementing this upcycling approach.
- Specific plans are in place to conserve natural resources in our administration and production areas through such measures as separate collection of recyclables and increased usage of digital workflows.
4. Sustainable product development
It goes without saying that making products that meeting the needs of our customers means using raw materials and environmentally friendly production processes. Such considerations are thus already addressed during product development, and implementation is verified downstream in our superbly equipped in-house testing labs.
Current measures and planning
- We completely forgo solvent-based adhesives in production and are working on introducing usage of organic-based or recycled materials.
- For years we have been steadily reducing the use of peroxide crosslinkers in silicone processing, and in the future we will exclusively use addition-cured silicone.
- We are working to optimize our product design, reducing weight and materials usage, for example.
- We design products to enable more production processes which either involve a greater degree of automation or fully automated manufacturing.
- We are developing upcycling concepts for refinement of our scrap.
In addition, we develop products specifically so that they contribute to the environmental friendliness and energy efficiency of the end products they are used in.
- Silicone high-voltage cables for electric and hybrid vehicles
- Ultra-light adhesive tapes for lightweight construction
- Lightweight connectors
- Lightweight ABS sensor wires
- Cables made of recyclable materials
5. External audits of our operations
Certifications, audits, and sustainability ratings – such as the automotive industry’s S Rating – are key elements of our Corporate Social Responsibility strategy.
Current measures and planning
- We are currently in the process of obtaining an S Rating (sustainability rating). This rating is assigned to prominent OEMs such as BMW, Daimler, and the VW Group on the basis of comprehensive mandatory information on their sustainability-relevant activities. These include measures pertaining to environmental protection, energy conservation, work conditions, supplier management, societal welfare, and codes of conduct. The rating will apply to all of the Group’s locations.
Environment and Energy Our certifications at a glance
Quality management needs to be conducted consistently, systematically, and in accordance with clearly defined criteria. For this reason, each of our company locations is regularly inspected by both in-house audits and certification bodies to ensure our compliance with national and international regulations and standards. You can find our certifications at a glance here.
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