As a family business, we have a special sense of responsibility towards protecting our environment. Commercial business is subject to special constraints, but they must never be used to justify the destruction of our natural resources.
Foam materials are petroleum-based and their production requires many chemical processes and components. We are aware of this contradiction and see it as a motivation to nevertheless make a substantial contribution to protecting our Environment.
Consequently, we have switched all of the electricity supplied to our company to green energy. Our supplier naturstrom not only provides 100% true green electricity from renewable energy sources, but has additionally agreed to make guaranteed investments in new plants and innovative energy projects, thereby facilitating the further expansion of renewable energy. In this connection, naturstrom has been certified with the Grüner Strom label in the Gold category since 1999.
Our gas is also supplied by naturstrom and contains 20% biogas. naturstrom is engaged in its own biogas projects to utilise biomass in a most environmentally friendly manner. It obtains biogas exclusively from residual and waste materials. The expansion of renewable energy is supported with a defined amount per kilowatt hour of consumption. Biogas from naturstrom has been certified since 2014 with the Grünes Gas label — the most prestigious label for biogas.
In order to reduce energy consumption and make it more environmentally friendly, we have converted our entire company to modern gas heating with high-efficiency gas condensation boiler technology. All production and warehouse buildings have also been extensively insulated in recent years. The lighting in our buildings is gradually being upgraded to modern, energy-efficient LED lamps.
Our vehicle fleet does not include any vehicles that emit more than 120 grams of CO2 per kilometre. This limit is being lowered continuously, and the first electric car was added in 2015. The optimisation of our production processes is ongoing in an effort to reduce scrap and thereby lower the consumption of raw materials. Material waste is mostly pressed and recycled. Wherever this is not possible, such waste is disposed of properly. Even in our offices, we try to protect our environment and conserve our resources as much as possible. Our entire paper demand has been switched to 100% recycled paper.
Despite all of these measures, there is still plenty of untapped potential within our company. We accept the challenge to exploit this potential in coming years and to further reduce the environmental load of our actions — in the interest of our children and all successive Generations.