Sustainability

As part of our fundamental corporate goals, sustainability and climate protection form a key foundation of our strategies and developments for the future. Instead of “greenwashing”, we focus on concrete measures to make processes and resources in our company more sustainable. We achieve this, for example, through investments, new developments and more efficient management. In order to meet the challenges of the coming years, we have defined clear sustainability targets for ourselves, which we are pursuing with determination.

Our Goals

  • Sustainable Resources

    Our production naturally starts with the raw materials, which we obtain from our suppliers. The aim is to further reduce delivery routes in the future and to continuously expand cooperation with our regional partners. We will also constantly increase the proportion of recycled and renewable raw materials for our products and guarantee a consistent material quality.

  • Sustainable Energy

    As a producer of high-quality coatings and laminations, a reliable and constant supply of energy is indispensable for us. We are striving to reduce the proportion of fossil fuels in all areas in future. With forward-looking investments and well thought-out recycling processes, we are well on the way to achieving this goal.

  • Sustainable Production

    Our materials undergo a large number of coordinated production processes during their manufacture. We are therefore constantly optimizing all relevant processes for more sustainable production in order to be able to operate in an even more resource-saving manner. We therefore want to reduce waste even further in future and operate our systems more energy-efficiently. The safety and satisfaction of our employees is also a key sustainability goal for us, which we implement by continuously modernising our production facilities and replacing questionable raw materials.

  • Sustainable Products

    In close cooperation with our customers, our development department has been working for over 20 years on ecological products that meet the high requirements in the respective area of application. By replacing traditional, petroleum-based material components with bio-based or recycled raw materials, we will significantly expand our sustainable product portfolio in the future. We also continue to define the concept of sustainability through the manufacture of high-quality and durable products in order to actively counteract the throwaway mentality.

How We Implement Sustainability

Certified Company

As coating specialists, we place particular emphasis to quality assurance as well as our environmental and energy goals. This is why we have been certified to the ISO 9001 quality management standard and the ISO 14001 environmental management standard since 1997. We have also been certified in accordance with the automotive-specific quality standard IATF 16949 since 2012 and the energy management standard ISO 50001 since 2014.

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Photovoltaics

The installation of our new and modern photovoltaic system began in March 2023. A new solar energy system with 1600 modules was built on an area of approx. 3,000 m², which occupies a good 2/3 of our existing roof areas. With this investment of approx. 1.0 million €, we hope to achieve energy savings of approx. 500,000 kWh/year in the future. This is approximately equivalent to the annual consumption of 160 households and covers about 10% of our total annual electricity consumption. In view of the high energy prices and a supply situation that is uncertain in terms of planning, we are thus taking a further step towards sustainable production and energy independence

Regenerative Thermal Oxidation System (RTO)

Our regenerative thermal oxidation system (RTO) enables us to significantly reduce hydrocarbon emissions from our production. Regenerative post-combustion is used to thermally clean the exhaust gases produced. The resulting waste heat is fed back into our production process. This results in a significant reduction in energy requirements.

Sustainability Guidelines for Suppliers

To manufacture our products, we require a wide range of different resources, which are provided by our suppliers. Their selection is based not only on material-specific aspects but also on ecological and social considerations. For this reason, we have developed specific sustainability guidelines for our suppliers based on our company’s long-standing standards. These include ethics, human rights, wages, working conditions, reduction of emissions and greenhouse gases, respect for the environment, health and air quality as well as proper chemical management and animal welfare, to name but a few.

Phthalate-free Plasticisers

In order to give PVC imitation leather a soft feel and elasticity, so-called plasticisers are required. However, those containing short-chain phthalates are suspected of being mutagenic or reprotoxic and are therefore subject to labelling according to REACH. Medium and long-chain phthalates are not known to be harmful to health. As a precautionary measure, however, stricter regulations have been issued for children’s products. Directive 2055/84/EC banned the use of short-chain phthalates. All phthalate plasticisers are generally prohibited in toys for children under 3 years of age. For this reason, we developed our first phthalate-free PVC upholstery collection, Peri, over 15 years ago and set standards worldwide. In 2019, our entire VOWAled upholstery segment was converted to phthalate-free plasticisers.

Bio-based Stock Collection Puria

After many years of development, we have designed VOWAled Puria, a unique material consisting of over 50% bio-based raw materials. Leftovers or waste from food production are used here, which can be utilised without energy-intensive processing. In addition, we supply an excellent alternative to genuine leather because this upholstery material is 100% vegan. Puria also scores points with a bio-based plasticiser and a substrate made from 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton. The sustainable components of VOWAled Puria have no impact on the food chain.

Stock Collections:

Puria BasicPuria Linen

More about Sustainability?

If you have any questions about our sustainability strategy, please contact us.