The effects of our activities and products on the environment are a crucial yardstick for all company decisions. We aim to minimise our negative environmental impact through the effective and efficient use of resources. Since 1996, we have pursued this through voluntary participation in the European Union Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, in short: EMAS. EMAS is considered as the most stringent system of sustainable environmental management in the world.

A fundamental part of the EMAS regulation is the annually updated environmental statement which we use to inform the public, our staff and interested parties about our environmental performance.

Part of the continuous improvement process is the definition of goals and programmes. To do this, we regularly analyse and evaluate environmentally relevant procedures, figures, programmes and audit results and adapt our processes to new findings derived from them.

We have identified our key environmental issues:

To minimise the environmental impact, we already consider environmentally relevant factors during product development by including energy usage, raw material consumption and waste disposal in all of our deliberations. We analyse the product life cycle and pay close attention to environmentally friendly product design. This includes, for instance, the reduction of wall thicknesses, the choice of materials and recyclability. An important indicator for us is raw material efficiency, which illustrates how efficiently we were able to use resources. Raw material efficiency is the ratio of parts produced and plastic used. In 2018, the quota was 98.8 % in plant 1, 86.5 % in plant 2, 87.0 % in plant 3 and 95.1 % in plant CP.

Energy is our most significant environmental factor. More on this in the subject area Energy.

Waste quantities are accounted for in an annual balance sheet. Recycling and waste disposal is carried out by specialist waste disposal companies. Separate collection and the return of product waste into the production process are, wherever possible, a matter of course for us. In order to also make a contribution to PÖPPELMANN blue®, the separate waste collection of packaging materials for “yellow bin” recycling was introduced within the company.

We obtain fresh water from the public water supply for social areas and for cooling purposes. The required cooling water is circulated and reused several times. Fresh water is supplied as required by means of intelligent process control. Through this process, we save considerable amounts of fresh water, thus helping to conserve natural resources. No wastewater with pollutants is accumulated in our production processes. We do not currently use our own wells, despite having a permit for a restricted flow rate. Although the opportunities to influence are limited, we have also set a target for specific water consumption at each location in order to protect valuable drinking water reserves.

Our direct CO₂ emissions come from the combustion of natural gas through the heating of buildings and the fuel consumption of vehicles. In 2018, we produced 2,188 tonnes of direct CO₂ emissions. Indirectly, we cause emissions through our electricity consumption. This was 38,324 tonnes in 2018.

The proportion of sealed areas at our locations is 49 %, 27 % of which corresponds to building areas. Through the designation of industrial areas, compensation measures and areas are set out by the local authorities. In light of the scarcity of space, we also embrace our responsibility for the moderate use of soil resources. For us, this means that we invest intense efforts in developing innovative and resource-saving construction concepts.