„Environmental protection & Sustainability are terms that we encounter today almost too often. But the concept is something we have been putting into practice for many years now, both at home and within our business.
Of course, we are not perfect here, but we are continuously working on it at all levels – a philosophy that is reflected in all of our processes and not least in the contact with our customers. The following remarks are intended to provide you with insight into our efforts (see also the section “Our Philosophy/Activities/Partners”).”
Company & Family Oberrecht
Environmental protection as an essential feature of our corporate mission
It is not just private individuals who need to make a contribution towards the protection of the environment and thus our climate; this is also and perhaps even more a responsibility of businesses. For this reason, we adopted a policy of environmental protection as an essential feature of our corporate mission in 2004.
Our first step was to provide for the separation of our drinking water and process water systems, as water is one of our most precious resources.
By harvesting rainwater and recycling it, we are reducing our consumption of this resource. We collect superfluous surface water in a basin located on our company premises and return it by means of a gradual and ecologically-friend seepage process to the natural groundwater system.
The next logical stage was to generate our own power from renewable sources of energy.
Simultaneously in March 2004, we decided to acquire our power needs in the form of clean energy supplied by Greenpeace Energy eG.
The next logical stage was to generate our own power from renewable sources of energy. We initiated the relevant project in late 2007 and commissioned our own photovoltaic system. Since December 2007, we have been generating clean electricity from solar energy using our then approx. 800 m² roof top-mounted PV panels that employ thin film solar cells and a triple-junction technique. Thanks to the extension of our premises, we had been able to increase the surface area of our PV system by a further 200 m² up to now approx. 1,000 m² in 2012.
Since early 2012, we have also been using the gas supplied by Greenpeace Energy eG, trusting that this means we are encouraging the development of a sustainable technology that permits to cover the heating needs of our society.
True to the motto “Do not talk about electromobility – make it!” we have gradually changed our fleet,
so that it currently consists of 50 % plug-in hybrid vehicles, 25 % electric vehicles and only 25 % vehicles with a pure combustion engine. The hybrid and e-vehicles can be fueled via wallboxes, which primarily feed from our photovoltaic system, depending on the weather, additionally with green electricity from Greenpeace Energy.
The sustainability concept of our corporate mission extends beyond our policies with regard to water and power to other intra-company areas.
Many of our products are made of plastic – We have become aware of the fact that substance purity plays an increasingly important role in material recycling. Our new plastic products are therefore being provided with labels identifying the component materials to allow a substance-pure separation and re-use.
With the printing of edition 1/2012 of our JO® catalogue, one of several steps towards the “climate neutrality” of our company was done.
A company, process or product is considered “carbon neutral” when carbon credits are acquired that offset any related greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2012 our catalogues are printed using a carbon-neutral process, which has no cumulative negative effect on the CO2 balance in our atmosphere. We commissioned ClimatePartner (www.climatepartner.com) to determine the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of our catalogues, and then purchase the corresponding credits (see image), which are benefitting the wind energy projects “Changbin & Taichung” in Taiwan.
Moreover we generally send standard parcels within Germany and Europe via the UPS parcel service – now also climate-friendly since mid-March 2015 (UPS carbon neutral). We choose a carbon-neutral transport when using other shipping companies as well, whenever this option is offered.