„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.
Our JO® catalogue is Cradle to Cradle® certified and climate positive
Since 2012 our catalogues had been printed “climate neutrally”, i.e. their production has not changed the CO2 balance of the atmosphere. In 2021 we had been able to switch to “climate positive” printing (climate positive = activities that remove more climate-damaging emissions from the atmosphere than they cause).
In 2021 we realized our first Cradle to Cradle® project with our anniversary catalogue. Our current JO® catalogue 2023 | 2024 | 2025 is now our second C2C silver-certified and climate positive catalogue. In addition, our customers can keep their copy up-to-date via the online section CATALOGUE >> CATALOGUE UPDATE – which allows us to extend the printing interval. More information about Cradle to Cradle® under CATALOGUE.
Speaking of climate: We usually send our standard packages within Germany and Europe via the parcel service UPS – since mid-March 2015 also climate neutral (UPS carbon neutral). In addition we choose climate neutral or climate positive shipping for transport by other shipping companies, whenever this is possible.