Sustainable company development is in the interest of everybody. It ensures the future reliability of the company, establishes a healthy working environment and ultimately creates positive effects for suppliers, customers and society as a whole.
Measures for increasing sustainability have been in place at Hatebur for many years now. By establishing and expanding a management system, we are using these individual elements to create a clearly defined path towards further sustainability, with objectively traceable and measurable steps, phases and milestones. To this end, our objectives are defined on the basis of recognized standards. First and foremost among these are the 17 “Sustainable Development Goals” of the United Nations and the “Global Reporting Initiative” for sustainability reports.
EcoVadis – and our new reward
We underwent our first evaluation by EcoVadis in 2022. This platform is considered the most reliable provider of sustainability ratings worldwide – and awarded us a bronze medal on the very first assessment. In the overall analysis of all departments investigated, EcoVadis graded us in the top 22 percent of all companies in our sector. Our measures across the three dimensions of sustainability that were implemented in 2022 – the year in question – formed the basis of this evaluation.
EcoVadis supports companies in achieving their sustainability goals with universal scorecards and collaborative tools to increase the performance of global supply chains. More than 125,000 companies are now part of the EcoVadis network, which protects brands, encourages transparency and drives innovation.
In 2023, we not only retained our bronze status from the previous year but also made improvements in almost all of the evaluated categories. This pleasing development is an incentive for us to become even more sustainable and make full use of every existing area with potential for optimization.
Economy: Economic performance
A detailed article about the impact of our machines with regard to protecting our environment and reducing CO₂ emissions in particular has already been published in the previous edition of NetShape. This aspect also plays an important role in the EcoVadis rating, because our innovative solutions also result in additional customer benefits. This enables us to lay the groundwork to always be the crucial step ahead in a highly competitive market, and to ensure the long-term economic success of our company.
Even before the pandemic, we were well aware of the importance of availability – of raw materials, of goods, and of services. We therefore make every effort to establish a sustainable foundation for our procurement processes. A clearly defined code of conduct sets out rules for selecting and collaborating with our partners. This enables us to minimize the risk of failure and avoid the risk of being caught up in controversy, for instance if a delivery firm ends up in the headlines due to misconduct.
Ideally, we prefer business partners who also collaborate with EcoVadis, such as the Schaeffler Group on the customer side, or the Italian foundry Lucchini as a delivery company. This enables us to transparently map our entire delivery chain and makes it easy to identify areas where there is potential for optimization. It is certain that ambitious national and international sustainability goals cannot be achieved single-handedly. Creating and using shared systems of coordinates enables us to substantially increase the success of our efforts.
Ecology: Environment and climate protection
We made noteworthy achievements in this area as well in 2022. We carried out comprehensive recording and evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts at our location in Reinach. We placed particular emphasis on transparent documentation of all waste and its proper disposal.
We also focused on reducing our energy use and identifying machines with high power consumption. We held a workshop to identify potential energy savings and derive measures for achieving them, including installation of cutting-edge radiator thermostats in the management and design buildings. This not only directly reduced the required heating energy, but also provided immediate benefits in terms of costs.
A wide range of environmentally friendly auxiliary materials were introduced into our production processes, which also helped us to meet requirements for health protection in the workplace. These measures include the use of a new anti-corrosion oil that contains almost no volatile organic compounds such as hydrocarbons.
Social aspects: Society and people
This new anti-corrosion oil is an example of how the individual areas of sustainability are often closely interweaved. Its introduction has resulted in benefits for our environment and for employees on site in equal measure. Our provisions for ensuring a safe, healthy and supportive working environment actually go significantly further than this.
Comprehensive details concerning employment rights and human rights at the Reinach and Brugg locations were collected and evaluated. The core of this initiative was the issue of working safety, which was addressed with targeted training courses and briefings. Accident rates in 2022 were already below the industry average, and the stated goal is to make further improvements in this area. Arrangements have also been made at the branches in Switzerland for binding votes and the introduction of employee representatives who will regularly meet with employer representatives.
A revised version of the code of conduct for all employees of the Hatebur Group was introduced in 2022. This “Version 2.0” was significantly expanded, particularly with regard to the issues of working conditions, human rights and the environment. The values and principles from the code of conduct formed the basis for a detailed analysis of ethical business conduct at the Reinach and Brugg locations. Closely related to this was a risk analysis regarding corruption and bribery, which in turn was used to derive preventative measures. Another risk analysis dealt with data security and the risks of data loss. A training session for employees was identified as an effective preventative measure here.
The EcoVadis rating and our own experience have made it clear that there will always be room for further improvement in terms of sustainability. We are certain that we have already achieved a great deal in many aspects – and we are motivated to make continuous improvements in all other aspects. We owe it to you, to ourselves and to future generations.