Information: This report is outdated – you can find the current sustainability report here.
Without energy, nothing works - neither in sports nor in business. It is hard to believe that two German nuclear power plants alone are needed to generate electricity for the stand-by operation of electrical equipment.
Energy is an essential aspect for VAUDE because the production of VAUDE products requires energy, as does the entire rest of the business: goods transport, office heating, the company fleet, employees’ daily commute and computer electrical consumption.
This applies to the company headquarters at our Tettnang-Obereisenbach site, but of course, especially to the production of the VAUDE products and all the materials needed for the rest of the supply chain.
Based on the company location in Tettnang-Obereisenbach, we consider our approach to be efficient and successful. This has been confirmed by the annual EMAS (German) and ISO14001 audits as well as the savings achieved and the transition made to renewable energy.
The focus here will continue to be on savings due to better technology and increased awareness of employees. In addition, we implement measures introduced by VAUDE mobility management in order to reduce energy consumption due to commuting (and reducing the need for parking spaces).
GRI: | DMA Energy |
Electricity is still generated by using fossil fuels in most regions of the world. The depletion of limited, non-renewable resources such as oil, gas or coal is negatively encroaching on ecosystems. As a company, we have a shared responsibility to use it sparingly and switch to alternative sources such as energy generated from wind.
Time and again, the distribution of energy leads to social conflicts, such as the Russian natural gas pipeline through Ukraine. The more independent we are of such energy sources as a company, the less our economic risk, and also our moral "complicity" in such conflicts.
The consumption of energy ultimately contributes significantly to the production of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2). These are largely responsible for climate change, which threatens the very existence of mankind. The less energy we consume and the more this comes from renewable sources, the greater our contribution to climate protection.
In addition to the environmental impact, energy consumption also has a high impact on the profitability of the company. The higher the energy consumption, the higher the costs.
In terms of the supply chain, we are not yet satisfied with our results. But we are confident that we will make significant progress with the two strategic approaches bluesign® and Higg Index in the coming years.
VAUDE is subject to German legal regulations regarding energy. These are in particular:
The total energy consumption of VAUDE at the headquarters in Tettnang-Obereisenbach was at 2,988,823 kWh in 2013.
At our location VAUDE-Straße 2, energy consumption compared to the base year 2008 increased by 23 percent. However, since the number of employees has increased by 39 percent and the amount of produced goods at the site increased by 141 percent over the same period, this means a disproportionately low increase. We attribute this to the successful implementation of our energy management measures.
Compared to the previous year, the total energy consumption has increased by three percent. The number of employees has basically not changed compared to 2012, but the amount of goods produced at the site has increased by 15 percent compared to 2012.
Since mid-2009, VAUDE has only used electricity from renewable sources. The share of renewable energy in electricity consumption is, therefore, 100 percent - see "100 percent renewable energy"
Since October 2013, VAUDE has used bio-gas exclusively, which is produced from 100 percent waste from the production of sugar from sugar beets. The share of renewable energies in gas consumption in 2013 was therefore 38 percent - see "heating with gas"