Information: This report is outdated – you can find the current sustainability report here.

 
 
 
 
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2013 Sustainability Report

Active dialogue on key issues

By exchanging ideas with stakeholders - such as Greenpeace and Four Paws - we discover potential for improvement. Internally, we are implementing the results of an employee survey.

Ad hoc exchanges

Together we can accomplish more. Therefore, we enter into dialog about major issues and concerns with our stakeholders. In this reporting year, these included Greenpeace, Four Paws and our employees. From our dialogue with these stakeholders, we drew insights into how we could improve our business. In the future, we will expand our stakeholder dialogue even further (see "Dialog important for development".


Greenpeace Detox Campaign

Greenpeace is continuing its Detox Campaign, fighting against the use of chemicals in clothing, in order to provide clean drinking water in China. The campaign is directed against eleven groups of chemical substances. Particularly relevant for the outdoor industry in this context is the use of fluorocarbons in the production of water-repellent clothing.

VAUDE has internally established a project group to systematically develop alternatives to the use of fluorocarbons. In addition, we are working with the ZDHC, (although we are not a member). We have posted a position statement on how we are dealing with fluorocarbons on our website.


Four Paws down campaign

GRI:   G4-27
Report key topics and concerns that have been raised through stakeholder engagement, and how the organization has responded to those key topics and concerns, including through its reporting. Report the stakeholder groups that raised each of the key topics and concerns.
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Four Paws campaigns against the use of down from live-plucked or forced fed animals. VAUDE has a clear commitment: We only use down of slaughtered animals (see also "Heat storage as light as a feather – one of nature’s marvels"). We have received all relevant verifications on this from all of our suppliers. In addition, our supplier of down clothing is a bluesign® system partner and the down used is "bluesign® approved".

The down campaign helped us discover that we still have no absolute control over the conditions under which animals that our down comes from are kept and treated. Therefore, we will retain an independent organization in order to audit the entire supply chain of our down. 


We will verify each step along the supply chain; starting at the farms and proceeding to the slaughterhouses, as well as the clear identification of the down’s origin at the supplier, and our supplier’s processing of the down. This way we can attain complete transparency within the down supply chain. 


Results from the Employee Survey will be implemented by 2014

In a 2011 Employee Survey, VAUDE’s compensation system had the worst rating. To counteract this, we have started the project "Introduction of a Salary System" in 2013.

The aim of the project is to introduce a more objective and more performance-based compensation system to reward employees in comparable positions with comparable pay. (see also Employee satisfaction) The project will be completed in 2014, and the various measures derived from the survey will be implemented over the coming years.