You’ve got to have mobility: employees commute to work and sometimes have to go on business trips, our products are transported from production facilities to our logistics center and from there to our customers. Mobility is the source of a large percentage of emissions in our globalized world. We have set ourselves the goal of reducing emissions from transportation and travel even further.
All emissions generated by VAUDE are calculated by myclimate. So we not only have a climate footprint, but can also compensate for our emissions. We support projects that save emissions to the same extent that we incur. That way we ensure that our carbon footprint is neutral - see "climate neutral at the site Tettnang".
The distance that our products cover once they leave the manufacturing facilities and until they finally reach the hand of the customer is quite a long one. Still every product is accountable for only a very small proportion of emissions.
The majority of our products are manufactured in Asia and transported by container ship to Hamburg. From here they travel by rail to Ulm, and then are driven by truck to our logistics center in Tettnang-Obereisenbach. While marine and rail transportation create a very low level of emissions and thus are ecologically sensible, transport by truck and air are emission-intensive. Therefore, we try to avoid not only airfreight, but also truck deliveries as well, whenever possible - see "Climate Neutral Transport".
Transport is also necessary to deliver our products to our customers, the retailers, and to import materials and consumables for our company headquarters in Tettnang-Obereisenbach – see also „Offset emissions".
Better by rail
While transport from Hamburg to Tettnang by truck generates about as much CO2 emissions as a container ship from Asia to Hamburg, transport by rail is very environmentally friendly and low in emissions. |
We are converting our company fleet to low-emission vehicles. This, together with VAUDE’s explicit training in economical driving, has decreased fuel consumption per 100 kilometers by five percent compared with the previous year. This has also slightly reduced emissions.
We are also aiming to reduce emissions for business travel. The VAUDE Travel Policy Guidelines are helping us here - see "Less emissions from business travel".
Due to our remote location in Tettnang-Obereisenbach, most employees have to commute to work. Our goal is by 2015 to reduce emissions from commuting by ten percent based on figures from 2011.
The six components of the VAUDE mobility concept:
Those who opt for environmentally friendly commuting will – with a little luck – be rewarded. All employees who do not commute alone by car are eligible for a weekly prize drawing.