Water – the source of life

The quality of water determines the level of both the health of human beings and that of ecosystems.” – Aruwa Bendsen, Program Manager of the Freshwater Ecosystems Unit of the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) stated in an Interview with TEEB.

Water is a significant aspect for VAUDE, because the manufacturing of VAUDE products in many upstream processes requires water and produces wastewater (see Effluents and Waste and "Goal: Reduce Waste").

This holds true for the production at the company headquarters in Tettnang, but of course, also for the manufacturing of VAUDE products, and particularly all the needed materials in the extended supply chain.

At our company headquarters in Tettnang, water is used exclusively for sanitation and in the lab for waterproof testing and washing tests. It is discharged into the municipal sewage system. We do not need water in our production processes. Water consumption is recorded by our water utility and regularly assessed.

Water use increased significantly in the past two years for two reasons: the first is due to the intensive renovation work at the Tettnang location where, for example, concrete saws were cooled with water for the construction process. The second cause was the fire caused by lightening on 27 April 2015 during which massive amounts of extinguishing water was used.

The total water supply for our Tettnang-Obereisenbach headquarters is provided by the municipal water utility. Our drinking water comes from the groundwater aquifer from the Bodnegg District.

In the water protection area, rainfall amounts ensure adequate groundwater renewal. The natural cycle is not disturbed by groundwater extraction.

The groundwater is so well protected by natural means from environmental influences that it is possible to directly feed pumped water without treatment into our distribution network. 

We use the water from a 20,000 liter rainwater tank as service water, e.g. for toilet flushing. We only use tap water if the rainwater tank is empty.

At Tettnang-Obereisenbach we do not recycle water since we do not need any process water.

On the company´s premises, we maintain two ponds for rainwater collection as well as for fire safety use. These have been developed to serve as a wetlands habitat for toads, frogs and many insects. Also, many VAUDE employees greatly enjoy having their work breaks there.