In 2008 VAUDE introduced an operational Environmental Management System and has been EMAS and ISO14001 certified since that time. Energy management plays a central role in this system: all energy consumption is recorded and evaluated annually.
From these results, we derive goals and measures. EMAS requires us to make continual improvements in the area of energy.
We have been working consistently since 2008 in Obereisenbach toward:
VAUDE has renovated a part of the building that had been used as a warehouse in accordance with DGNB- standards (German Sustainable Building Council) to make offices. The entire administration building was modernized. After a fire in 2015, VAUDE built its new Manufaktur in 2016. In all phases of construction work, energy efficiency played a prominent role in the process. The building has attained a very high energy efficiency standard due to better insulation, a living roof, floor heating, wooden construction and clever lighting solutions.
Energy is an essential aspect for VAUDE because the production of VAUDE products requires energy, as does the all the rest of our business activities: goods transport, office heating, the company fleet, employees’ daily commute and computer electrical consumption.
This not only applies to the company headquarters at our Obereisenbach site, but also especially to the manufacturing of VAUDE products and all the materials needed for the upstream supply chain.
All energy consumption causes harmful emissions. To compensate for the negative effects of our energy use, we have been compensating for them (and for other resource consumption, such as materials) since 2012 at the company headquarters in Obereisenbach with myclimate. This makes the entire VAUDE headquarters in Obereisenbach including the bags produced there "climate neutral" – see "Climate Neutral Business".
In 2017 we are launching a new Energy Management Tool. This will allow us to collect and analyze all consumption based on organization units – for example, administration, manufacturing, and the canteen.
VAUDE has made its own commitment to keeping upstream energy consumption as low as possible for goods and services that we procure at our headquarters in Obereisenbach.
Here are a few examples:
- All office equipment such as computers, printers, coffee makers etc. meet a high energy standard (minimum: Energy Star, preferably Blauer Engel).
- Since 2011, the VAUDE company fleet has been in the process of conversion to low-fuel consumption vehicles.
- The VAUDE Café and the canteen are certified organic and purchase almost exclusively organic, regional products. These generally require less energy consumption for cultivation, production and transport.
As a participant of the IHK Energieimpuls-Netzwerk Bodensee-Oberschwaben, we are obligated to increase our energy efficiency. We have set concrete goals to accomplish this – read more at: "Our goals in detail".
VAUDE is subject to applicable legal regulations regarding energy in Germany.
Unlike the situation at our headquarters in Obereisenbach, VAUDE has very little influence on how energy is handled in the upstream and downstream supply chain. We report on how we are still trying to meet our responsibilities here
