Since 2011, we have taken on a voluntary commitment for all supply purchases for our Tettnang-Obereisenbach location. We want to use our purchasing influence to support companies which, like VAUDE, incorporate sustainability as a corporate philosophy.
Therefore, we place great importance on purchasing and using products that are as environmentally friendly as possible including office supplies, cleaning products, furniture and everything else we need for our business operations at VAUDE.
The bulk of our paper consumption is used for sales documents such as our Dealer Order Books. The remainder includes printer and copy paper, training documents and business cards.
We have significantly reduced harmful emissions from printed materials and paper consumption since 2011. Firstly, we have consistently conserved paper, for example, by doing away with our catalogue for end customers.
Secondly, recycled paper creates significantly less emissions than conventional paper. By transferring most of our paper stock to eco-friendly recycled paper, we put this leverage to use for our carbon footprint. Find out more here.
In addition to having a collection that’s sustainable, presentation in a sustainable shop design is also important to us. With our shopfitting concept, we have succeeded in consistently implementing our environmental commitment at the point of sale as well. Materials selection and shop design are both made with the goal of keeping our ecological footprint as small as possible.
CO2 stemming from the store construction was offset so the complete store fittings are climate-neutral.
The focus in our shop design are the use of fewer materials due to an open design and a recyclable, modular shopfitting concept for high flexibility. In the case of materials, easily detachable connections are used so that, if necessary, the materials can be separated by type for reuse or recycling.
Using a limited variety of materials supports this:
Our flooring is also made of linoleum. Since its production is CO2-neutral, it doesn’t contribute to global warming. In addition, it has been awarded the "natureplus" quality label for sustainable residential and building products and the "Blue Angel" quality label.
The lighting concept used in most VAUDE stores is focused on energy efficiency: Only energy-efficient LED lighting and 100 % green electricity are used. In this case, thanks to LED technology, consumption is only 14 % compared to older incandescent bulbs and 17 % compared to halogen lighting. (Source: https://ledtipps.net/stromverbrauch/)
Our clothes hangers are made from FSC-certified lotus wood.
The curtains of our dressing rooms are made of 100 % upcycled materials from production residuals. These curtains are sewn at VAUDE in Obereisenbach. And last but not least: when they’re no longer needed, we sew them into gym bags in our upcycling workshop. More about it here.
While Green Shape is a product label that our customers recognize, VAUDE is also working 'behind the scenes' with strict parameters for product development:
The VAUDE Material Policy delineates VAUDE's voluntary commitment to applying "Best Available Technology" (BAT) to eliminate the use of controversial technologies and materials, and to ensure maximum traceability of all materials to their origin. Finding the right balance between price and environmental friendliness remains a challenge for our product managers. Read more here.
At our Manufaktur site in Tettnang we manufacture waterproof bike bags, Packs ’n Bags and our Made in Germany mountaineering backpacks – read more about it here .
Material selection is carried out in accordance with our motto “Performance meets Ecology”. All of the materials we use here are PVC-free. Why is PVC a problem? You can find out here.
Even in the construction of our new Manufaktur site, using environmentally friendly building materials and energy efficiency were very important to us. Read more about it here.
Unnecessary packaging is truly problematic, especially if it is made of plastic. Why? Read more about it here.
Our voluntary self-regulation in the use of environmentally friendly materials echoes the latest available knowledge, even after consulting external experts such as the WWF. We are continually developing our ongoing voluntary obligations, incorporating other divisions and extending or changing content when new findings are available.
We want to use this to set an example and to fulfill our responsibility for people and nature in all of our everyday business operations.
| GRI: | 301-1 |
| GRI: | 301-2 |
| GRI: | 103 |
