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2022 Sustainability Report
published 2023/08/01

Sustainability for a better quality of life

We strive to conduct sustainable business and manufacture fair and environmentally friendly products for you. In order to achieve this, we have embedded sustainability into the heart of our corporate strategy. This way, sustainability is integrated holistically and strategically into the "normal" everyday work of all employees. Throughout this process, we always keep our vision and mission in clear focus: We aim to contribute to a higher quality of life through our way of doing business.

As a sustainably innovative outdoor brand, we have a strong connection to nature. VAUDE thrives on the fact that people find joy and relaxation in nature with our products. We take comprehensive responsibility and practice sustainable business because we love the mountains and nature and want to preserve them. We believe that global challenges can only be overcome through committed action, and we want to ensure that our world continues to be a great place to live.



»We want to be a thoroughly sustainable company, and create a better quality of life through our forward-looking business practices.«

Antje of Dewitz, Managing Director

Our corporate strategy follows a clear vision and mission


What is VAUDE's vision? And what mission are we pursuing?


What does VAUDE stand for? What problems has VAUDE found solutions for? What added value does VAUDE offer consumers and society – today and in the future as well?


The answers to questions like these should be guided by our vision and mission. The main purpose of the vision statement is to briefly and concisely describe the added value the company is providing for customers and a future reality. It should make clear what drives us and what we stand for. The mission contains the many individual aspects that contribute to the concept. It shows how we intend to achieve our vision of the future.




We see entrepreneurship as a contribution to the public good. This means that we would like to use our actions to make a positive contribution to making the world a better place, for both people and nature. The Economy for the Common Good captures this understanding perfectly. It measures business success not only in financial terms, but also by its contribution to the public good. Human dignity, solidarity, ecological sustainability, social justice and democratic co-determination and transparency are also included. This is why VAUDE became a pioneer company in the Economy for the Common Good with an audited Common Good Balance – more at VAUDE Economy for the Common Good Balance.


For us, sustainability is integral to corporate responsibility. Our sustainability approach is based on the United Nation’s guiding principles for sustainable development. We are therefore closely examing the goals for sustainable development adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in the fall of 2015. We understand these goals to be a comprehensive call to action and that companies will play an important role in achieving them. We take our responsibility seriously and see the sustainable development goals as an enriching perspective for the further development and assessment of our business activities.


More at "VAUDE and the sustainable development goals".


 
 
We have received numerous awards for our understanding of entrepreneurship over the last years. More about our awards here.
 
 

Ambitious corporate strategy

What is VAUDE's vision? And what mission are we pursuing?

What does VAUDE stand for? What problems has VAUDE found solutions for? What added value does VAUDE offer consumers and society – today and in the future as well?


The answers to questions like these should be guided by our vision and mission. The main purpose of the vision statement is to briefly and concisely describe the added value the company is providing for customers and a future reality. It should make clear what drives us and what we stand for. The mission contains the many individual aspects that contribute to the concept. It shows how we intend to achieve our vision of the future.



Our vision and mission

We have received numerous awards for our understanding of entrepreneurship over the last years. More about our awards here.

 
 
Our vision: Improving the quality of life with sustainable outdoor products and future oriented business strategies.
 
 

These are just some of the ideas behind our vision:

Improving the quality of life for our customers, employees, producers and partners as well as society at large – this is the meaning we find in our actions. The focus is on our core business. We want to make enjoyable outdoor adventures possible with sustainable outdoor products! But we go far beyond that. We think about life on our planet in terms of humanity in partnership with nature. For us, forward-looking business means leading the way and setting an example with a new way of doing business that improves the quality of life and doesn’t harm nature, but that is nevertheless successful.




Our mission: We create innovative products, solutions and services that are both environmentally friendly and socially fair. We minimize our ecological footprint with sustainable quality and circular systems that allow us to operate within planetary boundaries. We are a driving force and role model for sustainable business practices on a global level.
 
 

These are just some of the ideas behind our mission:

We create innovative products that are environmentally friendly and socially fair, taking the planetary boundaries into account. We are aware of the negative consequences of problems such as climate change, loss of biodiversity or land and water use that harms the environmentally, which is why we focus on sustainable quality, circular systems and reducing our ecological footprint. We achieve this by consistently using biobased and recycled materials and making our products as repairable and recyclable as possible as well as by efficiently transitioning to renewable energy sources and avoiding environmentally harmful substances throughout the supply chain. In addition to selling our products, we invest in low-resource growth with services that strengthen the circular economy. With business models such as the rental of outdoor gear or second-hand sales platforms, we support our customers in living and consuming responsibly. We are leading the way as a pioneer and are happy to take on a role as a driving force and role model. In the spirit of making the world a better place, we are committed to responsible business practices on a global level. To this end, we are also involved at the political level in numerous initiatives, industry associations and pass on our experience at the VAUDE Academy for Sustainable Business.


The implementation of our vision and mission follows a multi-tiered, strategic approach. The foundation for this is our corporate philosophy, which you can learn more about in our "Corporate Philosophy" section.



We have a common good-oriented understanding of entrepreneurship and align ourselves with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As a company, we aim to contribute to the common good. This means that through our actions, we want to make a positive impact on people and the environment, creating a higher quality of life. The concept of the common good economy embodies this understanding precisely. It measures entrepreneurial success not only in terms of financial profit but also in terms of its contribution to the common good. VAUDE is therefore a pioneering company in the field of common good economy, with an audited common good balance sheet - you can find more information in our "VAUDE Common Good Balance Sheet" section.

Furthermore, our understanding of sustainability is guided by the United Nations' vision for sustainable development.

Read more about "VAUDE and the Sustainable Development Goals".



Would you like to find out more about our corporate strategy?

The following elements form the VAUDE corporate strategy:


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  • The Company Vision expresses VAUDE's aspirational vision of the future, with the purpose of serving as a compass and source of inspiration for its employees.  
  • The mission describes the company's purpose and its contribution to achieving the vision. The corporate purpose sums up why VAUDE exists and what positive contribution is made to customers and society.  
  • Ten strategies define the foundational long-term strategic orientation both internally and externally and provide guidance – read more at "Our Goals".  
  • The Corporate Goals describe what VAUDE would like to accomplish in the mid-term – more at "Our Goals". 
  • Division Goals, Department Goals, Team Goals and Employee Goals are derived from the Corporate Goals. This means that each employee pursues and implements specific sustainability goals as a part of their job. 


The executive board reviews the corporate strategy annually in a combined process of top-down and bottom-up approach and continues to develop it.


Our goals are defined with specific target figures and timeframes. We regularly review the extent to which we’ve achieved our goals and analyze possible difficulties in order to derive measures that may be necessary at short notice. These results form the foundation we use to continue to develop and improve.


Sustainability goals and target figures are largely derived from the requirements and key figures of external sustainability standards such as the GRI, EMAS, FWF etc. We use these to measure and direct our sustainability performance. This approach ensures the materiality of our goal setting— more at "Our Goals".


Systematically embedding the strategy in the VAUDE Ecosystem

Sustainability has many aspects and challenges, especially for companies with a global supply chain. The VAUDE Ecosystem defines how we systematically embed all sustainability activities and measures of our business activities at the company headquarters in Tettnang and throughout the entire product life cycle. The criteria for completeness and materiality underlie the defined action fields of the VAUDE Ecosystem. This helps us guarantee that all materiality aspects and issues regarding social and ecological responsibility at the company headquarters and in the entire supply chain are identified and addressed – more at "The VAUDE Ecosystem".


We have received numerous awards in recent years for our understanding of entrepreneurship. More about our awards here.


GRI:   102-14
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