Our envi­ron­men­tal management

Our pro­duc­tion is ener­gy- and resour­ce-inten­si­ve. Both through the con­sump­ti­on of natu­ral resour­ces and the use of various che­mi­cals, the topic of envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion enjoys a high prio­ri­ty for us.

INDICATORS

With our envi­ron­men­tal manage­ment sys­tem in accordance with the Euro­pean stan­dard EMAS, we pur­sue a holistic approach to the topic of the environment.

Deve­lo­ped by the Euro­pean Com­mu­ni­ty, EMAS covers all rele­vant envi­ron­men­tal aspects. It is also per­for­mance-focu­sed: Every cer­ti­fied com­pa­ny should con­ti­nuous­ly impro­ve its envi­ron­men­tal per­for­mance – and invol­ve its employees in the pro­cess. “EMAS-cer­ti­fied com­pa­nies make an effec­ti­ve con­tri­bu­ti­on to envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, save cos­ts and show social respon­si­bi­li­ty. EMAS ensu­res that all envi­ron­men­tal aspects from ener­gy con­sump­ti­on to was­te are imple­men­ted in a legal­ly secu­re and trans­pa­rent man­ner.” (www.emas.de)

Sub-topics

↓ Our envi­ron­men­tal team
↓ Envi­ron­men­tal repor­ting
↓ Envi­ron­men­tal aspects
↓ Ener­gy and water manage­ment
↓ Was­te­wa­ter manage­ment
↓ Was­te manage­ment
↓ Bio­di­ver­si­ty

→ Not all che­mi­stry is the same?
→ CO2 footprint
→ Our fib­re stars

> EMAS
> GRI 102–11
> GRI 102–12
> GRI 102–16
> GRI 103–2
> GRI 103–3
> GRI 307–1

Envi­ron­men­tal reporting

As an EMAS-regis­tered and cer­ti­fied com­pa­ny, we are obli­ged to publish a detail­ed envi­ron­men­tal state­ment annu­al­ly. The envi­ron­men­tal state­ment is vali­da­ted by an envi­ron­men­tal app­rai­ser and is an essen­ti­al part of our envi­ron­men­tal manage­ment system.

The most important key figu­res and infor­ma­ti­on can be found on this sus­taina­bi­li­ty page. Our vali­da­ted envi­ron­men­tal state­ments are avail­ab­le for down­load here:

OEKO-TEX® STeP

In addi­ti­on, we have also been cer­ti­fied accord­ing to the OEKO-TEX® STeP stan­dard sin­ce 2020. This means that the sys­temic requi­re­ments of EMAS are sup­ple­men­ted by con­tent requi­re­ments from the OEKO-TEX® STeP stan­dard. This stan­dard con­tains six dif­fe­rent modu­les: Che­mi­cals Manage­ment, Envi­ron­men­tal Per­for­mance, Envi­ron­men­tal Manage­ment, Social Respon­si­bi­li­ty, Qua­li­ty Manage­ment and Health & Safety.

Envi­ron­men­tal standards
Down­loads

↓ EMAS cer­ti­fi­ca­te
↓ ISO 14001 certificate
↓ STeP by OEKO-TEX® certificate
↓ Ket­tel­hack Cor­po­ra­te Policy

Exter­nal links

→ EMAS.de
→ OEKO–TEX.com

Our envi­ron­men­tal team

Respon­si­bi­li­ty for envi­ron­men­tal manage­ment lies with Sus­taina­bi­li­ty Mana­ger, Jes­si­ca Bur­win and our Tech­ni­cal Mana­ger, Hen­drik Plei­mann. This inter­di­sci­pli­na­ry team ensu­res that the envi­ron­men­tal manage­ment sys­tem is holisti­cal­ly imple­men­ted and ful­ly embraced by all colleagues.

> EMAS
> GRI 102–30
> GRI 102–31
> GRI 103–1
> GRI 303–2

Our envi­ron­men­tal aspects

Envi­ron­men­tal aspects are all acti­vi­ties, pro­ducts or ser­vices of a com­pa­ny that have an impact on the envi­ron­ment. The iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on of direct and indi­rect envi­ron­men­tal aspects is an essen­ti­al part of any envi­ron­men­tal manage­ment sys­tem. The­se aspects are recor­ded, eva­lua­ted and review­ed at regu­lar intervals.

Click here for our envi­ron­men­tal aspects

> EMAS
> GRI 302–1
> GRI 302–3
> GRI 303–1
> GRI 303–5
> GRI 305–7

Ener­gy and water management

Resour­ce con­sump­ti­on depends on various fac­tors, for examp­le, the gram­mage and com­po­si­ti­on of the fab­ric, colour and finis­hing requi­re­ments, or even batch size. A mul­ti­tu­de of pro­duct vari­ants, the­re­fo­re, also stands for a mul­ti­tu­de of con­sump­ti­on pro­files. For this rea­son, even a com­pa­ri­son with oneself beco­mes a chal­len­ge. Loo­king at our pro­duc­tion pro­fi­le is, the­re­fo­re, essen­ti­al for inter­pre­ting the key figures.

Our pro­duc­tion profile

2018/20192019/20202020/2021
Out­put (m)9 426 0109 778 0989 984 633
Machi­ne hours28 87629 03029 845
2018/20192019/20202020/2021
∅- Weight in g289307309
White share (%)343227
Colour share (%)666873

A lot of steam is nee­ded in the dyeing and finis­hing pro­cess. The­re­fo­re, our pro­duc­tion is ener­gy inten­si­ve. The high con­sump­ti­on of ener­gy and water is one of the most important envi­ron­men­tal aspects and thus ener­gy and water manage­ment is a very important part of the envi­ron­men­tal manage­ment sys­tem. Con­sump­ti­on data are eva­lua­ted on a mon­th­ly basis — key figu­res sup­port this eva­lua­ti­on and indi­ca­te irre­gu­la­ri­ties at an ear­ly stage.

Our Con­sump­ti­on Data

Sum­ma­ry ana­ly­sis in 2020/2021
2018/20192019/20202020/2021
Electri­ci­ty kWh3 992 2574 144 3894 128 098
Green electri­ci­ty share50.2 %52.7 %52.7 %
Gas kWh27 038 26028 349 82629 438 588
Total ener­gy kWh31 030 51732 494 21533 566 686
kWh/machine hrs.1 0751 1191 125
2018/20192019/20202020/2021
Well water m3155 851170 150162 894
Muni­ci­pal water m32 1272 4792 725
Total water m3157 978172 629165 619
Muni­ci­pal water share1.3 %1.4 %1.7 %
m3/machine hr.5.55.95.5
2018/20192019/20202020/2021
Total air emis­si­ons in kg4 9815 2727 821
Sul­phur dioxide333535
Nitric oxide2 6783 0093 009
Dust252520
Methane2 2452 2454 757
Air emissions/machine hrs.0.170.180,26
Ener­gy + Water
“We cover almost 99 % of our water needs with trea­ted well water.”
Well water
98.3%
Muni­ci­pal water
1.7%
“Various mea­su­res to impro­ve ener­gy effi­ci­en­cy in the last fis­cal year will save about 480,000 kWh of ener­gy annu­al­ly in the future.”

> EMAS
> GRI 303–1
> GRI 303–4

Was­te­wa­ter management

Was­te­wa­ter manage­ment is an important ele­ment in our envi­ron­men­tal manage­ment sys­tem. Given the high level of water con­sump­ti­on, was­te­wa­ter is also the result of pro­duc­tion. Com­pli­an­ce with legal requi­re­ments from the Was­te­wa­ter Ordi­nan­ce is ensu­red by the dai­ly con­trol­ling and che­cking of the mixing and equa­li­sa­ti­on basin by trai­ned staff. In addi­ti­on, the­re are regu­lar and inde­pen­dent inspec­tions con­duc­ted by the respon­si­ble moni­to­ring aut­ho­ri­ties and con­trac­ted ser­vice providers.

Sum­ma­ry ana­ly­sis in 2020/2021
2018/20192019/20202020/2021
Was­te­wa­ter m3150 864158 281161 477
Was­te­wa­ter l/running metre16.016.216.2
2018/20192019/20202020/2021
Was­te­wa­ter emis­si­ons in kg202 543204 620224 058
∅ Was­te­wa­ter emis­si­ons kg/m31.471.481.39
2018/20192019/20202020/2021
Inde­pen­dent was­te­wa­ter testing6108
Was­te­wa­ter
0

Inde­pen­dent was­te­wa­ter tes­ting in 2021

> EMAS
> GRI 306–1
> GRI 306–2
> GRI 306–3
> GRI 306–4
> GRI 306–5

Was­te management

Was­te is reco­ve­r­ed or recy­cled by aut­ho­ri­sed and qua­li­fied was­te dis­po­sal com­pa­nies. Was­te types and quan­ti­ties are recor­ded in a was­te regis­ter. In addi­ti­on to the typi­cal was­te types – such as paper, muni­ci­pal was­te or even film – “tex­ti­le-spe­ci­fic” was­te types such as resi­du­al solu­ti­ons, sludge or tex­ti­le was­te are also generated.

Was­te summary

Click here for the com­ple­te was­te summary
2018/2019 2019/2020 2020/2021
Total was­te 305 T 399 T 353 T
Hazar­dous waste 0.25 T 0.8 T 2.2 T
Hazar­dous was­te per output 0.027 g/m 0.08 g/m 0.22 g/m
Was­te
Direct tex­ti­le recycling

In the pro­duc­tion pro­cess, tex­ti­le “was­te” accu­mu­la­tes at various points, for examp­le, as off­cuts, or in sam­ple pro­duc­tion. The­se rem­nants are sold direct­ly to a tex­ti­le recy­cling com­pa­ny and are, the­re­fo­re, not offi­cial­ly decla­red as waste.

2018/20192019/20202020/2021
5,69 g/m5.02 g/m6.74 g/m

> EMAS
> GRI 304–1
> GRI 304–2
> GRI 304–3

Bio­di­ver­si­ty

As a manu­fac­tu­ring com­pa­ny, we depend on an inta­ct eco­sys­tem and on bio­di­ver­si­ty, becau­se the use of natu­ral resour­ces (e.g. water) and raw mate­ri­als (e.g. cot­ton) is essen­ti­al for our pro­duc­tion processes.

When the com­pa­ny was relo­ca­ted from the city cent­re to an indus­tri­al site in 1982, part of the forest area was pre­ser­ved when the com­pa­ny pre­mi­ses were plan­ned. This area of natu­re on the bor­der to the neigh­bou­ring farm is lar­ge­ly left to its own devices. The small forest is home to deer, rab­bits, squir­rels and various bird spe­ci­es, among others.

On a roof ter­race reno­va­ted in 2017, the insect-friend­ly gree­n­e­ry also attracts various but­ter­flies, bees and wasps – from spring through to autumn. Both are­as count as “near-natu­ral are­as” accord­ing to the EMAS defi­ni­ti­on and ser­ve natu­re as both a retre­at and habi­tat. The remai­ning open are­as are main­ly bus­hes, shrubs and lawns.

Bio­di­ver­si­ty
“Ger­ma­ny has com­mit­ted its­elf to the pro­tec­tion of bio­lo­gi­cal diver­si­ty through both the Con­ven­ti­on on Bio­lo­gi­cal Diver­si­ty and the Sus­tainab­le Deve­lo­p­ment Goals (UN Sus­tainab­le Deve­lo­p­ment Goals). This issue is also an important com­po­nent of envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion for Ger­man companies.”
What is biodiversity?
Bio­di­ver­si­ty

Our Ket­tel­hack forest grows by exact­ly one tree per employee per month!

Sin­ce 2018, we have sup­por­ted the Plant-for-the-Pla­net pro­ject. On behalf of Ket­tel­hack, one tree per employee is plan­ted every mon­th in Cam­pe­che (Mexi­co). As a foun­da­ti­on, the orga­ni­sa­ti­on has taken over its own plan­ta­ti­on area com­pri­sing almost 14,000 hec­ta­res of fal­low land the­re, and is refo­res­ting this area with various nati­ve tree spe­ci­es. The­se trees not only store car­bon, but also pro­mo­te local bio­di­ver­si­ty. Through our con­tri­bu­ti­on, 1,200 new trees are added every year.

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