Sustainability
We protect life worldwide!
This is what schülke stands for. With our products and services, we ensure that people are effectively protected from infection and contamination. This is our claim - and an integral part of our more than 130-year history. However, for us, protecting life does not end with the development of successful hygiene solutions or effective products. It also includes active, responsible action for the long-term, comprehensive preservation of an environment worth living in and a just society.
Health and sustainability go hand in hand. They are guiding principles of our identity and strategy and thus become integral components of our organization and processes. Through our long-term approach to business, we take responsibility for a changing world and make an important contribution today to protecting the livelihoods of future generations.
Selected measures
We are convinced that ecological sustainability always goes hand in hand with social and economic sustainability. We pursue this holistic approach with a wide range of measures:
Science-based targets
We want to set ourselves ambitious climate protection targets and have been registered as a participating company in the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), which is visible to everyone on the internet, since June 2022. We are using an internationally recognized science-based approach to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. Our participation in the Science Based Target Initiative demonstrates our clear commitment to making a contribution to climate protection and is therefore the strongest lever of our environmental sustainability activities to date.
Circular economy
To avoid waste along the value chain, we optimize the design of our packaging, adjust sizes and increasingly use recycled and recyclable materials where the regulatory framework for product protection and patient safety allows.
Supply chains
In a globalized world, our responsibility does not end at the borders of our own factory premises. We therefore develop reliable criteria for the selection of our suppliers and thus promote their own transformation.
Diversity
The diversity of our employees is an asset that helps us to achieve our sustainability goals. We have therefore signed the Diversity Charter and developed a diversity roadmap to further strengthen diversity in our company by 2025.
Sustainability - where we stand today
With our sustainability report, we document the progress of our transformation and show the measures we are currently taking to make ourselves even more sustainable. To ensure a high standard, our sustainability report follows the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), one of the world's leading frameworks.
The current report is available for download here.
Our sustainability charter
Acting sustainably - We take our mission further
Our mission #wirschützenlebenweltweit is based on a holistic, sustainable approach. Together with our business partners, we can achieve a great deal to protect people and the environment. We act with a clear view to the future - responsibly, sustainably and consciously.
Ethical and social responsibility
Our conduct and working methods are based on the highest ethical standards. Regular compliance and ethics training on core topics such as the Code of Conduct, anti-bribery and cyber security are a matter of course for us at schülke. We strive to do business with third parties who act responsibly by adhering to the principles of our Supplier Code of Conduct.
Guidelines and certificates
As a pioneer in sustainability management and environmental protection, schülke has been EMAS certified since 1996. An integrated management system according to ISO 9001, 14001, 13485 as well as certifications according to GMP, GDP and GVP complement our sustainability efforts. You can find our Sustainability Report 2021 here.
With the topic of sustainability, we are also becoming increasingly involved in associations and building professional networks. For more than 30 years, schülke has been an active member of the Bundesdeutscher Arbeitskreis für Umweltbewusstes Management e. V. (B.A.U.M.) and is involved in the German Medical Technology Association (BVMed) and the Industrial Association for Hygiene and Surface Protection for Industrial and Institutional Use (IHO).
Energy efficiency
In recent years, we have already implemented numerous large-scale as well as individual measures to promote climate protection at schülke. At many office locations and at our large production site in Germany, the energy supply has been switched to green electricity, thereby increasing the proportion of green electricity in the electricity mix.
schülke is a participating company in the Science Based Targets Initiative
With a clear focus on further advancing our activities for climate protection and using an internationally recognized science-based approach, schülke has now publicly committed to making an active contribution: Since 23 June 2022, we have been registered as a participating company in the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).
(https://sciencebasedtargets.org/companies-taking-action)
The initiative is backed by the organizations CDP, United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The initiative defines proven science-based procedures and an independent assessment of participating companies. schülke is one of 3,547 companies worldwide that are currently part of the initiative (as of August 17, 2022). Our participation in this initiative demonstrates our clear commitment to improved climate protection.
Inclusion & diversity
At schülke, we deliberately create a corporate culture that integrates people with different backgrounds and perspectives. In doing so, we apply a multidimensional understanding of diversity that encompasses age, gender, gender and sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, ideology and disability. Diversity offers great opportunities for us to develop further, which is why respect, inclusion, cultural diversity, openness and transparency define the way we interact with each other. In January 2021, we therefore signed the Diversity Charter. This is an employer initiative to promote diversity in companies with the aim of "advancing the recognition, appreciation and inclusion of diversity in the world of work in Germany".
Health & Safety
It goes without saying that compliance with occupational safety and environmental legislation is a top priority for us. Our centralized reporting system for safety deviations helps us to continuously improve in this important area.
Mobility
With the aim of continuously minimizing our carbon footprint, schülke has developed a mobility concept that includes, among other things, the revision of the business travel policy. With the introduction of the JobRad in 2021 and the establishment of a nextbike station in 2022, we have implemented further projects from our mobility concept in order to offer all employees at our Norderstedt site an ecologically valuable alternative means of transportation and at the same time improve our connectivity.
Product responsibility
Our products help protect people worldwide from infections. Last year alone, we were able to help protect patients and healthcare professionals from hospital infections with more than 3 billion product applications. We are pursuing the goal of sustainably optimizing our product portfolio by using recyclable materials and packaging while maintaining consistently high product quality and safety. By optimizing wipe material, for example, we have succeeded in saving around 18 percent PET in our mikrozid® AF Jumbo wipes, which corresponds to an annual saving of 45 tons of PET for this product alone.
We have optimized the packaging of our schülke wipes safe & easy bagless in such a way that, in addition to simplified handling, we have achieved a recyclability of 99.5 percent. The excellent recyclability has been confirmed by the leading international laboratory group Eurofins Scientific. The schülke octenisan® set is available in a new, sustainable packaging. The product is no longer available in a plastic bag, but in a 100 percent recyclable cardboard folding box and is producedlocally.
