Due to the pandemic, 2021 was probably not an easy year for most companies. And yet the manufacturer of high-quality care products based in Windhagen demonstrates that targets set in the area of sustainability can be achieved.

“At Nölken, we are aware of the importance of sustainability and responsible corporate governance. We strive to keep an eye on our impacts in all business activities, whereby we focus specifically on three equally important areas: Products, environment, and people,” according to statements by Management.

Consequently, the materiality analysis of the company, conducted in 2017, was updated and defined during the past business year. All specialist departments participated in this, and we were therefore able to identify current and future sustainability issues. The focus here was on which external influences would have an impact on the long-term success of the business, but on the other hand, also how business activities impact these sustainability-related issues.

Pioneering changes at Nölken during the business year 2021.

There were some key changes at Nölken last year. The management team was joined by Thomas Müller at the beginning of 2021 as well as by Thomas Schnitter and Alexander Strepp at the beginning of this year.

But the sustainability department has also gained a new colleague with Christoph Lerbs, who, together with Johanna Jung, looks after the sustainability activities of the parent company and its subsidiaries in Germany and Poland.

Apart from the four production halls in Windhagen, Nölken has expanded at the beginning of 2021 to include a further production hall in Neustadt (Wied). This new production hall focuses exclusively on the production of wet wipes and is operated with a photovoltaic system of 352 kWp that has already been installed.

Far-reaching measures in climate protection

Nölken avoids, reduces, and offsets its CO₂ emissions also in 2021. Another highlight of the past business year was the planned and implemented photovoltaic system installation at the Windhagen site. This produces up to 99 kWp, but also the remaining electricity requirement is provided at Nölken exclusively from renewably produced energy.

Apart from that, to publicly declare its far-reaching efforts in climate protection, Nölken joined the Foundation Development and Climate Alliance in November 2021. The aim of the foundation is to link development cooperation and international climate protection through voluntary offsetting of greenhouse gases, thereby generating funds to finance development and climate protection projects in developing and emerging countries. With a public commitment, Nölken declares its endeavor to achieve climate neutrality by 2045.

The CO₂emissions at Nölken are primarily generated within the scope of employee commuting, heat generation, and waste disposal. To a small extent, emissions are caused by machinery operation and the vehicle fleet. Nölken has therefore set itself ambitious goals to reduce these emissions.

These emissions produced in the 2021 business year, which could not be avoided despite all optimization measures, were largely offset by two climate protection projects in wind energy and forest conservation.

The sustainability report by Nölken follows, on the one hand, the guidelines of the German Sustainability Code, on the other hand, the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact, and is based on the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative. The report is available for downloading on the Nölken website at:

https://www.noelken.de/en/sustainability/sustainability-report