Nölken publishes its eleventh sustainability report in a row

The company Nölken, headquartered in Windhagen, has also published its sustainability report for the year 2021, once again emphasizing how sustainability can be lived in practice.

The year 2021 was probably not an easy one for most companies, due to the pandemic. And yet, the manufacturer of high-quality care products from Windhagen shows that set goals 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 our impact in mind in all our business activities, with a special focus on three equally important areas: Products, Environment, and People,“ according to management.

Therefore, the company's materiality analysis, conducted in 2017, was updated and refined in the past fiscal year. All specialist departments were included, allowing for the identification of current and future sustainability topics. The focus was on external influences that will prospectively impact long-term business success, as well as how business activities affect these sustainability-related topics.

Groundbreaking changes in the 2021 fiscal year at Nölken

In the past year, there have been some key changes at Nölken. The management team expanded at the beginning of 2021 with Thomas Müller, and at the beginning of this year with Thomas Schnitter and Alexander Strepp.

But the sustainability department has also gained a new employee in Christoph Lerbs, who, together with Johanna Jung, will take care of the sustainability activities of the parent and subsidiary companies in Germany and Poland.

In addition to the four production facilities in Windhagen, Nölken expanded its operations in early 2021 with the addition of another production facility in Neustadt/Wied. This facility focuses exclusively on the production of wet wipes and is powered by a 352 kWp photovoltaic system that has already been installed.

Far-reaching climate protection measures

Nölken avoids, reduces, and also compensates for its CO emissions in 2021.₂- Emissions. Another highlight of the past fiscal year was the planned and implemented installation of a photovoltaic system at the Windhagen site. This system produces up to 99 kWp, but Nölken covers its remaining electricity needs exclusively from regeneratively produced energy sources.

To publicly express the far-reaching ambitions in climate protection, Nölken also joined in November 2021 Stiftung Allianz for Development and Climate joined. Its goal is to link development cooperation and international climate protection through voluntary greenhouse gas compensation. The aim is to generate funds for the financing of development and climate protection projects in developing and emerging countries. Nölken expresses its commitment to climate neutrality by 2045 through a public self-commitment.

The CO₂-Emissions at Nölken primarily arise from employee commutes, heat generation, and waste disposal. To a lesser extent, emissions are caused by machine operation and the vehicle fleet. Therefore, Nölken has set ambitious goals to reduce these emissions.

These emissions, which arose in fiscal year 2021 and could not be avoided despite all optimization measures, were largely offset through two climate protection projects in the areas of wind energy and forest conservation.

Nölken's Sustainability Report follows the guidelines of the German Sustainability Code, the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact, and is aligned with the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative.

You can download the report here as a PDF.