Siegwerk Emphasizes Sustainability

The United Nations launched the year 2012 with the motto “Sustainable Energy for All.” In an era of climate change and increasing raw material prices, harmonization of economic, environmental and social factors plays a big role at Siegwerk, too – and has done since the company was founded.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon opened the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 16. To promote sustainable action globally, strategies were developed to make renewable energy available to everyone. Twenty UN bodies and organizations were involved in agreeing on the following goals, to be implemented by 2030:
• Guaranteed global access to modern energy services.
• Boosting the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix to 30 percent.
• Reducing energy consumption by 40 percent.

At present, 1.5 billion people don’t have electricity. The promotion of renewable energy is seen as a growth factor to create jobs and combat poverty.

As an internationally active corporation, Siegwerk sees sustainable action as a priority. Social commitment, environmental awareness and profitability have been closely linked to each other in the company’s philosophy since Siegwerk’s beginnings. For instance, the first company health insurance scheme was introduced in 1843, along with a canteen for employees. Today, safety at work plays an increasingly important part. For all these topics Siegwerk established an own department: Global HSE + Sustainability.

Along with numerous social projects, Siegwerk also supports environmentally motivated action: closed recycling facilities for heat and solvents and purification systems for emissions are just a few examples. Sealed surfaces protect ground water from contamination. A Europe-wide management system for empty ink containers is in place.

Increasingly, there is also a focus on the production and development of environment-friendly inks. Ninety percent of Siegwerk’s printing inks contain renewable, vegetable-based raw materials. One example is TEMPO Nutripack, a sheetfed offset ink series for food packaging, that contains only vegetable oils. And with its worldwide research network “Global Innovation Network” (GIN), Siegwerk works hard to boost the share of vegetable-based raw materials in all its products. Of course, all of this is happening with a view to the profitability, too.