Sustainability

In May 2023, the renowned sustainability rating ageny EcoVadis SAS -  which is based in Paris but globally active - awared the Craemer GmbH with a silver medal for its achievements in the areas of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. EcoVadis assesses a company's efforts based on a point system in the four categories environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. With its silver medal, Craemer GmbH ranks in the top quarter of over 100,000 evaluated companies in a total of 175 countries.

Our new plastic injection moulding plant in the Aurea Industrial Park, Germany, (inaugurated in early 2023) consumes only 55 percent of the energy of a conventional new building. It was built to KfW-55, a standard for energy-efficient buildings developed by KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau; German reconstruction loan corporation).

Since the beginning of this century, Craemer has been building with sustainability in mind. In 2006, we opened our first plastic injection moulding plant in Telford, UK, which was awarded a “Very Good” rating in 2008 by BREEAM, the oldest certification system for sustainable building. BREEAM stands for “Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method” and was developed in the UK in 1990.

Metal forming and plastics processing are highly energy-intensive production areas. In 2022, we began our journey of significantly reducing our electricity consumption at the Herzebrock-Clarholz and Oelde sites with the help of electricity from renewable energy sources, i.e. produced in a carbon-neutral manner (60 percent in 2022 and 100 percent in 2023). At the Herzebrock-Clarholz site, with its metal, plastic and tool production, this will reduce our carbon footprint 2023 by around 50 percent!

Since January 2023, our Herzebrock-Clarholz site has been using only green gas which means that 100 percent of the carbon emissions from our gas consumption will be offset by funding selected climate protection projects, making our entire gas consumption carbon neutral. Our plastic injection moulding plant in Oelde, which was taken into operation in 2022, does not use any gas at all.

We will increasingly rely on self-generated, renewable energy for our electricity supply. At the Aurea site, we plan to install a wind turbine with an annual output of 16.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity (equivalent to the power consumption of 5,000 households). Surplus capacity will be fed into the grid our headquarters in Herzebrock. In addition to wind power, we will also be using solar energy at the new site in the foreseeable future – with one photovoltaic system each in the open space below the wind turbine and on the entire roof area.

Craemer load carriers are known to be of exceptional quality and durability. All our pallets, pallet boxes and containers are made exclusively from high-quality polyethylene. This ensures high stability and thus makes our products durable, sustainable and more economical. In comparison to wooden alternatives, they also remain maintenance-free, safe to use and are fully recycable. The longevity of our plastic pallets has also been verified by independent bodies:  In 2007, the Fraunhofer Institute in Dortmund (Germany) certified that our EURO H1 plastic pallet has a service life of more than twelve years and an extremely high load capacity. And in 2022, Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA) confirmed that our inch-size CR4-5 plastic pallet can easily complete more than 500 cycles – far more than any competing pallet.

Once our products have reached the end of their lifecycle, we are happy to take back discarded Craemer products and use them to make new high-quality plastic pallets, boxes and containers. Thanks to decades of experience and a state-of-the-art extruder machine park at our German headquarters we are able to produce high-quality raw materials from our old plastic products. The process begins with Craemer waste products being taken back by an external service provider who supplies us with the washed and shredded material for recycling.

First it was PET bottles, then Craemer trade fair banners and now it's backpack bags: upcycled by Craemer, hand-sewn by Westfalenfleiss in Münster, a workshop for disabled people. Each of the 300 backpacks is unique and a small symbol of sustainability! They are given away for free – at trade fairs where we will be present.