Sustainability

In May 2023, Craemer GmbH has been awarded the silver medal for its achievements in the areas of sustainability and corporate social responsibility by the globally active and recognised rating agency EcoVadis SAS (https://ecovadis.com), based in Paris. This places Craemer GmbH, with its metal forming, plastics processing and toolmaking divisions, in the top quarter of more than 100,000 evaluated companies in 175 countries. The EcoVadis assessment is based on a point system in four categories: environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.

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).

We have been building with sustainability in mind since the beginning of this century. Our first plastic injection moulding plant in Telford, UK, opened in 2006 and 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.

The production of our metal formed parts, plastic pallets and containers is very energy-intensive. Since the beginning of 2022, we have been 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!

We have been using green gas at our Herzebrock-Clarholz site since January 2023. This 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.

For factory transport between our production sites in Herzebrock-Clarholz and Oelde as well as between our two injection moulding plants in Telford, we use all-electric vehicles, both e-vans and e-cars. This also includes vehicles that are available for other journeys. At our Herzebrock-Clarholz site, our apprentices and trainers have also been using electric vehicles since spring 2023. And a VW ID.3 is available for journeys to vocational school or external appointments.

In order to increase the number of sand lizards, we have created suitable habitats for the endangered reptile along the railway tracks on our Herzebrock-Clarholz site.
To protect the common pipistrelle bat, we created a flight path and planted it with flowering shrubs at our headquarters in 2016 ahead of building extensions. And at Craemer UK, we preserved two oak trees in the middle of our Site A and provided them with nesting boxes for these flying mammals.

Our pallets, boxes and containers are made exclusively from high-quality polyethylene. They are extremely stable and therefore durable, sustainable, and economical. Unlike wood, they are also splinter-free, hygienic, maintenance-free and 100 percent recyclable. 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.

We are happy to take back discarded Craemer products and use them to make new high-quality plastic pallets, boxes and containers. This is made possible by our extruder machine park at our German plastic injection moulding plants and our decades of know-how. This is our way of producing high-quality raw materials from discarded plastic products. We do not currently have extruders at our UK injection moulding plants, but we have also used materials from discarded plastic products there. Craemer's waste products are 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.