We are once again taking on a pioneering role in terms of sustainability and are making our HAKRO collection climate-neutral from 1 January 2022. We have been proactively committed to sustainability and environmental protection for many years. To this end, we are avoiding and reducing our CO2 emissions worldwide and offsetting them where avoidance is not yet possible. This makes us the first corporate wear provider to be completely climate-neutral - from raw materials to delivery to our authorised retail partners.
‘Climate change is one of the biggest threats of our time and the textile industry is making a significant contribution to this development,’ says Managing Director Carmen Kroll. ‘Our goal must be to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. At HAKRO, we want to prove that this is possible and are looking for solutions that really make a difference. Making our entire collection climate-neutral is the next logical step in our holistic climate protection strategy and I am proud that we have decided to do so.’
As part of our climate protection strategy, we pursue the triad of calculating, reducing and offsetting. To make our collection climate-neutral, we first analysed the carbon footprint of our products along the entire supply chain. We followed the ‘cradle-to-customer plus waste’ approach, which means that all emissions released by raw materials, transport, production, packaging, recycling and recovery at the end of a product's life cycle were taken into account. We were supported in this by ClimatePartner, the leading provider of climate protection solutions for companies, with whom we have been working since 2017.
ClimatePartner carried out precise calculations of our CO2 emissions for us in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the leading standard for preparing greenhouse gas balances. In the next step, we offset the unavoidable emissions by investing in forest protection in Brazil - a climate protection project certified in accordance with the Verified Carbon Standard + Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standard (VCS + CCBS Gold Level) and designed to last at least 40 years.
The CO2 calculation also gives us the opportunity to identify further reduction potential along our value chain and thus gradually reduce the emissions from our collection. Avoidance and reduction approaches that have already been implemented include the gradual switch to sustainable or recycled fibres, the elimination or reduction of packaging materials, the increased use of renewable energies in the supply chain and, in a pilot project, even the use of sustainable biofuels for the transport of goods by sea.
Our aim for the future is to expand our CO2 emissions reduction processes and thus offset less and less. To this end, we will localise even more emissions hot spots by recording primary data even more precisely and reduce them through direct interventions.
Our site in Schrozberg has been able to call itself climate-neutral since 2017 thanks to its self-sufficiency in green electricity, a comprehensive energy management system with battery storage, a combined heat and power plant fuelled by biogas and a gradual switch to a combustion-free vehicle fleet.
‘With our commitment to climate protection, we would also like to motivate you, dear specialist retailers, to support our chosen path and also pay attention to your carbon footprint,’ says Carmen Kroll. ‘In this way, we can all make a joint contribution to achieving the 1.5 degree target. Join us on the path to a more sustainable future - for you, your customers and our environment.’ Because this is how we can make our contribution to the 1.5 degree target together.
