Hansgrohe Reaches Further Milestones and Receives Awards for Sustainability Projects

ESG Strategy 2023: Successful Balance Sheet for Extensive Package of Green Transformation Measures

Another exciting year of green transformation lies behind the Hansgrohe Group. A year with a world premiere, numerous water, energy, and resource-saving product innovations, various awards, and the good feeling of being on the right track.

Awards for Sustainable Corporate Strategy

The recent win of the German Sustainability Award 2024 confirms the activities and progress of an innovation leader. Hansgrohe is one of 100 companies in Germany that an expert jury considers to have made "particularly effective and successful contributions to transformation in their business areas and have thus become role models".  In October 2023, Hansgrohe received the Global Transition Award from Handelsblatt, Capgemini, and Techem as one of the pioneers of decarbonization for its "convincing strategies for a 1.5°C compliant economy". In June 2023, WirtschaftsWoche ranked the Hansgrohe Group among the ESG pioneers of German SMEs. In the ranking, Hansgrohe Group placed 14th out of 50 in terms of ecology, social responsibility and fair corporate governance, making it the best-placed company in the German sanitary industry.

Green Energy at Company Sites and in Production

All Hansgrohe Group locations worldwide were already climate-neutral* by 2022. Now all production sites are also running on green energy. Shanghai is the first production site to be gas-free and both the Offenburg production site and the Hansgrohe subsidiary in Austria are pushing ahead with the further expansion of photovoltaic systems.

Green Company Initiatives: More and More Projects Go Live

Progress and initial results were also made in 2023 with the ten Green Company initiatives derived from the IN TOUCH WITH OUR PLANET maxim: under the motto "Green Mindset", 26 colleagues were trained as "Green Experts" together with training partner ada Learning GmbH. During a four-month learning journey, they first built up theoretical specialist knowledge and then applied this in a practical project phase. As part of the "Green Products" initiative, the hansgrohe Planet Edition was developed – a water-saving, hand-held shower that uses an environmentally friendly plastic recyclate in all non-water-bearing parts. This alternative to petroleum-based primary plastics significantly reduces the consumption of resources and energy. The hand-held shower is also completely chrome-free.

More information: https://www.hansgrohe.com/bathroom/lines/planet-edition

Thanks to the "Green Packaging" initiative, all new product packaging will also be plastic-free by the end of 2025**.

Hansgrohe also voluntarily accepts further external obligations: Hansgrohe's climate protection targets, for example, have undergone validation by the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi). The company has also joined the WIN Charter and the Climate Alliance of the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

Green Transparency Services Promote Sales Success

Hansgrohe has also taken a significant step forward in terms of "Green Transparency Services": nine Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) published in 2023 also provide information on the consumption and environmental impact of around 1,500 products from AXOR and hansgrohe. This data now has a major impact on sales successes: for example, the French Accor Group will equip the properties of its hotel brands IBIS ROUGE, IBIS STYLE and IBIS BUDGET with 50,000 water-saving shower heads from hansgrohe -- Crometta Vario Green – for the benefit of their carbon footprint.

Visionary Bathroom Concept Provides Impulses

"Hansgrohe's Green Vision Beyond Water: Rethinking Bathroom Culture" celebrated its premiere in spring 2023 to worldwide acclaim: The visionary concept of the sustainable bathroom of the future impressed the ISH trade audience, as well as delegates from many nations at the UN Water Conference in New York and the environmental community at the GREENTECH FESTIVAL in Berlin. Green Vision also received the German Innovation Award 2023 from the German Design Council in May 2023.

"I am very enthusiastic about how the spirit of IN TOUCH WITH OUR PLANET has spread to our employees and how much has happened at all levels of our company this year," says Hans Jürgen Kalmbach, CEO of the Hansgrohe Group. "We have also opened up national and international sustainability networks, both within and across industries, and that is also incredibly inspiring."

"We used 2023 to further develop ourselves for the benefit of the planet, the environment and the people. We will seamlessly build on this in 2024," says Steffen Erath, Head of Innovation & Sustainability. Plans include recyclable product packaging and the further development of circular economy measures, such as the construction of a recycling machine for galvanized plastics at the Offenburg production site.

-- ENDS -- 

 *Climate neutrality refers to greenhouse gas emissions from Scope 1 and 2 (direct emissions and energy consumed at the sites) in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Wherever possible, the Hansgrohe Group actively reduces these emissions. The remaining emissions are offset by recognized, certified climate protection projects.

**By the end of 2025, all new Hansgrohe product packaging placed on the market will be free of plastic packaging materials and can be returned to the paper recycling loop. However, due to stock levels, it is possible that product packaging that is not plastic-free may still be in circulation.