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Sustainability

Sustainable since
company formation

The term sustainability has its origins in forestry and was coined in 1713 by Hans Carl von Carlowitz, Oberberghauptmann from Freiberg in Sachsen: Only as much wood should be felled as can be reforested.

The founding fathers of the Hardenberg'sche Kornbrennerei, which has existed since 1700, were farmers and foresters. They also lived and managed according to the maxim of only using as many resources as can grow back and future generations can use them.

Tradition and responsibility today

For ten generations, the principle of doing business in a way that is suitable for our grandchildren has guided our entrepreneurial activities. As a medium-sized company, we see more responsibility than ever for our resource consumption, our employees, the people who work with us and our customers who enjoy our products.

We are facing immense global challenges in terms of climate, nature and environmental protection and social issues. Being aware of it is not enough for us.

Therefore, in 2021 we began to systematically record our ecological and social footprint and make it transparent.

Sustainability strategy of Hardenberg-Wilthen AG

Our framework: Sustainable Development
Goals of the 2030 Agenda

In 2015, the United Nations set 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. These political objectives include the economic, social and ecological level. The UN agenda – also known as the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs for short – serves as a framework for action, among other things, to safeguard peace, human rights, the fight against poverty, sustainable consumption, clean energy and water supply, human dignity at work and the creation of equal opportunities.

Hardenberg-Wilthen AG is committed to Agenda 2030 and we have therefore decided to measure, improve and further develop our sustainability strategy based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Together with our employees, we defined 10 goals that play a major role in our actions. Since then we have been turning our company upside down and asking ourselves: Where are we good? Where is air up? What information do we still need? What are we changing immediately, in the medium and long term?

Sustainable logo
Our actions based on the Sustainable Development Goals
We know that all 17 SDGs are important and interrelated. Through our operations, we can have the greatest impact on the following goals.

CO2 emissions balance HWAG 2020

In February 2022 we drew up the first CO2 emissions balance sheet for our entire company. For Hardenberg-Wilthen AG, it is the starting point for the development of a climate strategy, CO2 reduction targets and suitable measures to achieve these targets.

 

Wilthen
  • The balance sheet relates to the 2020 financial year. It was drawn up in accordance with the leading international standard, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. We have included all emission sources relevant to our company in the accounting. This means that we looked at the entire production process from the raw materials through manufacture and packaging to the logistics processes involved in terms of emission intensity.

    In addition, however, the need for electrical and thermal energy, the travel activities and the mobility of our employees, the water requirement, waste water and waste as well as leased objects were included in the emissions balance sheet.
  • In total, we were responsible for emissions of around 12,000 tons of CO2 in 2020. A security surcharge of 10% is included here. Of the emission load, 67% was attributable to purchased materials, i.e. raw materials and packaging material, and 18% to logistics. The remaining emission sources contributed around 15% to the total emissions.
  • If you convert the CO2 footprint of the entire company to the volume of spirits produced, this results in an average CO2 footprint of 1.112 kilograms of CO2 per liter of our products. This is also a good starting point when compared to other alcoholic beverages. However, this does not release us from improving the entire production process in the coming years with the aim of further significantly reducing CO2 emissions at Hardenberg-Wilthen AG. Here (insert link to the SDGs) you can see the areas in which we have made improvements.
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