- As part of its global initiative, GROHE is driving sustainability based on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals
- The German Sustainability Awards 2021 honours GROHE’s commitment to resource efficiency within the value chain and the sustainability impact of GROHE Blue
- GROHE emphasises that sustainability must be understood as a continuous, never-ending journey
”We at GROHE have a doer mentality: We don’t talk too much, we basically implement,” is how Thomas Fuhr, Leader Fittings LIXIL International and Co-CEO Grohe AG, describes how sustainability is implemented and translated into concrete action at GROHE in a documentary. The short film is part of the global sustainability and climate protection initiative “50 Sustainability & Climate Leaders”, for which GROHE was elected along with 49 other international companies. As pioneers in their respective industries, the companies portrayed demonstrate how they are actively committed to a sustainable future grounded in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 of the United Nations and, in doing so, inspire others to follow their example. The GROHE brand also uses milestones from its 20-year commitment to sustainability to illustrate the innovative approaches to making sustainability the core of its business activities and how it views this transformation as an economic opportunity. GROHE’s considerable and effective contributions to sustainability along the entire value chain and its product offerings that allow consumers to live sustainably were also recently acknowledged by the jury of the German Sustainability Award, by honouring the brand in the transformation field “Resources” as well as its water system GROHE Blue in the category “Design”.
“Showing appreciation for our efforts by awarding us one of the most important sustainability prizes in Europe honours us to a high degree. At GROHE, everything revolves around the most valuable and, simultaneously, scarcest resource: water. Acting in a way that saves resources and minimises our ecological footprint therefore has to be a matter of course for us,” says Thomas Fuhr.
Behind the scenes of GROHE’s sustainability management
GROHE implements sustainability across all aspects of its business; it starts with product development, in which it combines an ecological approach with enjoyment through technologies such as EcoJoy. With GROHE’s EcoJoy technology, water consumption is reduced by up to half without any compromise on performance. Meanwhile, the development centre at the Hemer site with its 160 employees continuously researches and develops new innovations and approaches in order to create even more environmentally friendly products and solutions in the future. This will enable consumers to make their everyday lives more sustainable as easily as possible. However, the focus is not only on the use of water and energy-saving products as GROHE’s manufacturing processes are also optimised with sustainability in mind too. Since April 2020, GROHE has been one of the first leading manufacturers in the sanitary industry to produce CO 2 -neutral products. With recycling rates of more than 90%, the brand is approaching a circular economy. Its latest initiatives such as “Less Plastic” particularly contribute to the conservation of resources and an avoidance of waste. As many as 23.5 million plastic packaging materials have already been saved as part of this initiative – a first milestone on the way to the goal of ultimately banning all plastic materials from product packaging by March 2021. The fight against the global problem of plastic waste is also complemented by GROHE Blue. The water system, which won the German Sustainability Award Design 2021 in the category “Icons”, offers chilled, filtered and, if desired, carbonated water straight from the kitchen tap – making plastic bottles redundant.
“Even though we have achieved a great deal in recent years, we are aware that we must continue to strengthen our commitment in order to shape the future of water in a sustainable manner. For us, sustainability is a continuous journey that we must continue with courage. I am proud that we are doing this as a team and that each individual at GROHE is making their contribution. Only like this can we pave the way to a sustainable economy, meet global challenges and improve people’s quality of life,” adds Thomas Fuhr.
For further information about GROHE and its sustainability topics go to green.grohe.com