PLANET
As our source of life, the earth not only provides us with oxygen, food and precious resources, but with its unique beauty it also offers amazing places to recharge our batteries and enjoy life.

PEOPLE
As a brand, we have a responsibility. Towards our customers: We want to offer them high-quality, long-lasting products. Towards our employees: Fairness and safety for everyone involved in the development of our products.

The global goals for sustainable development
17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN
Nowadays, the entire value chain is increasingly being assessed from a social and sustainability perspective.
Natural resources are not infinite and decent working conditions are an absolute must.
In 2015, the member states of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda, which (https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/themen/nachhaltigkeitspolitik/nachhaltigkeitsziele-erklaert-232174) is a roadmap for the future that aims to enable a decent life worldwide and preserve the natural foundations of life in the long term. It encompasses economic, ecological and social aspects. Everyone is called upon to align their actions with it.
Germany committed itself early on to ambitious implementation.
Our benchmark is the so-called 17 goals. They represent the political objectives of the United Nations (UN) worldwide to ensure sustainable development on an economic, social and ecological level.
For us, we differentiate between factors that can be influenced directly and those that can be influenced indirectly. Climate protection and social responsibility are the two areas of action along the value chain that are defined as focus topics in line with the 2030 Agenda. These are becoming increasingly complex due to growing globalization.
We are in a continuous optimization process, which we will continue to develop with ongoing strategies and corresponding measures.

Code of Conduct
People are at the heart of everything we do – whether as employees, customers or business partners. It is therefore our constant aim to do today what will still be good tomorrow – always with a balance between economy, ecology and social responsibility.

1. RESPONSIBILITY IN DEALING WITH NATURE
As a company, we bear responsibility for the environmental compatibility and sustainability of our products.
It therefore goes without saying that we comply with the relevant statutory provisions on environmental protection. We also aim to use energy, water and natural raw materials as efficiently as possible along the supply chain when developing our products and in our production processes in order to conserve resources and limit global warming and climate change. As a company, we bear responsibility for the environmental compatibility and sustainability of our products.

2. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
We are expressly committed to internationally recognized labour and social standards.
Our voluntary commitment includes labor standards as defined in the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the BSCI Code of Conduct. Existing stricter internal and national regulations always take precedence. We ensure compliance with these standards within our own company and also demand compliance from our suppliers along the supply chain.

2.1 Prohibition of forced labor
We do not tolerate any form of slavery or forced labor, human trafficking or other involuntary labor. Employees must also not be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment, corporal punishment or any form of mental or physical hardship.

2.2 Prevention of child labor
Compliance with labor standards regarding the minimum age for the employment of children and the protection of young workers is ensured. This applies in particular if local requirements fall below these stipulations.

2.3 Prohibition of discrimination
We do not tolerate any form of discrimination. This includes any unequal treatment based on skin color, national or social origin, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation, as well as religious affiliation or ideology.

2.4 Ensuring fair working conditions
We ensure fair working conditions that enable a decent life. We ensure compliance with specified maximum working hours and break times.

2.5 Taking effective health and safety measures
We take appropriate measures to establish a safe and healthy working environment in order to prevent accidents and injuries and to protect the health of employees.

2.6 Whistleblower Protection Act “Whistleblower Directive”
We ensure that all employees have access to an effective grievance mechanism that enables open communication between management and employees.

3. BUSINESS CONDUCT AND HANDLING OF PROPERTY AND DATA

3.1 Fair competition and vigilance against corruption
We firmly reject anti-competitive agreements with our business partners and suppliers as well as agreements that violate antitrust law. This applies to agreements between competitors on pricing, trading conditions, production volumes, market shares or sources of supply as well as agreements with customers or suppliers that unduly restrict their market behavior.
We work with business partners who equally support fair competition and behave accordingly.
We do not allow ourselves to be promised or accept any benefits because this could give the impression that employees can be influenced in business decisions.
We are also careful when giving gifts and invitations so that motives are not misunderstood and reputational damage is avoided. We do not give or accept cash or other means of payment such as gift cards and shopping vouchers.

3.2 Avoidance of conflicts of interest
We are all aware that our personal relationships and interests should not influence our business activities and decisions. We therefore take care to avoid situations in which private and professional interests could collide or even give the impression that this could be the case.

3.3 Appropriate and careful use of company resources
We use company property and the resources of our company appropriately and carefully. This also means that we handle company property responsibly and protect it from loss, theft, misuse and damage.
This expressly includes the intellectual property of all companies in the family business, which we protect against unauthorized access by third parties.

3.4 Prevention of money laundering
We only conduct business activities with partners who comply with applicable law and obtain their resources from legal sources. We check the identity of potential customers, business partners and other third parties and ensure that our money laundering prevention measures effectively protect our company from criminals who want to “launder” their illegally obtained funds.

3.5 Transparency through open and correct communication
We value open, clear and correct communication with each other, with our customers and suppliers and in dialog with politics, the media and society. Regardless of the form in which communication takes place, we choose the content carefully and respect personal rights and privacy.
We are always aware that, as employees, we can be perceived as representatives of the company when we make public statements. This also applies in particular when we make comments about the company and company brands in social media.
We therefore always make sure that what we say does not damage the reputation of our company.

3.6 Ensuring data protection/security
We protect personal data, especially that of our employees and our business partners, by handling it carefully and responsibly and processing it in accordance with the applicable data protection regulations. This naturally includes ensuring that we protect all company, customer, supplier and personal data against unauthorized access, unauthorized and improper use, loss and premature destruction by taking appropriate technical and organizational measures.

3.7 Protection of confidential information
We protect our confidential information and business documents from being accessed and viewed by unauthorized persons. To this end, we adhere to the company’s rules on information security. As employees, we also observe our duty of confidentiality when working in private or in public and when using social networks.
Our customers and business partners also entrust us with a wide range of data. We therefore also respect the need to protect the data of our customers and business partners.

Our sustainability goals
We have:

* Create a CO2 balance sheet
* ECOVADIS membership (awarded bronze certification)
* BSCI membership since 2010
* Fairtrade product label