Sustainability at Kärcher

Taking responsibility has always been an important part of the corporate culture at Kärcher. Alfred Kärcher and his wife Irene were of the firm belief that sustainable economic success is only possible if social concerns are taken into consideration.

Nachhaltigkeit_head.jpg

Be the Difference

Sustainable, people-oriented company development is the central focus of our activities. Our primary goal is the creation of values for our customers, our employees and the company. In order to achieve this, we must deliver top performance in relation to sustainability. We are taking this responsibility very seriously in all divisions of the company. On the one hand with the continued existence of the company through successful products and an honest and reliable partnership with our customers, employees and suppliers. On the other hand with sustaining attractive working conditions, the reduction of the ecological footprint of our business activities and an efficient use of resources.

We are seriously committed to our social responsibility as a good corporate citizen. The group’s sustainability management is controlled by a department of the same name. It is also responsible for environmental protection, energy efficiency and social standards in the supply chain. Environmental officers have been appointed at all 20 production and four logistics sites; they are the contact persons for sustainability management at their respective sites. They coordinate group-wide measures in the “CSR steering committee”.

Building on our advertising slogan, we issue our sustainability communications under the motto “Be the difference”. We aim to strengthen the perception of the brand in terms of sustainability in order to become the benchmark for our industry by 2020.

Kärcher makes the Difference

Facts and figures

Where there are targets, successes must be measurable. That also applies to sustainability, as it is not enough for a company only to make a promise. We must keep track of the targets set within the strategy and continually monitor our sustainability performance.

Since 2014, we have been recording the implementation of our sustainability targets consistently, uniformly and completely digitally at all production and logistics sites worldwide. This is how we evaluate CO₂ emissions, water and energy consumption, for instance, and analyse the developments in the area of packaging materials.

We also monitor the requirements of environmental legislation and standards, such as the ISO 14001 standard, in a standardised and fully digital manner. Overall, we consequently adhere to over 10,000 regulations and obligations.

When reporting on our key figures, we follow the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

Sustainability Facts and Figures overview

Contact

mayer_andreas_thumb.jpg