Our contribution to the environment
Objective and goals – for our customers and our environment
Our objective is to make laboratory work simple, easy, and efficient by providing innovative products and perfect quality. In doing so, we never lose sight of protecting our environment during the production and use of our products. We focus on saving as many resources as possible in production (Reduce) by designing our products to be long-lasting and maintenance-friendly (Reuse) and sensibly utilizing waste that we cannot avoid (Recycle).
For the key area of greenhouse gas emissions, we support the sectoral targets of the German Federal Climate Change Act and the underlying principles of the Paris Agreement based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Our goal is to reduce the absolute greenhouse gas emissions of our activities at our production site by 70% from 2020 to 2030 (Scope 1 and 2). We monitor, actively manage and report the GHG emissions of our sole production site (Wertheim, Germany) annually based on ISO 14064-1 and GHG Protocol Scope 1 and 2. For the calculation of GHG emissions, we use validated external data from our energy vendors or based on international database EFDB (IPCC Emission Factor Database) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). All sources of GHG according to ISO 14064-1 within Scope 1 and 2 are reviewed at least annually.
We continually reduce our electric energy intensity (kWh per Mio EUR sales) by 4% annually at our sole production site from 2020 to 2030.
Award as a sustainable company
For the second time BRAND GMBH + CO KG has successfully participated in the sustainability ranking of the EcoVadis evaluation platform. According to EcoVadis, BRAND is among the top 5 percent of comparable companies evaluated and is awarded gold status for this. The more than 300 evaluation criteria include not only climate and environmental protection, but also good working conditions, ethical behavior and sustainable procurement.
BRAND achieves above-average results in all areas. The consistent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in recent years contributes to the good rating, as do flexible, family-friendly working time models or increasingly sustainable procurement.
Reduce – Reuse – Recycle
Reduce – resource-saving production
At BRAND, intelligent resource management is a certified part of our company guidelines. Our environmental management system has been certified according to DIN EN ISO 14001 since 1998. Therefore, we are committed to continuously optimizing our environmental performance. In addition, our energy management system has also been certified according to DIN EN ISO 50001 since 2015. This makes us one of the pioneers in our industry for the intelligent use of energy.
BRAND uses 100 % renewable energy from certified hydroelectric power plants. With the Wertheim public utility company, we have found a regional partner to help us achieve this. We produce some of our own electricity as a by-product of the heat generated in our combined heat and power unit. This is an efficient use of energy.
To prevent unnecessary packaging, we try as much as possible to have our production materials delivered in reusable packages, which are then returned to the supplier and refilled multiple times. To prevent long transport routes, we work with regional suppliers to procure many of our production materials.
Our pipette tips also demonstrate how we are working to increase the resource efficiency of consumables. We developed a production method that allows us to manufacture our tips in an especially thin-walled design, which in turn saves materials. With the TipRack refilling system, we have also reduced the amount of waste by more than 20 % when compared with the TipBox.
Reuse – long-lasting and maintenance-friendly products
Using high-quality products as long as possible directly contributes to environmental protection, as we prevent the consumption of resources which are needed for the production of new products.
Quality and longevity have always been a characteristic feature of BRAND liquid handling instruments. In many laboratories, our Dispensette® S bottle-top dispensers have been in use for a decade or longer – the high-quality materials of the parts, which are in contact with media and crucial to the function of the instruments, make this possible.
Even in the case of life science consumables, there are ways to use products multiple times. Our solid TipBoxes can, of course, be refilled with pipette tips over and over again and they can be autoclaved multiple times at 121 °C.
The micropipette Transferpette® S demonstrates how we contribute to the long service life of instruments through simple maintenance and repair. On single-channel pipettes, the ejector and shaft can be removed and cleaned in a few seconds. Due to their patented design, the individual shafts of multi-channel instruments are also easy to unscrew, making them simple to clean and replace.
Recycle – recycling with a system
A lot of our packaging has already been recognized by our customers as “sustainable packaging”.
For much of our product packaging, we use cardboard with a recycling rate of around 90 % and we are working to become even more environmentally friendly in this area.
With the TipBoxes of our pipette tips, our customers can also contribute to recycling valuable resources. The entire TipBox is made of pure polypropylene and is completely recyclable. This also applies to the corresponding TipRack refill system, which is made of polyethylene.
Working together to protect the environment
Besides the measures outlined, there are a number of other small-scale activities that we engage in to contribute to environmental protection.
We provide our employees with a water dispenser and reusable water bottles at no charge and thus do our part to prevent plastic waste by not using PET bottles. We have also planted a flower meadow for bees and butterflies on part of the business premises.
BRAND uses 100 % renewable energy from certified hydroelectric power plants. With the Wertheim public utility company, we have found a regional partner to help us achieve this. This saves 1,000 tons of CO2 per year compared with 2019. The other companies in the Brand Group also rely to clean energy from renewable sources. Our CO2 numbers are impressive: by saving energy, switching to our new combined heat and power unit and using green energy, we will cut our CO2 emissions in half in 2021 compared to 2019.
We are convinced that environmental protection will be a very important topic in the laboratory of the future, and we will consistently align our corporate strategy accordingly.
As part of the Brand Group, we are working closely with VACUUBRAND and VITLAB to collectively and sustainably develop this environmental strategy.
