Insight

For sustainability practiced, Lederer – a specialist for high-quality stainless steel fasteners, individual special and drawing parts, as well as efficient C-parts management – has now received the silver medal from EcoVadis, a provider of sustainability rankings.

Lederer attaches great importance to not only its own sustainability requirements, but those of customers worldwide. That is why the company was proud to be within the top four percent of the companies assessed by EcoVadis in the wholesale of metal and plastic goods. “We take our responsibility as a company for our impact on society, the environment, and the well-being of our employees, very seriously,” explains Dr Volker Lederer, owner and managing director at Lederer GmbH. 

“At Lederer, sustainability, energy transition and climate protection are not just written words, we have been practising them for many years. As supply chains are becoming more and more complex, there are also increasingly important tasks for shaping our sustainability balance sheet. So far, our focus has been on the price, availability and quality of the products, but now ecological, ethical and social aspects are becoming more and more important.”

Volker continues: “In this year’s sustainability assessment by EcoVadis we achieved 64 points, improving by 13% compared to last year and only missing the gold medal by 3 points. Our goal for 2023 is to continue to focus even more on ecological aspects and to do even better in the sustainability assessment.”

Sustainability as a matter of course 

Acting sustainably as a company has been a key policy for Lederer for many years. For instance, as a major buyer of electrical energy, Lederer switched two years ago to a provider of pure, certified green electricity. In fact, in April 2023, Lederer’s energy supplier confirmed that the electricity comes 100% from renewable energies and is 100% climate neutral, including all upstream chains. “Through climate protection projects of the green electricity label RenewablePLUS, all resulting CO₂ emissions are made climate neutral,” mentions Volker. “By switching to a provider of pure, certified green electricity, we are able to reduce our CO₂ output by almost 400,000kg annually. This year we also started to switch to hybrid and electric vehicles, using our own charging stations to supply the vehicle fleet exclusively with electricity from renewable energy sources.”

In addition, Lederer has been part of an initial reforestation project, which has seen 500 trees planted on behalf of Lederer. “Our partner PLANT-MY-TREE^® implemented these sustainable tree plantings with a planned project duration of more than 99 years in Utscheid, Rheinland-Palatinate in the southern Eifel of Germany,” points out Volker. “During this time, there will be no deforestation or economic use of the area and it is another contribution to CO₂ compensation by Lederer – helping to further protect the environment and climate.”

Lederer is also currently dealing with the topics of energy and resources, with ‘Smart Home’ solutions being considered for the offices, such as intelligent control systems to reduce energy consumption. In addition, Lederer deals intensively with heat pumps and photovoltaics. “The medium and long-term goal is to become largely independent of fossil fuels and to generate electricity for our own needs,” concludes Volker. “We do our utmost to work in a more sustainable and climate friendly way. In fact, you could say the material from which our core range of fasteners is made, stainless steel, is sustainable in itself. Stainless steel is a non-corroding material and is more durable and resistant than many other alloys. In the majority of cases there is no need for an additional galvanically applied coating to achieve the desired durability – helping to protect the environment and resources. This, and our world of values, are both an incentive and an obligation to live up to, including our responsibilities in other areas as well.”