Protecting the environment and giving our children and grandchildren a viable future is very important to us at PETER HAHN. That is why we are always looking for solutions to make our business activities as environmentally friendly as possible. We are happy to see that our customers are also becoming more environmentally conscious. Especially because of our expertise in the use of natural fibres, we at PETER HAHN have a great awareness of environmental issues and have been working on various measures for many years – read all about our activities to protect our environment here:

Environmentally friendly catalogue

The forests regulate our climate and are an important recreational area for us all. That is why it is so vital that they are preserved. PETER HAHN would like to make its contribution to helping the environment.

Environmental concerns play an important role in the production of our advertising media. That is why PETER HAHN exclusively buys certified paper for use in its catalogues. As from the 2017 spring/summer catalogue, all catalogues in all sales markets will bear the PEFC logo, usually on the back.

PEFC

The requirements are, inter alia, that mixed forests are to be preserved or expanded, and that clearing is prohibited. The use of pesticides is also not permitted, and the ultimate goal is the sustainable management of forests. Worldwide, 303 million hectares of woodland have already been certified according to PEFC.

Our PEFC certification took place in August 2016 and has to be reviewed annually. Representatives of TÜV Nord not only come to visit PETER HAHN, but the forest owners are also directly scrutinised. The entire production chain – from raw material to the ready-for-use end product – is certified and is controlled by independent experts such as TÜV. This way PEFC ensures that the logo is not misused. With PEFC certification, we are making another important contribution to  sustainability at PETER HAHN.

More information on this topic can be found at: http://www.pefc.co.uk/

Also, the wood for the paper of the PETER HAHN catalogues originates entirely from Europe, mostly from Scandinavia and Germany. We do not use tropical woods of questionable origin.

Company headquarters in the countryside

Our roots remind us of the importance of a cared-for environment every day, because the PETER HAHN headquarters is located in Winterbach, which lies in the middle of the green Rems Valley, east of Stuttgart in Germany.

To keep the valley as green as it is, we made some investments many years ago. A solar system on the roof of our main building, the use of geothermal energy and our own combined heat and power plant support us in our environmentally-friendly energy strategy. And the results are impressive: with the combined heat and power plant, enough electricity is generated every year to supply approx. 366 single-family homes, and the self-generation of electricity and heat saved a total of 479 tonnes of CO₂ in 2017. PETER HAHN produces about 45% of the heat requirement and 35% of the required electricity in this way.

In order not to burden the environment unnecessarily with greenhouse gases, our employees also have the opportunity to lease an e-bike. The daily lunch break is also green: disposable take-away coffee cups have long been banished from our bio-certified canteen, desserts and the like are sold in small glasses with a refundable deposit. In our break rooms, we also offer collection points for old electronic devices, such as mobile phones, which are then professionally reconditioned or recycled. In this way the mining of conflict minerals is reduced.

Carbon neutral printing with Ricoh

“It is not necessary to print everything– please think of our environment.” – This line is part of our email signature and acts as a reminder to print sparingly in everyday office life.

Nevertheless, printing is often unavoidable, which is why PETER HAHN has been using services for years to offset all the printouts in our offices. The service automatically calculates all emissions that are emitted when printing with the leased equipment. Afterwards these amounts of CO₂ can be compensated for. To this end, our partner Ricoh supports selected climate protection projects whose goal is to capture CO_2, for example by afforestation or expansion of renewable energies. Independent organisations check the implementation and the exact amount of CO₂ savings. This is how we can contribute to climate protection despite numerous printouts.

You can find our certificate here.

Environmental protection in our collection

That too is possible. When putting together our collections, we pay close attention to using sustainable materials that help to protect and preserve the environment. In the field of vegetable fibres, we therefore offer, for example, organic cotton. This comes from cotton plants which have not been genetically modified and are grown without the use of pesticides (read more about it here).

Viscose is also a natural material, since it is made from wood. Some manufacturers produce this fibre in an environmentally friendly way – and we strongly support this as well.

In this section, you can learn more about our sustaibale products and material seals.

Our efforts in regards to good working conditions in the supply chain are shown here.

We let deeds speak for themselves – learn more here.