With our brand claim "Engineering a better life", we express how important it is to us to implement sustainable and intelligent solutions that create a better climate for people, their applications and our environment.
We live this comprehensive understanding of sustainability in our daily work. Our highly efficient products enable energy-saving applications. In their production, we emphasise the responsible use of resources. Through digital added value, we increase cost-effectiveness and quality of life and utilise additional energy-saving potential. Our innovative strength and our focus on research and development are constantly leading us to new sustainable innovations.
Join our CEO, Dr. Klaus Geißdörfer, and immerse yourself in the story behind our green initiatives. Let yourself be infected by the enthusiasm we’re harnessing to help us shape a better future!
About this report
Reporting period: The ebm‑papst Group’s first sustainability report covers the 2023/24 financial year. The reporting period runs from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024.
Founded in 1997, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a nonprofit foundation that has been headquartered in Amsterdam since 2002. The GRI Standards developed by the company provide a globally recognized guide for reporting on sustainability issues. The flexible, modular, and user-friendly system, which is subject to continuous validation and updates, contains reporting principles, standard disclosures, and an implementation guide for the preparation of sustainability reports for all organizations, regardless of size, sector, or location.
Divided into three categories – Universal Standards, Sector Standards, and Topic Standards – the GRI Standards contain a total of 33 individual modules with around 120 indicators, all of which provide users and stakeholders with a comprehensive picture of an organization’s material topics, their impacts, and the way they are managed. Like many other companies, ebm‑papst has based its sustainability reporting for the 2023/24 financial year on the GRI Standards, breaking down the available information and insights according to this system.
In September 2015, the UN resolution “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” was unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. The issues covered in the “Agenda 2030,” a global plan to promote sustainable peace and prosperity and protect our planet, include the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since the Agenda was adopted, the countries of the United Nations have been working to translate this shared vision into national development plans that will improve life for everyone around the world. Examples of the Agenda’s aims include eliminating poverty and social inequality, ensuring that everyone in the world can live in peace and health, and making sure that children and young people can go to school and learn without any restrictions.
Like other multinationals, ebm‑papst is committed to the United Nations’ goals, and the company is currently focusing its sustainable activities on ten carefully selected SDGs. These global goals shape our economic, ecological, and social actions, and are therefore also included in our sustainability report:
SDG 3 Good health and well-being
SDG 4 Quality education
SDG 5 Gender equality
SDG 6 Clean water and sanitation
SDG 7 Affordable and clean energy
SDG 8 Decent work and economic growth
SDG 9 Industry, innovation, and infrastructure
SDG 12 Sustainable consumption and production
SDG 13 Climate action
SDG 17 Partnerships for the goals
EcoVadis is one of the world’s largest and most reliable providers of sustainability ratings. It assesses companies’ performance in terms of the environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. ebm‑papst Mulfingen (Group) has been awarded a silver medal, which is valid until November 2024. This puts us in the top 20 percent of companies in the electric motor and fan manufacturing industry. A new assessment is planned to be released in the year 2025.
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an international nonprofit organization that enables companies, cities, states, and regions to measure their environmental impacts and have them assessed independently using standardized criteria, in order to promote transparency in climate protection. The ebm‑papst Group submitted data for the rating for the first time and was awarded a “D” rating in the Climate Change category for 2023 – a good starting point for further continuous improvement.
The climate protection organization Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) drives ambitious climate protection measures in the private sector by enabling companies and financial institutions to set science-based emission-reduction targets and thus make a measurable contribution to combating the climate crisis. The ebm‑papst Group is committed to achieving the Paris climate objectives and is working toward reduction targets that have been submitted and are being validated by the SBTi.
Every newly developed product must outperform its predecessor from an economic and ecological point of view.
When it comes to sustainability, we think holistically. To reflect this, our mission statement defines sustainable, ethical, and lawful business practices as the basis of our daily activities – values that fit together like matching pieces of a puzzle.
Our material topics
Materiality matrix
Our materiality matrix maps the topics relevant to us in the areas of sustainability and business development. This enables us to identify and prioritize the most important ecological, social, and economic aspects for ebm‑papst and our stakeholders.
Economic performance has top priority, as only a successful company can invest significantly in sustainability and remain competitive. Our focus is on environmental issues, such as energy and emissions. Our goal is to reduce CO₂ emissions in Scopes 1 and 2 to zero by 2025/26, using suitable measures. We want to develop energy-efficient, sustainable, and recyclable solutions for our products in order to pursue the cradle-to-cradle approach, minimize our use of raw materials, and improve recyclability. Our core values of humanity and enthusiasm must play a big part in all of this, because they are the defining characteristics of our ebm‑papst family. Challenges such as demographic change and the promotion of diversity and inclusion will remain key issues in the future.
On the road to zero: Our sustainability goals
We have developed a detailed roadmap for Scopes 1, 2, and 3 for implementing our zero-emissions strategy by 2030. Find out more about our specific measures and targets for avoiding and reducing emissions.
In the 2023/24 financial year, ebm‑papst’s global water use increased slightly, from 158 megaliters in the 2022/23 financial year to 168 megaliters. Europe recorded the highest consumption with 108 megaliters – 64.5 percent of our total consumption – followed by APAC with 45 megaliters and the Americas with 15 megaliters.
We have already taken measures to reduce water consumption in the future. For example, we have connected a wastewater treatment plant to our paint shops in Mulfingen, enabling us to reduce their water use from around 66 m³ to 30–40 m³ per week. Thanks to its cascade systems and flushing, the used water is re-used several times before it is treated and fed into the local sewage treatment plant. The same applies to our test center in Hollenbach, which went into operation in 2022, where we also use larger quantities of water as part of individual test series. As only a very small proportion of this is lost through spraying or evaporation, we can feed the majority of our used water resources back into the cycle
As with all other natural resources, we attach great importance to transparency and traceability when it comes to water management. Regular inspections are carried out by the responsible authorities or an independent testing laboratory commissioned by them. These spot checks are carried out in irregular intervals and without prior notice. To date, there have been no complaints from the responsible water authorities, whom we always keep in the loop with regard to all our process and system optimizations.
» Clear vision, sustainable mission «
Discover more stories in our online magazine about the Sustainability Report 2023/24 and our sustainability efforts.
