A focus on the environment and resources

GEALAN manufactures high quality plastic profiles. In doing so, it’s important to us to act in a way that conserves resources and is thus environmentally friendly. For over 30 years, GEALAN has shown that this doesn’t represent a contradiction in terms of the company’s profitability.

Principles

One of our more recent milestones was our decision to power the administration department at our Oberkotzau headquarters – as well as our Tanna plant in Thuringia – using entirely renewable energy. GEALAN now covers its entire electricity needs at both sites with energy that comes 100 per cent from wind, sun, water, biomass or geothermal energy. This latest conversion to green electricity is a logical next step among a number of initiatives and part of a corporate philosophy we’ve been practising for decades.

We’re all well aware of the environmental challenges and necessities of this time. Using existing resources sensibly and thus protecting the environment has been one of the most urgent tasks for a long time now. The GEALAN Group is also committed to this goal for society as a whole.

Saving on raw materials and energy is also achievable nowadays because people work much more efficiently. This is where new technical innovations can help us just as much as organisational improvements or sophisticated processes.

Our employees play an important role in terms of GEALAN’s sustainability. They carry out their tasks independently, in a quality-conscious, environmentally aware and resource-conserving manner, and with an awareness that their performance has a direct impact on our corporate success.

At GEALAN, we already pay attention to the energy efficiency of products and their potential impact on people and the environment when we procure them. We want to be a strong, reliable partner for our customers, suppliers, authorities, the public and our employees. It’s thus a matter of course for us to comply with legal and other requirements, as well as to communicate openly and transparently with various stakeholders.

One of our most important principles is: social, societal and environmental aspects must be taken into account in every economic decision we make. Making that happen isn’t a matter of course. It is though for us at GEALAN. We take responsibility and see environmental protection and resource efficiency as a prerequisite for sustainable corporate success.

The Management
Ivica Maurović (Spokesperson for the Executive Board and Managing Director for Sales, Marketing and Systems Development), Tino Albert Managing Director Technology and Finance)
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In praxis

For over 30 years, GEALAN has demonstrated that it manufactures, trades and operates its business with a responsible eye towards nature and the environment. The introduction of an initial environmental management system in 1996 anchored sustainable and resource-saving action in our corporate philosophy, and since then this has been continuously expanded.

Recycling

As a co-partner of REWINDO, GEALAN has committed itself to using recycled used window materials – obtained through the window industry’s recycling loop, which has been fully closed for over 25 years – in the inner core of its profiles. In this way, PVC from old windows is reused in an environmentally sensible way in new, highly insulating window profiles.

Green electricity

By switching to green electricity, GEALAN in Oberkotzau saves a good 1,900 tonnes of CO2 annually. At our Tanna production facility, a whopping 16,000 tonnes of CO2 is saved annually. The company’s ecological footprint is thus further improved, as neither CO2 emissions nor radioactive waste are produced in the generation of green electricity.

EMAS

Since 1996, GEALAN has repeatedly and successfully put its corporate sustainability to the demanding test of the European Environmental Management System EMAS – both at our headquarters in Oberkotzau and in our Tanna production facility. GEALAN was thus one of the first companies in the plastics industry to demonstrate social responsibility in this way.

VINYLPLUS®

The VinylPlus® initiative was founded in 2000 for the European PVC industry. GEALAN has been a certified partner of VinylPlus® since 2019. In the meantime, more than 200 companies from the PVC industry, non-governmental organisations and over 170 recycling companies are participating across Europe to ensure a common value chain for PVC.

Our certifications – chronology of GEALAN’s sustainability strategy

GEALAN introduces its first environmental management system. This is based on the EC Regulation at that time on the voluntary participation of commercial enterprises in a Community Eco-Management and Audit Scheme. In June 1996, this validation was carried out in accordance with this European Eco-Audit Regulation at our two sites in Oberkotzau and Tanna. GEALAN was the first PVC processor in Europe to use this sophisticated management system.
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