Sustainability Statement

As a global manufacturing company we are aware of our responsibility to future generations regarding the use of resources. We therefore ensure that we manufacture high value products in an efficient and sustainable manner, minimizing the environmental impact. All sites are subject to the requirements of our internal approach to Operational Excellence, which is based on three pillars. The first pillar is about safety, health and environment and regulatory compliance. The second and third pillars are about performance and quality management.

As an international company, transparent communication is important. Even though not all our factories are certified, we have implemented the necessary standards in the factories and appointed the appropriate representatives to be your point of contact. By the year 2025, we will have expanded these responsibilities even further, in order to build a sustainable common future.

We encourage everyone to take responsibility for their own safety and the safety of others to promote an injury-free environment. We are committed to environmental protection and strive to conserve natural resources through innovative processes and continuous improvement methods.

Ensuring renewable and sustainable resources

The result of high environmental standards is cost-effective production with the lowest possible environmental impact. Our products use wood from certified well-managed forests, ensuring a renewable and sustainable resource.

Impress is working towards a more sustainable decor paper industry. We ensure that suppliers do not use wood from national parks, nature reserves, primeval forests, and other protected areas.

In addition to environmental sustainability, the social aspect should not be neglected. We see no contradiction in being a socially responsible company with a clear profit motive; on the contrary, sustainable business is the basis for social commitment.

Our interconnected, international teams, combined with a company culture that values open communication and promotes personal development, facilitate quick decision-making and shared success. With passion and the courage to innovate we are working energetically to shape our future. Accessing new markets and continually working to optimize our organization are key issues in this endeavor and an essential basis for our company’s successful long-term development so employees and partners benefit equally. Employees, customers, suppliers, and all other partners are equally important to us. It goes without saying that their health is a top priority.

Occupational health and safety officers at all our sites, together with care provided by company doctors and other health protection measures, lay the foundations for a healthy relationship. Training, personal development and promotion of talent are steps towards social and business security in a shared future.

In addition, there are many other activities at our sites that promote our social commitment to the community and help create a sustainable future for all.

As defined in our Operational Excellence approach, sustainability is also subject to a continuous development process. We have developed a sustainability policy and set ourselves ambitious targets. Our products, like many others, are resource intensive. This is why it is important to continue to pursue this concept and develop new ways, processes, and products in harmony with people and nature. We are already helping to conserve resources through our ongoing efforts to improve efficiency and our successfully implemented digitalization strategy.

Sustainable profitable growth requires sound and sustainable funding. We therefore assess our investments not only for their strategic relevance and profitability, but also for their environmental sustainability. This is one of the critical approaches in which we meet the criteria of the EU taxonomy.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000 will expire and be replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With the SDGs, or #GlobalGoals for short, the international community aims to eradicate poverty, advance gender equality, improve health care and counter climate change by the end of 2030. The representatives of 193 UN states agreed on an agenda for sustainable development at the beginning of August. At the UN Sustainable Development Summit 2015 in New York on 25 September 2015, heads of state and government from all countries adopted the Sustainable Development Goals.

To obtain the broadest possible agreement, the UN launched the largest planning and consultation process in its history. For several years, 60 UN sub-divisions and international organizations, among others, have been working on the „Post-2015 Agenda“. The SDGs were inspired by the Rio+20 Summit’s Sustainable Development Goals on climate change three years ago. The result of the working groups are 17 goals and 169 objectives of sustainable development which, in contrast to the Millennium Development Goals, are not only addressed to the countries of the Global South but are equally valid for all states worldwide.

The SDGs now focus more on people. Human rights are therefore established as a cross-cutting issue. In contrast to the Millennium Development Goals, the new goals aim for comprehensive changes that also place the industrialized countries under an obligation. This applies to the careful use of resources, responsibility for social standards or the emission of climate-damaging gases. The focus is on sustainability. In addition, there are socio-political goals such as gender equality, a fair tax policy, the reduction of inequality between and within states or access to legal aid and inclusive institutions. The overriding concern of the SDGs is to end extreme poverty „in all its forms and throughout the world“. It currently affects around one billion people who must get by on less than 1.11 euros a day. „Leave no one behind“ is the motto for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Financing is also crucial to the success of the SDGs. The results of the UN Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa in July: emerging and developing countries are to receive more funds through the establishment of functioning tax systems and the fight against corruption, and the donor countries reaffirm their commitment to spend 0.7 percent of gross national income on development cooperation. The rest is to be contributed by the private sector. The UN assumes an annual need of three trillion US dollars.

Our most ambitious goals are to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions footprint by 2030 and to invest sustainably in the future.

There are many milestones along the way, including a company-wide sustainability report, a product lifecycle assessment, improving the impact of our supply chain and energy transformation in our factories.

We recognize that we are in a climate crisis and that as an organization we have a role to play in acting against the threat of climate change.