EcoVadis Improvement & CDP Participation
Customer: Hansgrohe SE
Category: Manufacturing
Date: December 2022
Hansgrohe SE is an internationally active company in the sanitary industry with headquarters in Schiltach in the Black Forest and production sites in Germany, France, the USA and China. With more than 5,400 employees around the world and deliveries to over 152 countries, the faucet and shower manufacturer is one of the few global players in the sanitary industry. The company has lived up to this responsibility from the very beginning by anchoring environmentally conscious thinking and action in its corporate principles.
Already today, the German sites operate in a carbon-neutral* manner and by the end of 2022, all global sites will follow suit into carbon neutrality. In addition, Hansgrohe supports the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Climate Agreement. To underline and further expand these efforts, Hansgrohe, together with DFGE – Institute for Energy, Ecology and Economy, successfully participated in the EcoVadis sustainability rating and, for the first time, in CDP.
Deniz Wickersheimer
Project Manager for ESG Ratings at Hansgrohe SE
”DFGE supported us professionally in both assessments with its many years of experience and expertise. In both the EcoVadis assessment and the CDP participation, we were thus very well prepared and were additionally able to further expand our efforts in many sustainability areas. The results reflect the successful cooperation.”
Challenges
Identification of EcoVadis improvement potentials and introduction to CDP
As early as 2021, Hansgrohe participated in an EcoVadis rating, which documents sustainability performance in the areas of environment, labor and human rights, sustainable procurement and ethics. Since the EcoVadis rating requires a verification document for each answer to the questionnaire, the rating process is accompanied by an elaborate collection of documents. The challenge here was above all to record the company’s global sustainability performance and to draw attention to gaps in the documentation.
This year’s participation in the CDP questionnaire was new territory for Hansgrohe. The “CDP Climate Change” questionnaire collects and evaluates data and information from companies on CO2 emissions, climate risks, and reduction targets and strategies. Participation in CDP is a task that requires a lot of know-how and ties up resources. Hansgrohe’s first participation in CDP was characterized by introducing employees to the CDP methodology and requirements, as well as working out which data is relevant for CDP.
Solution
DFGE support – in both EcoVadis and CDP
As both an official CDP Climate Change Consultancy Partner and an official partner of EcoVadis in the D-A-CH region, DFGE has many years of experience in supporting customers with regard to participation in the CDP Climate Questionnaire and the EcoVadis Assessment. DFGE was therefore the right partner to support Hansgrohe in the respective participation and to make optimal use of synergy effects between both ratings. In a first step, gap analyses were carried out by DFGE experts for both assessments in order to determine the status quo.
Based on the existing EcoVadis rating from 2021, the potential for improvement was analyzed together with Hansgrohe’s CSR team and discussed in joint workshops. The subsequent and very time- and resource-intensive data collection was accompanied by the DFGE experts with the help of a data collection plan and weekly appointments.
Workshops were also held with the Hansgrohe CSR team as part of the CDP participation to introduce the CDP methodology and collect the necessary information for the questionnaire. In subsequent regular meetings, all important data was bundled and the answers for the CDP Climate Questionnaire were prepared together.
Result
Successful participation in EcoVadis and CDP
The cooperation with the Hansgrohe CSR team was a complete success in both ratings, which is also reflected in the resulting results.
Together with DFGE, Hansgrohe was able to significantly improve its rating in EcoVadis. We warmly congratulate the company on this achievement. In order to further improve sustainability performance, the experts at DFGE have been working with Hansgrohe on a prioritized action plan for the coming years.
Regarding CDP, Hansgrohe was fully introduced to the logic and requirements of the assessment through the help of DFGE, which set the foundation for successful participation, as well as further improved the representation of the Hansgrohe Group’s climate efforts.
*Carbon neutrality refers to greenhouse gas emissions from Scope 1 and 2 (direct emissions and energy consumed at the sites) according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Wherever possible, the Hansgrohe Group actively reduces these emissions. The remaining emissions are offset through recognized, certified climate protection projects. More information on this can be found at https://www.hansgrohe-group.com/en/about-us/responsibility.
