Ever since family-run edding was founded, environmental protection and sustainability have been part and parcel of day-to-day business.

Founder Volker D. Ledermann breeds horses, so has close links with nature. For environmental reasons, he drives a car with a fuel-efficient, 2-litre engine. Indeed, in his professional life, he has always been actively interested in looking after the environment. His commitment was recognised in 1995 when he won the prestigious B.A.U.M award for endeavours in the field of environmental protection.

It’s a tradition his son, Per Ledermann, is carrying on. The environmental management systems of edding AG were certified in 2008 to ISO 14001 and OSHAS 18001. “It’s a way of life for us, even in microcosm”, confirms Director Per Ledermann. We print on both sides of a sheet of paper, our emails contain a message asking readers to think before they print - and our coffee machines in the kitchen turn off automatically whenever they are not in use.

Anyone who visits edding HQ in Ahrensburg will understand just how this approach is translated into everyday reality as soon as they set foot in the foyer. An electricity meter indicates exactly how many Watts the photovoltaic installation on the roof is generating at any given time. A photovoltaic system has also been installed on the roof of the company’s production site in Bautzen. This means that edding generates 179,000 Kilowatt hours of electricity every year, saving 158 tonnes in CO2 emissions.

The company strives to save resources under the roof too: the injection-moulding machines for marker barrels require 40 percent less energy than their predecessors did. The company no longer uses hydraulic oil, nor oil filters. Heat recovery from the compressors is used to heat the water in Production. This saves around 100 Kilowatt hours of gas per annum.

Other reductions are obtained in Production by using recycled materials. edding also uses gentle, ecofriendly solutions for the solvents in its inks.

For edding, however, sustainability also means using a marker for as long as possible. To this end, the company offers spare nibs, replacement cartridges and ink refill stations for its products.

Team meetings with staff in Ahrensburg, the Distribution site in Wunstorf and edding’s international subsidiaries in Lochem in the Netherlands and Buenos Aires in Argentina take place, wherever possible, in the form of a video conference. “This means we save around EUR 70,000 in travel costs every year”, estimates Patricia Siebel, edding’s CSR Manager. As well as saving on travel time, this approach also means reduced CO2 emissions for car journeys and flights not taken. 

Every year, staff save the lives of about 45 trees. Waste paper is collected, and several users share a multipurpose printer which can accommodate recycled paper, printed on both sides. Even the annual report from edding Aktiengesellschaft is, like product packaging, made of at least 80 per cent recycled paper.

It is also possible to observe this approach to sustainability on the lawns of the company premises. A herd of sheep take care of cutting the grass – they work in silence for the most part - and even work on Sunday mornings. For more information on this topic, please go to www.edding-ag.de/umwelt.