Nouvelles

• Over the next three years, edding expects to reduce its CO2 emissions by at least 3,000 tonnes, partly through production changes and new packaging solutions
   
• edding’s social impact partnership with share will be extended, with edding assuming sole responsibility for sales of the B-Corp company’s* entire stationery product range from 2024
   
• edding is expected to provide 5 million school lessons for children over the next three years through the distribution of share stationery products

Ahrensburg, Germany, 10/10/2023
The edding Group has ambitious plans ahead: By 2026, the medium-sized company will undergo a strategic transformation from a profit-orientated company (for-profit) to a purpose-orientated company (profit-for) with environmental and social sustainability at its core. For several years now, the preamble to edding’s articles of association has stated that the company seeks to promote the sustainable development of society. Right from the very beginning, the company’s vision has been to create and preserve a world worth living in for future generations. Now, edding is going one step further by realigning its corporate strategy.

“We want to reimagine our business activities. To ensure that this transformation is successful, we need to put sustainability at the heart of all our company’s key processes,” explains Per Ledermann, CEO of the edding Group. “A stable economic foundation is no longer a company objective per se; instead, we see it as the starting point that allows us to help preserve a future worth living. By ‘profit-for’, we mean that profit is not a goal in itself, but rather a means to an end that allows us to fulfil our social responsibility.”

edding’s aim is to give more back to the environment and society in the long term than it takes in the form of the resources required for its day-to-day operations and development. To this end, the company has set itself a series of environmental, social, economic and internal sustainability goals. Over the next two years, changes and new packaging solutions among other things are expected to reduce edding’s CO2 emissions by at least 3,000 tonnes. The family business is already working on changing the material used for the casings of its most popular pen, the edding 3000, from primary aluminium to post-consumer recycled (PCR) aluminium. Working in partnership with the packaging company LINHARDT, edding has made significant technical advances on this journey in recent months and it now plans to make the production switch to PCR aluminium from the beginning of 2024. In parallel, other plastic shafts of edding products from the Bautzen plant will also be converted to 100% recycled polypropylene in 2024.

2024 onwards: strengthening edding’s social impact partnership with share

Another significant development is the social impact partnership launched by edding in 2021 with the B-Corp company share. This partnership will now be further extended as part of the company’s profit-for strategy. From 2024, edding will assume sole responsibility for sales of share’s entire stationery product range, which currently consists of 29 products. The common mission with share will remain unchanged, with sales from every product sold – including the share x edding EcoLine permanent markers and highlighters – being used to support social projects around the world.

“We want to contribute to a more caring world and to make it as easy as possible for people to do something good in their everyday lives. Every stationery product sold will provide an hour’s teaching for children in Uganda”, confirms Ben Unterkofler, share’s founder. “Everyday purchases are a powerful way of integrating donations into people’s daily lives across the board. We are therefore delighted that a strong brand like edding is supporting this social mission and thereby creating vital access to education for many children.”

edding is expected to provide 5 million school lessons for children over the next three years through the distribution of share stationery products. This partnership will strengthen the ongoing collaboration between the two companies, both of which are founded on the same shared values.

“Our long-term partnership with share is an important step p for us in our mission to take on greater social and civic responsibility. We are proud that sustainable practices have always been firmly anchored in edding’s corporate culture. Nevertheless, we recognise the challenges that we currently face on the way to becoming a purposeorientated (profit-for) company. We know that we still have a long way to go but we are confident that we are ready for this journey,” adds Per Ledermann, CEO of the edding Group.
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*B-Corp companies are certified companies that want to become more sustainable and are committed to regularly measuring and continually improving their social and environmental impact.

About share

share's mission is to generate direct social benefit - through everyday shopping. With currently more than 100 products, share offers a social alternative for everyday consumption decisions, because every product is at the same time a help for people in need. The aim of share is to offer people the opportunity to do good without any extra effort when shopping. With every share product purchased, a comparable aid effort is made possible. A QR code on the packaging provides transparency and reveals where the aid goes. The fact that the concept works is illustrated by the more than 146 million aid items financed, including 40 million meals, 68 million days of access to clean drinking water and 33 million hygiene products and services.