The Krones Group was awarded a gold medal in the latest round of the distinguished EcoVadis sustainability rating. “That’s solid recognition of our work and an important signal to all stakeholders: Our ESG performance is getting ever closer to reaching our ambitious sustainability aspirations and goals,” says Peter Steger, Head of Corporate Sustainability, referring to the results achieved in recent years when the technology group was awarded the silver medal twice in succession.
The key is to analyse the group as a whole
Krones embarked on its path towards making its operational and value-creation processes more sustainable many decades ago. The efforts moved up a gear in 2010 with the launch of its enviro programme for developing energy- and media-efficient machines, and with its first CSR report which had been published a few years earlier. The recent gold medal reflects the group’s steadily optimised processes and measures, its reporting scheme modelled on the GRI reporting standards, and the groupwide governance of our efforts to meet ESG criteria. “Anyone who is serious about sustainability must include all the entities of a conglomerate. The high complexity of our group has been a real challenge right from the start,” says Peter Steger. “That’s why we joined forces with all ESG-relevant specialist departments and international coordinators. In the last few years, every one of us has been working hard to put in place a uniform set of standards, requirements and monitoring processes which is valid throughout the group.”
Customers showing keen interest in rating results
The latest EcoVadis rating confirms that Krones has definitely been making the right changes. The company’s scorecard published in October records 72 out of 100 points - eleven more than in the preceding rating. The resulting gold medal puts Krones in the top five per cent of all companies rated in its sector.
The EcoVadis rating is divided into four keynote issues: environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. Krones achieved the greatest improvement over the preceding year in the areas of labour and human rights and ethics, rising from 60 to 80 points.
Krones at present shares its EcoVadis Scorecard with more than 90 customers round the globe, ranging from small businesses right up to big beverage and food conglomerates.
