Project Green brochure 2023

PROJECT GREEN

“OUR JOURNEY TO CLIMATE NEUTRALITY.”

“WE ARE SAFEGUARDING THE FUTURE OF COMING GENERATIONS.”

For over 160 years, Marabu has been a reliable pioneer and companion in the fields of screen printing, pad printing, digital printing and creative colours. With more than 500 employees and a range of over 20,000 products, we generate an annual turnover in excess of 100 million euros.

TAMM PLANT

BIETIGHEIM PLANT

We regard climate change as the most pressing challenge facing society today and are committed to playing an active and sustainable role in protecting the environment.

We have worked with ClimatePartner to analyse all of the CO2 emissions from our Tamm and Bietigheim sites and determine our carbon footprint.

In accordance with our climate strategy, the Marabu Green Deal, we avoid and reduce emissions wherever possible, for example by using green electricity, energy-saving schemes, mobility concepts or environmentally friendly materials. We combine all measures that are taking us on our journey to climate neutrality under the name PROJECT GREEN. We offset all unavoidable CO2 emissions by supporting internationally certified climate protection projects that reduce CO2, for example through reforestation measures, by collecting waste plastic to prevent marine pollution or by replacing climate-damaging technologies with environmentally friendly alternatives. We are therefore proud to be a climateneutral company from July 2021 as well as to offer all our products in a climate-neutral manner. We are continually implementing measures to improve our carbon footprint and update them annually to make the success of our climate strategy measurable.

We firmly believe that the future will belong to the ‘green economy’, the aim of which is to support the natural foundations of our commercial activities through sustainable production and consumption. Our strategy involves transparent communication. This brochure presents our PROJECT GREEN and takes you with us on our journey to climate neutrality.

YORK BOEDER, CEO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

“WE ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY.”

OUR ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION

Marabu’s success story began in 1859 as a paint and materials shop in Stuttgart. Today, the family business is a global technology leader that offers premium quality in the fields of screen printing, pad printing, liquid coatings, digital printing and creative colours. Over 500 skilled employees in Europe, America and Asia work hard every day to consistently meet the highest quality standards. The benchmark: maximum customer satisfaction and optimum business processes.

To continue growing as a pioneer in the market, we are increasingly committed to the principle of the green economy: connecting climate and environmental protection with economic growth. We use state-of-the-art technologies to promote resource-efficient production, careful consumption and social inclusion – putting us ahead of the times.

PROJECT GREEN

BY IMPLEMENTING OUR PROJECT GREEN WE ARE ACTIVELY SUPPORTING THE EUROPEAN UNION’S GREEN DEAL AND THE UNITED NATIONS’ SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS.

OUR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

We foster diversity and offer equal opportunities: equality regardless of gender, ethnicity, social origin, nationality and religion is firmly anchored at all levels of the Marabu Group. We contribute to occupational safety and health protection by optimally designing workplaces.

As a family-run business, each and every one of our employees matters to us. Strong values like team spirit and fair play are actively shared by all to create an integrated corporate culture. Highly motivated and responsible-minded employees therefore play a key part in our success story.

PROJECT GREEN

OUR ECOLOGICAL ACTIONS

All living beings depend on the ground, air and water for survival. For decades, Marabu has invested in research and development in relation to safe production processes, environmentally friendly products and clean technologies. Our primary objective is to protect and preserve the natural world.

Climate protection is a topic that is particularly dear to us – and that we have firmly committed ourselves to within the scope of an extensive sustainability strategy, the Project Green. We have reached a milestone on our journey by achieving climate neutrality.

But this is only the beginning: here at Marabu, we will remain committed to the responsible use of natural resources and to continually minimising our environmental impact.

“OUR JOURNEY TO CLIMATE NEUTRALITY.”

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. As a paint manufacturer in the chemical industry, this is more than enough reason for us to consciously take on a leading role with regard to climate protection. For example, we have analysed all of the CO2 emissions at our Tamm and Bietigheim sites within the scope of an extensive sustainability strategy and had ClimatePartner determine our carbon footprint. Including all product-related factors such as raw materials and logistics, we currently generate approx. 18,500 tonnes of unavoidable CO2 emissions. This value is the positive result of a number of environmentally and climate-friendly measures that we have been implementing for years, such as our early switch to green electricity in 2007.

18.500 t CO2 -EMISSIONS

RAW AND OTHER MATERIALS

LOGISTICS

MOBILITY

HEATING

UPSTREAM CHAIN FOR ELECTRICITY

UPSTREAM CHAIN FOR HEATING/COOLING

CARBON FOOTPRINT

From July 2021, our Tamm and Bietigheim sites will be climate neutral and we will be able to offer all our products in a climate-neutral manner. The label ‘climate neutral’ represents transparent and credible climate protection. Our carbon footprint and climate protection projects can be tracked via an ID number and the ClimatePartner ID tracking system.

CLIMATEPARTNER

CLIMATEPARTNER HAS BEEN COMMITTED TO DRIVING CLIMATE PROTECTION IN COMPANIES AND INSTITUTIONS FOR OVER 15 YEARS. THE AIM IS TO MAKE COMPANIES AND PRODUCTS CLIMATE NEUTRAL BY CALCULATING, REDUCING AND OFFSETTING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS. EFFECTIVENESS AND TRANSPARENCY PLAY A KEY ROLE IN THIS REGARD. THE CLIMATE PROTECTION PROJECTS SUPPORTED ARE CERTIFIED TO THE HIGHEST STANDARDS.

FOOTPRINT

OFFSET

“OUR GREEN DEAL.“

In accordance with our climate strategy, we already avoid and reduce emissions wherever possible, for example by using energy-saving schemes, mobility concepts or environmentally friendly materials. Here at Marabu, we also continually implement measures to improve our carbon footprint and update them annually to make the success of our Project Green measurable. We have therefore set ourselves the active goal of reducing our CO2 emissions by another 20 % by 2032.

REDUCTION OF CO2 EMISSIONS BY 2032

20 %

REDUCIBLE OFFSETTING THE AMOUNT OF CO2 TO BE OFFSET IS BEING CONSTANTLY REDUCED. MINUS

ENERGY

Since 2007, all our energy needs have been met by green electricity generated using hydropower. This has enabled us to eliminate almost 2,000 tonnes of CO2 every year, the equivalent of the annual CO2 footprint of 175 German citizens. In addition, we have landscaped large sections of the roof on our Bietigheim plant. The plants retain moisture and cool the surrounding air in the warmer season through evaporation. This offers the benefit that the green roof insulation provides pleasant temperatures in the building in the summer so we barely need any air conditioning. We are constantly investing in renewable projects for saving energy in other areas too. In addition to switching to modern lighting systems, the waste heat from the air compressors is used for heating purposes.

MOBILITY

Electromobility is the future. In view of this, we are continuously investing in the migration of our company vehicles to electric and hybrid cars as well as in the installation of electric charging stations on our plant sites. The number of journeys that generate CO2 are not only being reduced by the increase in home working, but also by the high number of employees participating in the ‘cycle to work’ initiative of the ADFC and AOK. We are increasingly replacing laborious business trips with productive online conferences. Where on-site visits are unavoidable, we always minimise the number of travellers. Green modes of transport like the train and public transport enable us to largely eliminate all domestic and international flights.

PRODUCTION

Minimising our plants’ environmental impact is a continuous process. In our production facilities, we use renewable energies and resource-efficient production processes to conserve natural primary raw materials and energy resources.

As such, we also use water treatment and solvent recovery. The existing cooling units have been replaced with modern systems with low power consumption and an open-air cooling solution. This avoids the use of environmentally damaging coolants.

PRODUCT

TECHNOLOGY

For decades, we have been developing modern, low-emission products while taking a holistic view of the product life cycle. Regular tests in independent laboratories and test centres confirm our commitment to responsible products. Over 90 % of the systems for our creative colours are already water based plus we are working hard to research and develop new formulations based on renewable raw materials. Within the field of printing, the well-established UV curing systems help us increasingly avoid ceramic paints and solvent-containing systems, and therefore to continually reduce the VOC emissions generated by the printing process. LED curing systems play a particular role in this regard as they use less energy than conventional UV curing systems. The importance of water-based systems is also increasing in relation to printing inks. Innovative trends in drying technology are leading to ever more new uses of our water-based printing inks. We believe that we will be able to increase the number of water-based systems in the printing ink area by more than 300 % over the next five years. Within the field of packaging printing, we expect a mediumterm migration to products with an increasing content of sustainable and biodegradable raw materials.

RAW MATERIALS

The choice of raw material components is subject to the strictest quality controls during product development. Wherever technically possible, we avoid high-risk raw materials and are committed to using renewable resources for our development activities. In our in-house laboratories, experts conduct daily research to enable us to replace critical substances with environmentally friendly alternatives for both new and existing products. We also extend this environmental commitment from Marabu to our upstream supply chains.

PACKAGING

Our packaging is truly multi-functional. It protects the products, presents the contents and is impressively durable. Whether glass, aluminium, cardboard or plastic, every material has certain properties that have been carefully weighed up for use with each individual product. Two principles are of central importance when selecting the ideal packaging: as little material as necessary. As much recycling as possible. At up to 95 %, cardboard has the highest recycled content, followed by plastic blister packs at up to 80 % and glass at up to 40 %. We want to persistently improve and continuously conduct research into resource-conserving and environmentally friendly alternatives.

TIMBER INDUSTRY

Taking a holistic view of our environmentally friendly product range also means focussing on sustainability when purchasing painting accessories. Since 2013, all wooden products have been exclusively purchased from FSC-certified forestry companies and retailers. We are therefore listed in the global database of FSCcertified companies.

TRANSPORT

It goes without saying that green goods shipments already form part of our climate strategy. Climate-neutral freight carriers and lower-emission transport methods like shipping or road transport replace air freight wherever possible.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

We use consistent waste management processes at all Marabu sites to close the resource cycle in so far as possible. Waste is therefore separated by type and sent for recycling. For example, any cleaning solvents are internally distilled for reuse. Our motto is to avoid as much waste as possible.

“IT’S HIGH TIME TO ACT.”

Marabu helps actively shape a fairer world by supporting carefully selected climate protection projects. All projects are certified to the Gold Standard CER and meet particularly high requirements: they reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support sustainable local development. This enables Marabu to offset unavoidable CO2 emissions. We are therefore playing an important part in making the goals of the Paris Agreement a reality.

REDUCE

OFFSET

FOREST PROTECTION IN PORTEL, BRAZIL

THE AMAZON RAINFOREST IS THE PLANET’S GREEN LUNG: IT STORES HUGE AMOUNTS OF CARBON AND STABILISES THE GLOBAL CLIMATE. IT IS HOME TO ABOUT 10 % OF ALL THE EARTH’S SPECIES –WHICH NEED URGENT PROTECTION.

With a branch office in São Bernardo do Campo in Brazil and a production site in Paraguay, we feel a particularly strong connection to South America. The forest conservation project in Portel therefore holds a special place in our hearts. The idea is to provide a reliable regular income for the Ribeirinhos, one of the poorest populations in the Amazon, and sustainably protect the rainforest. If its deforestation continues, millions of tonnes of CO2 will be incessantly released – with grave consequences for the Earth. By giving the Ribeirinhos the official land rights, agricultural companies can no longer occupy the area. This rescues about 3,000 hectares of rainforest from destruction by agricultural companies every year and enables them to be managed in a resource-conserving manner.

FOREST PROTECTION IN PORTEL, BRAZIL, CLIMATEPARTNER.COM/1086

BIOGAS IN HAIKOU, CHINA

AGRICULTURE IS FLOURISHING IN THE PICTURESQUE ISLAND PROVINCE OF HAINAN –AND THERE IS PLENTY OF POTENTIAL FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ACTIONS.

With a subsidiary in Shanghai and strong business partnerships throughout Asia, we maintain close communications with the continent. To make a difference on a local level, we support a biogas project in Haikou. And successfully so: some 15,555 smallholder farmers from 20 districts in the city of Haikou have been able to set up small biogas systems for their own use. Each household keeps an average of 2.5 pigs, the slurry from which is fed into fermenters (with an eight-cubicmetre capacity). Organic substances such as manure and waste are anaerobically decomposed in the sealed biogas tanks. This produces enough gas to cover all of a household’s heating requirements. Progress begins with little steps.

BIOGAS

PLASTIC BANK, WORLDWIDE

BY 2050, THERE WILL BE MORE PLASTIC IN THE OCEANS THAN MARINE LIFE. BUT THE BLUE PLANET IS RECEIVING HELP FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

As a leading printing ink manufacturer for the packaging industry, we feel a particular sense of responsibility towards the protection of the ocean as one of the most pressing global tasks. Under the motto ‘plastic for money’, the Plastic Bank project is sending a social and ecological message about pollution prevention. Every year, over 8 million tonnes of plastic waste end up in the world’s seas and oceans. Developing countries in particular often lack the necessary infrastructure to correctly dispose of such waste. As a result, people in Haiti, Indonesia, Brazil and the Philippines collect plastic waste and give it to local collection points in exchange for money, food, drinking water, mobile phone credit or school fees. The plastic collected is recycled and processed to make ‘social plastic’. It can then be used as raw material for new products and is carefully reintegrated into the product cycle.

MARINE PROTECTION, CLIMATEPARTNER.COM/1087