Sustainability at Paulmann

Social commitment, environmental responsibility and sustainable corporate governance all play a major role at the family-owned and operated Paulmann company. We employ a holistic sustainability strategy which includes ecological, economic and social aspects in equal measures. Sustainability is one of our five core values as a company, and therefore deeply rooted in our Paulmann DNA.

Our goal is to fulfil the many requirements of our customers for convenient and customisable lighting options and to give them a feel-good ambiance in their everyday lives. At the same time, we take responsibility and strive to protect our climate and the environment long-term. That is why we are continuously reviewing and revising how light is used and develop lamps and luminaires that support ever more energy-conscious and resource-saving applications. But sustainability at Paulmann extends well beyond the development and manufacture of our products.

We are committed to working on Paulmann’s role as a company and on our impact on the three pillars of sustainability with a clear focus on reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). We believe that a well thought-out sustainability strategy is going to make a difference and positively impact society and the economy.

Paulmann takes a holistic approach to sustainability based on the three-pillar model of sustainable development – find out more below.

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Social Commitment

As a family-owned and operated company, we assume responsibility for all Paulmann employees and their families. As part of an active dialogue, we explore ways on how everybody at Paulmann can contribute to more sustainability. A robust ethics framework forms the foundation for mutually respectful exchange and unites us in our common commitment. With our active health management, for example, we promote employee health with engaging training videos or our e-bike leasing offering.

Find out more about our Social Commitment

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Environmental Responsibility

As part of our efforts to protect people and the environment, social, entrepreneurial and ecological standards are important factors for us in the manufacture of our lamps and luminaires, our packaging and the shipping of our products. We continue to strive towards ever more environmentally friendly production and sustainable operations. This also includes calculating our Corporate Carbon Footprint, which allows us to take conscious action to further reduce our emissions going forward.

Find out more about our Environmental Responsibility

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Economy & Governance

Sustainable business operations – with high-quality materials, fair wages, career building opportunities for employees, informative training courses and apprenticeships for the next generation of employees as well as investment to strengthen the overall business model – are just as important for ensuring a holistic sustainability strategy. Here, Paulmann has convened an interdisciplinary project group to ensure the implementation of these efforts. As a member of UN Global Compact, Paulmann also submits an annual progress report.

Find out more about Economy & Governance

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Social Commitment – Paulmann’s contribution

At Paulmann, we see ourselves as one big family – a fact that is reflected in the DNA of this family-owned and operated company. Supporting equal opportunities and the common good are at the core of our company culture. We put the health and satisfaction of our employees and customers first and work together towards our common goals. We are committed to actively take responsibility vis-a-vis the communities we touch and to lead by example. That is why Paulmann has been sponsoring various local charities and projects for children and teenagers in the Hannover-Hildesheim-Hameln region for years.

Find out more about the various organisations and projects we sponsor on our Social Commitment page.

Paulmann employees talk on-site measures:

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Better health as our common goal

“Our Health Task Force develops appropriate measures to promote employee health. A News segment on our intranet informs colleagues about a variety of health topics, and we can fully rely on the competent support of our company physician. Engaging and informative training videos and company yoga sessions are just two of the many ideas our task force has implemented so far.” Janina, Employee Development Specialist

Graphic with quote about sustainability and responsibility in lighting technology by Paulmann.

Environmentally conscious diet

“The issues of sustainability and environmental protection are very important to many colleagues. Some also follow a climate-friendly diet as a result. We can support them in this with company-subsidised, locally prepared, fresh food. We offer at least one vegetarian or vegan dish every day.” Sven Klute, Head Chef at the company’s canteen

Sketch of an e-bike inside a speech bubble with colored outline symbolizing sustainable mobility.

Sustainability on the road

"We support our employees in using sustainable means of public and private transport. The Paulmann site is only a few minutes’ walk from Völksen/Eldagsen railway station. Tickets for local public transport can be purchased at a discount through the company. And those who prefer private means of transport can take advantage of our attractive bicycle leasing offer.” Thomas Hamann, Human Resources Manager & Member of the Executive Board

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Mobile working for the environment

“Digitalisation is changing the way we work. The company’s offer of mobile working has been very well received by all colleagues. This not only saves people from having to travel to our headquarters, our sales colleagues can also greatly reduce the need for national and international business trips through digital options such as video conferencing etc.” Magnus Weidke, IT employee

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Individual ideas for sustainability

“Many colleagues have a very strong environmental awareness and want to contribute their ideas for protecting the climate and resources at Paulmann. “We have introduced an idea management tool to enable them to do so. All employees can submit their proposals there. The suggestions for improvement are promptly evaluated by specialists and management, implemented and the employees responsible recognised. Nina, Ideas Manager

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Green Building: Jede Maßnahme zählt

“We are pursuing a wide variety of projects to make our company location in Völksen more sustainable. We not only take on large projects, but also lots of small ones. For example, we inform our colleagues via our intranet about green search engines or how to heat rooms properly in winter.” Claudia, Content Manager

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Our environmental policy

Environmental protection is everyone’s responsibility – from trainees and colleagues in logistics and administration to management. Every individual has a part to play! Through our actions, we want to make a lasting contribution to relieving the burden on the environment, actively shaping environmental protection at Paulmann and firmly anchoring it in all areas of the company. We have laid down how we define and want to implement environmental protection in our everyday work in our environmental guidelines.

Beyond complying with environmental law requirements, we strive to improve our environmental performance and our operational environmental protection. For us, this means considering, analysing and continuously improving our operational processes as a whole, including from an environmental point of view.
We use resources such as energy, water, materials and land sparingly and in an environmentally friendly manner. We aim to continuously reduce our consumption of these resources.
We strive to keep waste to a minimum. Unavoidable waste products are sorted, re-used and recycled, and – if this is not possible – disposed of responsibly.
We support our employees in using environmentally friendly means of public and private transport. A direct train connection is available to our employees, customers and visitors.
We are aware that environmental protection can only be achieved through the active participation of all employees. That’s why we aim to anchor environmental protection as self-evident in the thoughts and actions of all our employees. We inform every employee about environmental issues, as offer everyone the opportunity to actively get involved with ideas and suggestions.

Graphic showing icons of family, leaves, CO2 cloud, and recycling symbol for sustainability guidelines.

Environmental Responsibility – Our implementations to date

From green energy to recycling and the optimisation of our product packaging and shipping processes – we here at Paulmann continue on our path towards more environmentally conscious actions. After all, sustainability is among the core values of our company.

That is why, in addition to our social and economic goals, we are taking steps to continuously improve our environmental sustainability. We strive to reduce our carbon footprint further and further in the future. On this page, we offer full transparency about the steps and measures we are taking.

Currently, our focus is on green Mobility: we are gradually electrifying our vehicle fleet and aim to have 15 charging stations installed on our premises by summer 2023 – a move that will also benefit our employees. We envisage powering the fleet and other parts of our operations via an own photovoltaic system to be put into service by 2024.

Measures implemented in the area of Ecology:

Focus on carbon reduction – on our path to net zero

Focus on carbon reduction – on our path to net zero We are committed to act as environmentally friendly as possible in all our business activities – be it in manufacture, the supply chain or at our workplaces. We want to consistently reduce our emissions and are continuously pursuing numerous reduction measures – ideally until we achieve climate neutrality.

To that end, we focus our efforts and investments on measuring, analysing, avoiding and reducing our emissions. We determine our CCF, meaning the Corporate Carbon Footprint according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol) on an annual basis. That includes the direct emissions generated by the company vehicle fleet and company facilities (direct emissions, Scope 1) as well as purchased heat and power (indirect emissions, Scope 2) and employee travel, business trips, fuel and energy-related emissions, purchased goods and services (emissions from upstream and downstream activities, Scope 3), which are all significant polluters. Other indirect emissions created outside the company in the production of raw materials and intermediate products, external logistics and the use and disposal of products or other processes are not included in this accounting method.

We actively strive to protect our climate and aim to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible, now and in the future. We also support the region where Paulmann is rooted, which is why we invest in regional projects and the expansion of our company-wide reduction measures. Some examples include:

At the Völksen location, we use green energy from 100% renewable sources.
We are installing charging stations and are gradually converting our vehicle fleet to electric mobility.
We are currently planning the construction of a photovoltaic system at our company headquarters.
We are taking part in the 2023 Summitree Challenge, with the aim of replanting 1,000 trees in the region.
We are continuously optimising our shipping process by saving materials and massively increasing the proportion of recycled materials.
We are reducing our paper and print products and are one of the first companies in the industry to completely dispense with a printed main catalogue.

In 2022, we commissioned a product portfolio analysis to reduce our Product Carbon Footprint (PCF). It revealed that our greatest potential for reducing carbon emissions lies in material usage, which means that we will continue to reduce the use of materials in the future and significantly increase the proportion of recycled metals and plastics. For example, we will increasingly use recycled plastics in the outdoor lighting product group, which already includes particularly weather-resistant and insect-friendly products.

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Economy & Governance – Paulmann’s contribution

Social, entrepreneurial and ecological standards are key factors for us in the manufacture of our lamps and luminaires, our packaging and the shipping of our products as part of our efforts to protect people and the environment. To this end, we want to systematically maximize our supply chain transparency, in accordance with the requirements of the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act. That is how we ensure compliance with human rights standards and prevent working with suppliers that might cause environmental damage. As a member of the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), Paulmann actively supports the improvement of working and production conditions along the entire supply chain. In our production chain, we work with carefully selected partner companies who regularly undergo relevant audits.

Activities in the area of Economy & Governance:

UN Global Compact membership

UN Global Compact is the world’s largest initiative for sustainable and responsible corporate governance. By becoming a member of UN Global Compact (confirmed on 5 January 2022), we want to express our commitment to sustainable operations vis-a-vis Paulmann’s various stakeholders. Being a member requires us to prepare and submit an annual Corporate Progress Report (COP), in which we provide information about our sustainability strategy progress and our current situation. As a member of the initiative, Paulmann actively supports the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Woman picking LED lights from cardboard box into blue storage bins with barcode labels

Sustainable products and packaging

Social and sustainable standards are also very important to us in the production of our lamps and luminaires, our packaging, and the shipping of our products with a view to protecting people and the environment. As a member of the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), Paulmann is actively committed to improved working and production conditions within the supply chain. In order to achieve this, we work with selected partner companies in our production chain that are regularly audited.

Career building at Paulmann Academy

Our efforts for the active advancement of our employees is an important pillar at Paulmann to ensure long-term satisfaction and motivation. In addition to annual development review meetings, we offer a wide range of virtual training opportunities via the Paulmann Academy as well as an department-specific annual training budget.

In 2022/2023, we also hosted a large-scale leadership seminar to analyse and discuss leadership styles. The goal is to strengthen the leadership skills of all our managers and to build and ensure awareness of equal opportunities.

Man holding three different white and transparent LED bulbs, modern energy-saving light bulbs

Employee survey

We conduct an anonymous annual employee satisfaction survey. The results are discussed in a detailed participatory process between managers and employees to jointly work out corresponding improvement measures.

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Code of Conduct

It goes without saying that we here at Paulmann uphold human rights, respect different cultures and religions and that all employees are protected against discrimination at all our locations. In 2013, Paulmann established a Code of Conduct that defines the ethical and legal framework for our employees. It provides a binding summary of the rules of conduct, working principles and values to be respected in our company for all employees and managers at Paulmann.

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Compliance

Corrupt practices of any kind, be it for short-term profit seeking, personal enrichment or any other purpose, will never be tolerated at Paulmann. The Paulmann Code of Conduct published in 2013 explicitly details various types of corruption and the correct behaviour in case of doubt.