protecting planet – uvex protects people and the planet

In order to conserve resources and protect the environment, the uvex group processes various types of recycled materials. These include, for example, recycled polyamide from production surplus and recycled PET plastics from drinking bottles, which in turn are used to manufacture frames for our safety glasses and eyewear products, headbands, as well as reading glasses made from at least 70% post-consumer recyclate.

The uvex group does not use any substances hazardous to health in accordance with the REACH regulation and has also enforced its own list of restricted substances. It is the policy of the uvex group to only offer products that contain as few harmful substances as possible and that do not pose a risk to either the user or the environment. The uvex safety group applies the strictest criteria which exceed the applicable EU directives, particularly for products that come into contact with the wearer's skin, such as PPE.

To protect the environment, the uvex group works to cut waste at as many different places as possible. To this end, we regularly scrutinise the use of resources in our production facilities on site in order to verify to what extent procedures and processes can be improved. The first specific example of a measure we are implementing in this context is a concerted effort to reduce cardboard material by changing packaging sizes and reusing shipping boxes. In the case of trade fair equipment, the uvex group also relies on loan concepts – this guarantees that the materials can be reused by other companies at a later date.

Environmental protection starts with electricity. For this reason, the uvex group uses green energy across its locations in Germany. This also applies to the locations of uvex safety Cagi in Italy, Swedsafe in Sweden and Heckel in La Walck (Alsace), France. ISO 50001 obliges the uvex group to verify that it has made continual energy savings. However, the uvex group does not simply rest on its laurels there: saving electricity along the value chain also has a high priority. The uvex group ensures sustainable production by continuously implementing sustainability measures at its own production facilities around the world. Individual measures include, for example, LED lighting, state-of-the-art machinery and heat recovery processes.

The uvex group believes that plant and bio-based materials represent the future. For this reason, bio-based HDPE (high density polyethylene) made from sugar cane, Lavalan (pressed wool), Prolan (pressed Bavarian sheep’s wool), rapeseed oil-based PU foams, textiles made from recycled PET bottles in addition to bamboo fibres, bio-based polyamide and other plastics developed on the basis of castor oil are already used in a wide variety of uvex products.

The uvex group stands out from the competition by offering improved product quality that can be empirically verified. This can be seen in the coatings used for our safety glasses, for example. Accordingly, uvex group customers have to buy new products less often because the products can withstand everyday use for a longer period of time. This not only saves money over the long term; it also saves valuable resources and generates less waste.

The uvex group has set itself the goal of continually reducing its own CO2 emissions across various levels. For example, within Germany the uvex group sources green energy on the basis of 100% renewable energies in addition to CO2-neutral gas. In so doing, the uvex group uses infra fürth gmbh to offset CO2 emissions produced by gas combustion processes and supports climate protection projects. Innovative products are produced and services for the global market offered at uvex’s own production plants, many of which are located in Germany and Europe. This firstly guarantees high quality, while also ensuring that transport routes are kept as short as possible. The uvex group makes a key contribution to reducing its ecological footprint by regularly implementing sustainability activities at its production facilities.

As part of its sustainability strategy, the uvex group has defined a target of continually increasing the proportion of environmentally friendly packaging it uses. In this context, for example, climateneutral (a status achieved with the use of offsetting measures achieved by way of climate protection projects) and 100% recyclable packaging is used, which is occasionally even plant-based in the form of grass-based cardboard. Further examples include the use of grass and stone paper in addition to recycled packaging film and bags made from renewable raw materials such as Tencel.