Every day, Jessica Kramß goes to work at GGP Media, like almost 800 other employees. For a few days now she has been greeted by a sign. It says: "We are climate neutral"! Jessica Kramß is particularly proud of this because, as Environmental Officer, she plays a key role in her company's sustainable efforts. She is therefore delighted to explain to her colleagues that since the beginning of the year, GGP Media has made all emissions from its production process climate neutral.
This is just the latest implementation by the GGP Media Environment Team. "We have rethought our entire waste management in 2019 and have introduced a completely new waste separation system. To do this, we developed guidelines that articulate our ambition to become a green printer." Looking back, this was the kickoff on the road to carbon neutrality.
The First Steps
However, if you want to look back at the origins of GGP's ecological endeavors, you should talk to Claudia Thiem. She has been with the company for 23 years and has experienced this firsthand: "I can still remember the discussions when we introduced FSC certification!" That was in 2004, and today FSC certification is considered an essential part of the entire printing industry. Even back then, GGP Media was already one of the pioneers. Other certifications were to follow in the years to come. These included PEFC certification, the French Imprim'Vert certification and energy management certification in accordance with DIN ISO 50001. It can therefore be said that GGP Media is keeping pace with the social trend towards greater climate protection.
Corporate Responsibility
"As printers in particular, we bear a big responsibility for using ressource-saving raw material charge and for low-emission production" notes Jessica Kramß, who has been responsible for the company's quality and environmental management since 2019. These goals are pursued with long-standing partners. A partnership with ClimatePartner has been in place since 2008, in order to be able to identify climate neutral productions. 12 years after the first climate neutral order, the complete site and employee-related emissions are now climate neutral throughout GGP. We also offer our customers the option of offsetting the materials as well, in order to achieve complete climate neutral production. Permanent partners also include the company's many suppliers, who were included in the sustainable efforts in 2018 with the help of a survey on environmental issues. "It's really impressive how the topic has gained momentum among our suppliers and how much positive feedback it gets" says Jessica Kramß. Recently, she has entered into discussions with suppliers about certifying materials for Cradle to Cradle. The Cradle to Cradle certification, in which all product components are fed back into the material cycle, is in fact intended to be the next milestone. As ambitious as the environmental management team has been in recent years, this also applies to future projects. The Cradle to Cradle certification is expected to be officially achieved mid-2021 already.
Advancing Environmental Protection Together
Consistently, our customer are asking critical questions, are provideing great input and are adding their own ideas to the topic of sustainability. Sometimes it is not easy for Sarah Fischer, Environment Management Project Manager, who follows up on these questions every day and checks them for feasibility. "Through questions of customers we have noticed that we have already implemented and achieved a lot on our way to becoming green printers", she states and receives approval from her colleagues.
The last thing on the agenda is an appointment with the BeGreen Team. The BeGreen Team coordinates all environmental and sustainability issues at Bertelsmann companies and provides support for specific projects. Today, climate neutrality and other emission-reducing measures at GGP Media will be discussed. These are the topics on which the GGP Environment Team continue working when they return to work tomorrow morning and walk past the "We are climate neutral!" sign.
Any questions? Please feel free to get in contact with us.
