Our Commitment
What does our environmental commitment in practice and in our daily activities mean?
On this site, you will find a chronological overview of our internal activities in the realm of environment as well as our external commitment.
Our photovoltaic facility on a roof of a building in WendlingenInternal Activities
2007
- The Festool environmental management system has already been certified since the summer of 2007 according to the DIN EN ISO 14001 standard. This standard stipulates the requirements for our environmental management system, which makes it possible for us to continually improve our environmental policy while observing our legal obligations.
Reuterwiesen brook after the renature process- in the background you see a part of the Festool plant
2008
- In 2008, TTS along with the WWF measured the “ecological footprint” of TTS (of which Festool belongs), to determine where, and how much CO² was produce annually. This footprint revealed that we produced, directly or indirectly, almost 10,000 tones of CO² in 2007. In conjunction with the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), we developed measures to reduce our footprint.
- In 2008, TTS published the first ecological report with the intention to make our environmental objectives measurable.
- Festool made a commitment in its new Market Management Code from 2008 to environmental protection and the reasonable use of natural resources.
- Our new buildings in Wendlingen were furnished with innovative environmental technology. One example of this is the concrete core temperature control system, which reduces heating and cooling costs considerably. Another example is the usage of rain water to supply the toilets.
- In 2008, we started a renaturation project with the community of Neidlingen. The goal was to reroute the Reuterwiesen brook, which until then ran under the factories, and have it flow above-ground again. The Reuterwiesen brook now has a new natural like brook bed and flows around our factories. The success of this project led to much excitement within such organizations as the regional environment protection association of Esslingen and even the national environmental protection office the NABU (Naturschutzbund Deutschland).
2009
- In 2009, Festool was recognized as an “EcoProfit company” in that we, in the area of operational environmental protection, have set such a high standard of quality, more so than those required by law.
- We changed our electricity supplier to a regional company “Albwerk”, which relies much more on renewable energies. By this change alone, we were able to “save” around 600 tons of CO² annually.
- In Wendlingen we installed a peak-load shutoff system. Electricity consumers such as heating, air condition, ventilation are turned off when they are not needed by our building’s central control system. This has a positive effect on the environment and our operating costs.
- The heat exchangers in Wendlingen are also new. These act as buffer storage which bring the cooling water to the concrete core temperature control system in the night and then make this cold water available in the older buildings during the day.
- In the area of auto leasing, there is a new bonus for employees who select cars with exceptionally low fuel consumption: If the CO² output is less than the given norm, this is then rewarded. Additionally, a driver’s education course is now mandatory for new cars since October 2009, for one thing to promote safer driving, but also to encourage a more fuel economic manner of driving.
- The IT (Information Technology) department reconfigured many printers. Everywhere it is possible, the printers will be set in the future to double-sided printing to save paper as well as black/white to save ink and toner.
The photovoltaic facility is setup and already running
2010
- The largest measure taken was the photovoltaic facility, which TTS had installed on the roofs of the new buildings in Wendlingen and Neidlingen in the spring of 2010. It was made operational as of 21st of April. At such a magnitude, the system can be called a solar power plant due to the 1,500 polycrystalline solar modules installed on the roof which generate a net yield of 293,000 kWh annually.
To make a comparison: with the amount of electricity generated by TTS, one could provide electricity for 75 households containing 4 people each or an entire village with 300 inhabitants for a whole year.
- In order to achieve an optimal output, the building management took great efforts to select extremely high quality solar modules. Each individual module has been tested and has a life cycle of 20 years which is backed by guarantee. During the planning, a so called shadow simulation was preformed. As a result, solar modules were only installed in places that are permanently in the sun. In addition, the modules are organized in groups to achieve optimal performance. All those activities together build the foundation for the best performance of the whole facility
- Festool and TTS employees can directly take part in the financing of the photovoltaic facility and as a result, share in the returns – and profit financially from our commitment to the environment. Finally, it is good news for the environment because the facility saves almost 90 tons of CO² annually.
External Commitment
WWF Special Edition - Router OF 1010 in a Systainer WWF Cooperation from 2006 to 2008
The values of the WWF coincide wonderfully with our company philosophy, because we concentrate with extreme resolve on quality and lasting development. Longevity, quality, and positive ecological characteristics such as recyclability and biodegradability make our products stand out. We have been advocating environmentally responsible behavior for years now. In 2006, we decided to cooperate with the WWF to demonstrate this responsibility externally. To that end, we have had various products as WWF special edition models. With every unit sold, the WWF received direct support during the special offer period from 2006 to 2008 in each respective country. In total, the impressive sum of 748,520 Euros for the WWF worldwide was collected. Eberhard Brandes, the CEO of the WWF Germany was pleased with the largest part in the amount of 165,064 Euros, which went directly to the WWF Germany to support their work. This will make it possible to offer protection for important national projects, for example, the Wadden Sea, the Elbe dike opening project as well as the protection of the Uckermark. The German office of the WWF also promotes large international projects such as protection of the rain forests along the Amazon and in the Congo.
GoGreen
Festool and the TTS send out their newsletters about the CO²-neutral German Post’s “GoGreen” project, which supports the protection of the climate. Within this project, it is exactly calculated how much CO² emissions are caused by the dispatch of the newsletters. The Deutsche Post AG compensates for this amount through the “GoGreen” projects e.g. by participating in reforestation in Latin America where the rain forest has been illegally clear cut. In this way, we were able to compensate for two tons of CO² emissions with “GoGreen” in 2009.
www.gogreen.de
Home+
As sponsors, we support the “home+” project of the Stuttgart University of Technology with our machines. The Academy participated with our machines in the international “Solar Decathlon Europe” competition in June 2010. 20 different teams took part in total from all over the world to design and build a house which was supplied solely with solar energy
www.sdeurope.de
|
 |
Jobs and Career
TTS Tooltechnic Systems is an internationally active company with 2,600 employees in 26 countries worldwide.
The main brands are Festool, Protool, Tanos and Schneider Airsystems |
|
|
|