Sustianability – daily practice at Ziegler Organic
At the turn of the millennium, founding Ziegler Organic as pioneering company in organic and sustainable food business created the basis for our entrepreneurship based on the idea of sustainability. We fulfil our commitment to organic principles by reasonsable working processes based on environmental and social responsibility.
The environmental aspects of our company process are certified against the ISO 14000 standard and participate in the regional governmental initiative “Umweltpakt Bayern” for best environmental practice in companies.
Current steps are:
We cover our electricity needs from 100% renewable energy sources. our company area and factory roofs will be equipped with solar panels in the next years with the goal to cover our energy needs from our own photovoltaic technology. All company cars will be switched to electric cars by 2023. Container logistics from the port will be run by train systems instead of truck transports by 2023.
For a better world climate
As responsibly acting company, climate protection is part of our company goals. Even if we can state to act climate-neutral since the early 2000s due to our organic assortment, our goal must be to contribute even more to a reduction of CO2. An important example is our assortment policy. Coming from a traditonal history as overseas importer, products form EU origin have today gained the most import position in the Ziegler Organic product sales thus saving unneccessary seaway transports wehrever possible.
“We only import products which do not grow in Germany or neighboring European countries. This is how we reduce long transport ways harmful to the climate. We strategically grow products like buckwheat, millet, amaranth and lentils which grow in our climatic zone in partnership with regional organic farmers.”
Christof Götz, founder Ziegler Organic
To help fighting the climatic change, we have implemented a wide variety of measures, the effectiveness of which is controlled, meausred and evaluated in our environemntal mangement system according to ISO 14001. Energy and CO2 consumptions are continuously monitored.
Sustainability in our working protocol has also reached the desktops of our office colleagues for long time. We are getting closer to a paper-free office.
Home office, onine conferences and car pool solutions are established and very popular among our team.
Sustainable packaging / “unpacked retailers”
We do not only focus sutainabilty aspects when choosing products for our assortment, but also packaging materials have to stand the test of our sustainability critertia. We overthink old routines, check the recyclability of all materials used and decide for the solution with the best ecological fingerprint, no matter if we focus big-bags for the industry or consumer units for the retailers.
Our packaging paper used originates from FSC-certified, sustasinable forestry. For our plastic fil bags, attention is given that recycled polyethylene is used. These PE bags are made from 80% re-granulate, they are 100% recyclable.
As a new segment, the so called “unpacked”-retailers strategically want to avoid unnecessary packagiung in the food chain. As a partner of this grassroot movement, Ziegler Organic gives the chance to these start-up companies to buy their product needs directly fomr us – as direct as an industrial user.
Social sustainability for global partnershipes
Social components and odeas of ethical principles have always been part of the organic agricultural movement:
- Organic farming reduces the harmful exposition to pollutants for the peasants
- Organic farming and the higher farmgate prices enable the rural population to imporve their standard of living without the necessity to leave into the overcrowded cities as migratory workers
also and epseically in the poorer and underdevelopped parts of the world
- Organic is a chance for the poorest to participate in the global trade without the risks of price dictation as we know it from the conventional food industry.
Ziegler Orgnasic has been working with all principles of social compliance in the supply chain from day one. Nowadays it has been put into a social code of conduct. Independent certification assure that our porducts are traded in full compliance with “good social practice” in farming and food processing units , even in risk countries outside the EU or other Western countries.
Examples for good social practice are: exclusion of child labor, guaranteed wages above substistence level, existence of social assurance system and medical care, price guarantees for the farmers clearly above world market trading levels
In daily work with our farmers, we make sure that the biggest possible share of the value genrated remains directly in the hands of the producing cooperatives thus enabling them to a sutainbel strengthening of their local communities and infrastructure.