2019-12-10

Our Sustainability Report 2019 is entitled HÄLT, has been prepared in accordance with the latest standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and provides information on our progress and plans with regard to sustainability. The report highlights the five fields of action of our holistic sustainability strategy: products, corporate management, environment, employees and commitment.

FIELD OF ACTION PRODUCTS (excerpt)

More transparency
All our production partners have accepted the amfori BSCI code of conduct. It defines standards with regard to management practice, working hours and remuneration, freedom of assembly, prohibition of child labour, avoidance of discrimination, health and safety at work and ethical business practices and is thus based on the ILO core labour standards, among others. Compliance with this code is audited once a year by independent experts. Our Sustainability Report 2019 presents the production sites and their audit results in detail and formulates our intention to further intensify social audits by 2020.

Less packaging - more sustainable material
Since 2019, we have deliberately avoided cardboard inserts and clips for shirts and blouses. In this way, we save around 4 tonnes of paper and cardboard and 1.5 tonnes of plastic every year. By 2022, we want to reduce the demand for non-recycled packaging material by 50%.

We also want to review and reduce the microplastic footprint of our products by 2022. To this end we are planning a market analysis of alternative fibres and PFC-free alternatives for textile finishing.

In terms of materials used, we were also able to increase the share of sustainably produced cotton to 24% in the reporting period. By 2022, we want to cover up to 50% of our processed cotton from sustainable sources and use only sustainable merino wool.

FIELD OF ACTION CORPORATE MANAGEMENT (extract)

Brand, values, growth
In the area of corporate governance, we have also already implemented a number of goals of our sustainability strategy 2017 - 2022. 2017 was our brand relaunch, 2017/2018 we developed our value compass. We have achieved our current goal of healthy growth by successfully completing the 2018 financial year with an 11% increase in sales compared to the previous year.

More digitalisation
As a new strategic goal, we have set ourselves the expansion of digitisation. We will examine the various possibilities offered by new technologies such as BigData and artificial intelligence in all areas of the company in order to, among other things, relieve the physical strain on our colleagues and increase the traceability of our supply chains. It is important for us to bring digitalisation and HAKRO to a common denominator - that is, without having to do without employees.

FIELD OF ACTION ENVIRONMENT (extract)

Sustainable energy and emissions strategy
We at HAKRO pursue the vision of a world worth living in, where people use natural resources in a sustainable and balanced way and limit climate change. Against this background we want to keep the ecological footprint in our entire value chain as small as possible and avoid emissions. To achieve this we have opted for renewable energies and have made our logistics centre self-sufficient in electricity. We compensate for unavoidable emissions in full - and retroactively until 2016 - in order to make our location climate-neutral. This also applies to our business trips and even to the daily commuting of our employees.

Greenhouse gas reduction in the supply chain
As one of the first signatories of the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, we committed ourselves at the end of 2018 to reducing the energy demand in our value chain, using renewable energies and using ecologically sustainable raw materials. This includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions along the entire supply chain by 30% by 2030 compared to 2015. To achieve these goals, we are examining alternative transport routes by 2022 to reduce upstream transport emissions.

FIELD OF ACTION STAFF (extract)

Living diversity
Mutual appreciation is a top priority for us - regardless of gender, age, ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation and physical condition. With 167 employees from 15 nations, we support the Baden-Württemberg Entrepreneur Initiative and advocate a right to stay through work for refugee men and women. Free German language courses during working hours and increased participation in the Diversity Day are two of many other measures and projects in this field of action.

Open for new impulses
We are working on setting up a company suggestion scheme, are already giving our employees the opportunity to share their suggestions and concerns via Besser-Box and would like to involve our production partners even more in the sustainability dialogue in future.

Sustainability concerns everyone
Because sustainability is a joint task, our new report also includes for the first time long-standing business partners. Under the heading "Companions" they describe their view of things. It's worth taking a look!

Our Sustainability Report 2019 is available in the download area at www.hakro.com/service/downloads. We will be happy to send you a printed copy on request. Simply contact our customer service department.