Environmental policy

Being part of the Husqvarna group, environmental protection is taken seriously at all GARDENA production sites. We are aware that the future of the different plants can be secured on the long term not only by profit and growth but also by taking social responsibility. Therefore, we attach great importance to the environmental safety of our production plants. Integral and sustainable environmental protection means for us to fulfil the legal requirements as a matter of course, but also to include environmental aspects in the relevant operational processes and to continuously improve our in-plant environmental measures on all levels.

Our employees are the key to a working environmental management system. Therefore, they are actively involved, informed and trained. In our daily acting and decisions we try to reconcile economic aspects with environmental protection whenever possible and reasonable. Our target is to avoid any unnecessary environmental impact putting our focus on preventive protection of the environment.

• We make efficient use of all required resources and let ourselves be guided by the idea of recycling economy.
• Emissions, waste and hazardous materials are avoided wherever possible or reduced.
• Risks and potential dangers are regularly recorded, evaluated and – wherever possible - avoided. Emergency plans help to limit damage in case of emergency.
• By defining environmental key data we monitor our major environmental impacts thus laying the foundation to make potentials for improvements transparent.
• We keep the public, the administration and our contract partners informed about our environmental policy. This relationship management – also with other companies – supports the exchange of experiences and thoughts.

Specific measures to continuously improve environmental protection are for instance:

• Measures to conserve energy, e.g. replacement of energy-wasting devices, use of energy-efficient computers and monitors or optimized illumination in production and administration.
• Reduce transports and with them CO2 emissions by several measures, e.g. by optimizing the loading space of trucks.
• Correct sorting of waste even exceeding the legal requirements.
• Use of re-usable packaging for in-plant and cross-plant transports, e.g. use of long-lived plastic boxes for in-plant transports. This way, several tons of cartons and plastic films are saved.
• Lacquers containing solvents have been replaced by water-based lacquers in the factory Niederstotzingen. By this measure the limits defined by the VOC directive are fallen short by approx. 50 % thus saving 10 tons of solvents per year.

With the FSC label for wood products the Husqvarna group demonstrates their interest in sustainable acting and especially in sustainable forest management securing the fulfilment of social, economic and ecological need for today’s and future generations. The products concerned in the group are the combisystem wooden handles and the Classic hedge clippers of the brand GARDENA.

The FSC label can be used only in connection with a valid certificate. Therefore, besides GARDENA Manufacturing GmbH also other sales companies of the Husqvarna group have been certified. The implementation of the FSC system was a further important step in order to fulfil the Husqvarna and GARDENA philosophy on the way to sustainable management.

FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council. It was founded as non-profit organization after the earth summit on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Besides the introduction of the FSC certificate, the FSC organization’s major task is to define standards. In addition, 10 principles have been defined for certificate holders, for example on the following criteria:

• Prohibition of forest conversion and conversion of any natural living spaces
• Prohibition of the use of highly dangerous chemicals
• Safeguarding the rights of the native population and the international workers
• Keeping to applicable law and international contracts

Keeping to the above mentioned principles is a matter of course for the Husqvarna sales companies involved.