Arvato’s First Worldwide Environmental Stocktaking: Nearly 9.2 Billion Printed Products From 1.5 Million Tons Of Paper

For the first time in its history, Arvato has drawn up a worldwide environmental balance sheet. In its just-published Environmental Report 2004/2005, the Bertelsmann division delivers comprehensive information about its activities to promote environmental protection and sustainability, as well as its effects on the environment. On 36 pages, Arvato presents its environmental guidelines, describes examples of Best Practice from various companies and finally the "Environmental Balance Sheet 2004." There are also bylines by Peter Prokosch, Managing Director of WWF Germany, and Hermann Graf Hatzfeldt, Chairman of the FSC Task Group Germany, on the focus topic "Sustainable Forestry." 

For its environmental balance sheet, Arvato surveyed extensive environmental data for the entire division with its 250 companies and roughly 33,800 employees in 28 countries. For instance, in 2004 its two Arvato Print and Arvato Storage Media units together processed 1.4 million tons of paper and cardboard, more than 34,000 tons of inks and paints and over 29,000 tons of plastics. These materials went into producing some nine billion printed products and over 1.2 billion units of storage media – in the process the companies consumed just over 1.25 million megawatt-hours of power and a little more than 2.5 million cubic meters of water. 

The figures posted by Arvato Services and Arvato Systems are similarly staggering. In 2004, the two units used some 343,000 tons of packaging material to send over 1.5 billion mailings and shipments on their way, and processed more than 2.5 billion calls and transactions, in the process using roughly 184,000 megawatt-hours of power and over 210,000 m³ of water.

One of the core messages of the report is that, as a global production and services company, Arvato is continually trying to combine commercial success with environmentally conscientious conduct,. And it has already garnered some recognition for its efforts: In September, at the Expo 2005 in Japan, Arvato was the recipient of a Global 100 Eco-Tech Award for its commitment to promoting sustainable forestry. The Expo’s organizers give out the Eco-Tech Awards to commend companies or organizations for outstanding achievements in the field of environmental technology. Only 100 such awards in various categories are presented to companies all over the world – Arvato was one of just three German companies to receive one. 

"Our Environmental Report 2004/2005 can help us to learn from each other, to link existing approaches and achieve progress for our entire company by sharing experiences, cooperating and coordinating amongst each other," said Arvato CEO Hartmut Ostrowski. "Commercial success, environmentally conscious management and social responsibility all go together." Arvato’s Environmental Officer Andreas Henrichs added: "By issuing this report, we have laid a cornerstone that will send messages to inside the company as well." 

Arvato’s first worldwide Environmental Report may be downloaded as a PDF file.

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arvato0405_UB_E.pdf	4295 kB