KHS reports annually on its sustainability achievements

From the establishment of a central system of sustainability management through consistent resource conservation in the product portfolio and concepts for autonomous energy management to fair and appreciative cooperation: these and other issues are the subject of the 2023 sustainability report recently published by the KHS Group, a leading manufacturer of filling and packaging systems for the beverage and liquid food industries. 

The key focus is on the company’s reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and, in this context, participation in the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) – together with Salzgitter AG. For the first time ever, the turnkey supplier based in Dortmund, Germany, has produced an annual report. In shortening the reporting period, KHS is preparing to meet the future requirements of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

“With the publication of our most recent sustainability report, we’re both matching our document to the yearly issue of Salzgitter AG’s consolidated Group management report and emphasizing our own aspiration to gradually bring our sustainability reporting into line with the requirements for companies obliged to submit a report according to the new EU reporting directive (CSRD),” says Nicole Pohl, senior CSR manager at KHS. The directive obliges companies to produce an annual, uniform, EU-wide report on their sustainability measures. The CSRD has been in effect since the beginning of 2024 and is to be applied gradually. “This enables the contents of our report to be directly compared to those of our market participants,” states Pohl.

Change processes triggered in all areas

In concordance with parent company Salzgitter AG, one of the key targets is to continuously reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 at the latest. This led to a number of global changes in the 2023 reporting year. KHS has summarized these in its report under the categories of strategy and governance, product responsibility, operational ecology and social governance. One concrete example of the system provider’s efforts to be more sustainable is the commissioning of a photovoltaic system at its headquarters in Dortmund. On the one hand, the initiative taken by an employees’ cooperative gives KHS greater corporate independence from the volatile energy market. On the other, the project serves to safeguard the production site and thus the entire local workforce as a future-proof measure. The photovoltaic system is therefore an example of KHS’ holistic striving for greater sustainability and its efforts to bring economic, ecological and social values into balance. The turnkey supplier also reports that its Brazilian factory in São Paulo is its first international facility to use 100% certified green electricity. Further production sites are to follow, so that in the future all KHS plants will only use electricity from renewable sources. This in turn will gradually improve the Group’s carbon footprint and lower emissions in the value chain upstream of the customer.

Constant further development for full transparency

With the report on the past business year, KHS already meets the future obligation to produce a mandatory report. “With this, we offer customers a reliable framework in which to meet growing sustainability requirements and act within EU regulations. We’re constantly further developing our report to this end,” Pohl says. One reliable parameter that provides orientation in this context is the international Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard that has been in successful use worldwide for over 20 years.