Living our responsibility to nature
Let's be honest: as a large industrial company, we need energy like any other business. Lots of energy. And raw materials. However, this shouldn't give you a guilty conscience when buying our high-quality worktops and back walls. Quite the opposite! The decisive factor here is our careful use of resources and the contribution we make as a company in the form of regenerative energies and sustainably optimised processes. We also take our social responsibility towards future generations seriously and have implemented a variety of measures to keep our ecological footprint as small as possible. Our investments have already resulted in major successes in many areas – as confirmed by our corresponding certifications.
The Lechner company relies on the use of renewable energy at our Rothenburg ob der Tauber location. Since 2009, we have installed a photovoltaic system with a total surface area of 30,000 m². The system has an output of over 2 MWp and thus achieves a sustainable and clean electricity yield of 7,000 kilowatt hours per day on average. This corresponds to the supply of approximately 700 households per year. At Lechner, this allows us to cover around 25% of our own electricity needs, saving over 1,700 tonnes of CO2 each year.
We are proud of the decision by the certification company SKZ-Cert GmbH to classify Lechner as a flagship company. The auditors have certified our company as having a high level of expertise and a very high commitment on the issue of energy consumption and energy efficiency. Indeed, D. Lechner GmbH has been certified in accordance with ISO 50001 since 2013.
A glance at any globe suggests that water is an infinite natural resource; after all, two thirds of our planet are covered by water. However, as only 3% of this is drinkable fresh water, supplies of this indispensable commodity are in fact severely limited. To counteract the fact that the Earth's water resources are being consumed at an increasing rate, we have optimised our production processes within the scope of our energy management system – and successfully reduced our water consumption by 55%. In context, the water we have saved would fill around 20 indoor swimming pools.
With our company-owned fleet and our independent logistics company, we manage the transport of our products independently and can thus ensure sustainable route planning. In other words, our delivery destinations within the same area can be individually linked and unnecessary emissions thus minimised.
20 of our 27 lorries already comply with the Euro 6 emissions standard – by the end of 2022, our entire lorry fleet will follow suit. We have already achieved this goal with our customer service vehicles.
Recycling is also a top priority for us. Over 70% of our waste is recycled and put to alternative use. A good example of this is our stone production, where our stone waste is processed into hard core for the construction industry. In addition, the use of renewable energy sources, such as waste heat, was introduced at Lechner many years ago. Burning our own wood waste not only allows us to heat our production and office spaces in CO2-neutral manner, but also to reduce waste within our company while simultaneously meeting our societal responsibilities.
