STILL received EcoVadis Silver status for its Corporate Social Responsibility commitment

Photo by STILL GmbH

STILL underwent an extensive test by the international rating platform EcoVadis and was rewarded with Silver status for its tremendous commitment in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It shows that STILL ranks in the leading group in the “Environment” and “Working Conditions” areas among all machine manufacturers tested by this world-renowned rating agency. Thus an independent authority confirms once again the credible implementation of the value-oriented entrepreneurial responsibility anchored in STILL’s guiding principles.

The EcoVadis initiative examines suppliers with regard to their sustainability in the four areas of Environment, Working Conditions, Business Practice and the Supply Chain. In this respect, CSR identifies the objective of harmonizing economic, social and ecological activities, and of implementing this consistently sustainable concept on the company’s own initiative across the entire corporate level. CSR has been firmly enshrined at STILL for many years, and is an integral component of its strategic orientation. The intralogistics specialist subjected all of the company’s sustainability aspects to a systematic examination so as to render its corporate practices transparent for business partners and customers.

Questions of sustainability, and thus about the long-term consequences of entrepreneurial practices, have now acquired a key position when customers and purchasers compare solutions and products. Trust in the sustainability of corporate activities is just as much a part of the assessment basis nowadays as the balance sheet. Companies are ultimately not only in dialogue with society, they are also an active part of it worldwide. That’s why the future in a globalized world belongs to those companies who think and act in a value-oriented way in their daily work. “Sustainability” in this context is understood to mean the way the business operates and makes profits while taking ecological, economic and social standards into account. A sustainable corporate philosophy of the kind, which has already been anchored in STILL’s guiding principles for a long time and by which it lives every day, is not merely an add-on accessory, it’s now a forceful sales argument.

Clients expect transparency across the entire value added chain, especially from a leading solution provider like STILL, i.e. from the origin of the raw materials and working conditions at upstream suppliers and in the company’s own factories to recycling at the end of the product’s life cycle. EcoVadis examined STILL’s performance in the four sustainability areas of “Environment”, “Employment practices and human rights”, “Fair business practices” and “Sustainable procurement”. In addition to environmentally friendly manufacture and the use and disposal of products, STILL’s requirements include high social and environmental standards from its worldwide suppliers, and it verifies these regularly on the spot.

Apart from checks, however, cooperative partnership with suppliers is particularly important to those responsible. In this respect there is a clear correlation between sustainable supplier management and a company’s financial success. Suppliers that manage their business sustainably are in most cases more efficient than other suppliers, since sustainability presupposes the continuous improvement of all the business processes. This in turn secures an innovation advantage for companies that collaborate with these partners. That’s why STILL regards sustainability as a long-term task. STILL has already received the corresponding certificates from German Lloyd (DNV GL) for the areas of Quality Management (DIN EN ISO 9001:2008), Environmental Management (DIN EN ISO 14001:2004), Energy Management (DIN EN ISO 50001:2011) and Occupational Safety (BS OHSAS 18001:2007).

The EcoVadis independent rating agency has set itself the aim of supporting companies’ environmental and social practices through comprehensive inspection of the respective production and supply chains from the sustainability point of view. The agency is guided in this respect by the 10 fundamental principles of the United Nations’ Global Compact, and each year it reports on the progress that has been achieved. Since the organization was founded in 2007, more than 20,000 well-known companies have relied on the competence of EcoVadis to reduce risks, promote innovations and create trust and transparency between business partners. These suppliers from 95 countries are now assessed according to more than 150 purchasing categories and 21 CSR criteria. The assessment is carried out by EcoVadis CSR experts who evaluate the companies’ responses to a survey in accordance with international standards, e.g. the Global Reporting Index (GRI), the ISO 26000 Standard and the principles of the Global Compact. Each survey is designed for the countries in which the businesses operate – taking the size of the industrial sector and the company into account. The assessment also relies on supporting documents and on information from public organizations and stakeholders (NGOs, trade unions and the Press).

For more information, please visit http://www.still.de.

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