Die REMONDIS-Welt der Nachhaltigkeit
REMONDIS' World of Sustainability
De REMONDIS-wereld van de duurzaamheid
The whole notion of sustainability will be a lost cause unless we take action here and now to conserve our planet's natural resources. Future generations and today's developing countries will only be able to enjoy prosperous lives if steps are taken right now to counteract the growing shortages of raw materials. For us – being one of the world's leading recycling, service and water companies – there can be only one goal: to tackle this problem and lead by example. Why not join us on this path?!
Everyone agrees that global warming must be limited to 2°C – or preferably 1.5°C – if we wish to prevent our ecosystem from being irreparably damaged. Large areas of woodland in Germany are dying as the country suffers ever longer periods of drought. Pussyfooting around is not going to stop climate change. Some major action needs to be taken. And not just switching from fossil fuels to renewables but from virgin to recycled raw materials as well. We are showing how this can be done.
The Lippe Plant in Lünen is not only a high tech site, it is also an important project for combatting global warming. The various activities carried out at the site help to cut carbon emissions by 488,000t every single year. For a forest to have the same effect, it would need to contain 37 million trees. Certainly a lovely place to take a walk in but perhaps not an ideal place for creating 1,400 jobs.
People searching for an argument in favour of plastics recycling need look no further than at our seas and oceans. Vast areas of waste are floating around in them and are so big that they can even be seen from space. This problem, however, can only be solved on Earth – with more responsible consumer behaviour and systematic plastics recycling.
Talking the talk but not walking the walk? Not at REMONDIS. It goes without saying that our all-encompassing view of sustainability also includes us being sustainable ourselves. This covers all aspects of our business – from the energy efficiency levels of our head office buildings, all the way through to ensuring that all our locations adhere to our high social standards, no matter where in the world they may be.
Every company tries to make a profit. And things are no different at REMONDIS either. For us, however, money is always a means to a good end – which is why a large part of the profits we make is invested in developing new and innovative recycling processes and technologies. Helping to preserve our planet’s valuable natural resources.
Sustainability is not a state or a condition but an ongoing process. First and foremost, sustainability is team work. Which is why we cooperate closely with experts and research institutes that also feel strongly about conserving our planet’s natural resources and preventing climate change. Such work always leads to new approaches and innovations.
Wherever we see an opportunity to drive forward the notion of sustainability and to fix it even more firmly in the minds of people, then we are there, full of passion and enthusiasm for the cause. This covers a whole range of activities – from educational projects, to acting as advisers, to supporting universities.
Everyone is talking about the scarcity of raw materials and about sustainability. But what exactly is behind it all? We decided to do some research to find out what it’s all about – so that we could put together some pages with the most important background information for you to read.
Global sustainable development strategies have been around since 1987 – the year when the World Commission on Environment and Development published a report entitled "Our Common Future". Its contents: a presentation of the concept of sustainable development. In principle, it looked at how, in a globalised world, demand can be satisfied and natural resources handled responsibly. For the first time, it called for resources to be used in such a way that there would be sufficient supplies for future generations. Something that should not only apply to the industrial nations but right across the world – particularly to the developing countries. A number of international conferences were held over the following years to discuss the issue of sustainability.
An agreement was then reached at the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio, with the global community resolving to take political action to bring about sustainable development. The Agenda 21 was drawn up to act as guidelines, recommending what action could be taken by governments and their citizens. With hindsight, the Agenda 21 was not as successful as had been hoped and did not live up to the expectations precisely because it was considered to be a list of recommendations. The same is true for the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed by the industrial nations in 1997 and supposedly placed them under an obligation to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The goals defined in the agreement, however, were reached by only a handful of countries. The largest emitters, such as the USA and Russia, didn't even sign the Kyoto Protocol.
The UN Millennium Summit, held in the year 2000, achieved better results with the nations agreeing to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The overall objective here was to have significantly improved the situation of the developing countries by 2015 – something that was in fact achieved in many areas. A number of challenges, however, remain unresolved. One of the greatest problems faced by the international community is – as far as the issue of sustainability is concerned – that the poorest populations are being affected worst by climate change and environmental degradation.
With the MDGs due to expire in 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20, compiled a new catalogue comprising 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unlike the MDGs, this list does not focus exclusively on developing countries. The aim here is for all nations to collaborate and tackle the social, economic and environmental challenges together to create a sustainable future. The SDGs were officially passed at the UN General Assembly in September 2015. The UN Climate Change Conference was held in Paris just three months later. The special feature of this conference was that, for the very first time, the nations were called upon to define their own binding national climate goals. And this proved to be a success. Almost 190 countries agreed to introduce their own concrete national measures to achieve the common goal of ensuring global warming does not exceed the threshold of a 2°C increase on pre-industrial levels. Moreover, industrial nations agreed to provide emerging countries and developing countries with financial aid to help them introduce measures to prevent climate change. This is a very important point as far as today's sustainable development strategies are concerned as this helps to tackle the problem of inequality between nations – i.e. that the industrial nations, which have been pumping out carbon emissions for decades now and are the main cause of climate change, are now urging less developed countries to cut back their greenhouse gas emissions.
You can find out all about the sustainable development goals and download the chart as a PDF in the section SDGs
The report, "Our Common Future", was published by the World Commission on Environment and Development
Publication of the "Agenda 21" which dealt with the issue of sustainability
The industrial nations agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions
Adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
First draft drawn up of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Final resolution passed to adopt the SDGs
The global community agrees to take measures to prevent global warming exceeding the threshold of a 2°C increase on pre-industrial levels
Being an alliance of nations, the EU is able to provide a uniform sustainable development strategy that its members must then adopt. This is done in a number of ways, for example in bills, directives, programmes and agreements. To be able to achieve this, the whole issue of sustainability has been divided up into a number of key areas which are then dealt with by specific groups of people.
Such areas include the environment, agriculture and energy policy. The EU first drew up its own sustainable development strategy in 1999 which was based on the resolutions passed at the Rio Conference. The strategy came into force two years later in 2001. Since then, the paper has been updated and revised a number of times to reflect changing conditions. The latest version of the EU's sustainable development strategy, passed in 2006, focuses on the following issues:
The EU's sustainable development strategy is reviewed at regular intervals to determine how much progress has been made. A list of over 100 indicators has been drawn up for this purpose. The latest summary was published in 2015 and shows a mixed picture as far as progress is concerned. According to this paper, the areas with the greatest room for improvement are social inclusion, natural resources and global partnership.
When it signed the Agenda 21 at the UN Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, Germany committed itself to drawing up and implementing its own sustainable development strategy. It did not, however, truly take action in this area until between 1999 and 2002. Working together with the Federal Council for Sustainable Development [Rat für Nachhaltige Entwicklung], which was established in 2001, the Federal government drew up its first sustainable development strategy, entitled "Perspectives for Germany". Published in 2002, it defined 21 goals and indicators, with quantitative targets being set for the majority of the indicators. These indicators have been added to over the years and currently lie at 38. In 2014, the Government published a progress report based on these indicators which revealed that there was still much room for improvement. Only 19 of the indicators were developing in the right direction. There were still large deficits in the areas of, for example, wildlife protection, the handling of natural resources, the national debt and land use. What is good news, however, is the way the country has succeeded in reducing its carbon emissions. Germany is one of the very few nations to achieve the targets set out in the Kyoto Protocol – and earlier than expected. Progress has also been made in the field of energy productivity.
Being one of the world’s leading recycling, service and water businesses with over 30,000 employees, everything we do revolves around sustainability. We ensure that the environment is protected and that natural resources are conserved in over 30 countries across four continents.
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