NEW BUILDING BLOCKS IN THE SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY SLOT SMOOTHLY INTO OVERALL CONCEPT
For RINGANA founders, Ulla Wannemacher and Andreas Wilfinger, sustainability was an essential element of their corporate philosophy right from the start. Further enormous progress has been made in the last three years. At the beginning of 2022 another three milestones were reached – and the journey continues…
RINGANA can proudly say that not only is its entire product palette climate-neutral, but that this also applies to the entire company. However, as has been the case over the last 25 years of RINGANA’s history, this doesn’t mean that the company will now be resting on its laurels. For RINGANA, standing still means a step backwards, so it will continue untiringly in its efforts to develop what the company likes to call its “sustainability mosaic”.
There have already been three great achievements in 2022:
The Austrian Ecolabel and the European Ecolabel are awarded to three more RINGANA products
Following FRESH soap’s recognition, FRESH shampoo, FRESH body wash and FRESH soap liquid have now also been awarded both the Austrian Ecolabel and the European Ecolabel. “This is an enormous achievement for our rinse-off products,” says Andreas Wilfinger, RINGANA’s CEO. “The Austrian Ecolabel has the most stringent criteria for skin care products. They reflect all potential consequences on the environment – from the contents, to the packaging, to recycling after use. In addition, products are tested for their efficacy; so sustainability per se is not enough.”
To date, only two companies in Austria have been able to meet these high standards, RINGANA being one of them.
Reduction of CO2 emissions with more regional and more efficient inbound logistics
RINGANA launched a new era at the beginning of 2022 with the inauguration of its master hub in St. Johann – one of the most state-of-the-art distribution systems in Austria. The facility has 64 individual packing stations on 8 packing lines, meets the industry standard 4.0, and has an output capacity of up to 22,000 packages per day.
To keep the company’s carbon footprint as small as possible, much work has gone into more regional and more efficient inbound logistics. This now makes it possible to reduce average journeys by around 400 kilometres which in turn means that CO2 is reduced by 45% for the transport of packaging. Drilling further down, this means 6.88% less CO2 per kilo of packaging.
At the same time, RINGANA has started in-house production of corn starch peanuts, a biodegradable filling material, which ensures the safety of the products in every package. An extruder makes it possible to process one sack of organic corn granulate into an entire lorry-load of organic corn starch peanuts, saving an enormous amount of CO2.
The switch to sending invoices by e-mail only – completed in mid-January 2022 – avoids 2.5 million printouts per year.
The big story: packaging
In 2021, RINGANA set new standards with its moulded pulp packaging made of 100% recycled waste cardboard and renewable fibres. Now the company is engaged in further projects. “We are currently working intensively on massively increasing the ratio of recycled materials. Over the coming years we want to reach the target of 75% recycled material for all of our packaging,” explains sustainability expert, Patrick Sonnleitner.
“With regard to eco design, we’re already paying attention not only to the recyclability of our packaging, but are trying to use recycled material to produce it. It’s only in this way that materials can be kept in the loop, helping to conserve the climate and resources.”
The most important milestones of the last three years:
RINGANA once again set standards when it launched the RE*THINK sustainability campaign in 2019 which integrates the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, brought out its new moulded pulp packaging for RINGANA DRINKS, and built its new state-of-the-art RINGANA Campus.
Integration of the SDGs
The greatest challenges of our times such as climate change or social injustice can only be solved together and globally – so a further milestone for RINGANA was linking its own RE*THINK sustainability programme with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this way it can be guaranteed that alongside the company’s own efforts towards responsible and sustainable operations, it also accepts the global responsibility that is required for a sustainable future.
The SDGs and the Paris climate targets clearly set out how to deal with emissions.
The first step involves recording RINGANA’s CO2 footprint, reducing it, and always offsetting the remainder by supporting climate conservation projects.
For two years, RINGANA has been supporting a forest conservation project in Portel, Brazil. The way it works is that the land rights are assigned to the local community, who can then protect their property against fire clearances, etc., and are given the basis for earning a self-determined income.
In conjunction with ClimatePartner, thanks to this climate conservation project, all operations – inclusive of all products manufactured by RINGANA – are now climate-neutral.
Since 2022 RINGANA has been supporting a project that promotes the expansion of wind power in China. In global terms, the transformation of the energy sector, moving away from fossil fuels to renewable resources, is one of the most crucial and influential levers for the world’s climate strategy.
Corporate social responsibility
With regard to its social responsibility, RINGANA supports several long-term projects such as sponsoring a house at the SOS Children’s Village Pinkafeld, Austria and it assists the self-help organisation Lebenshilfe Hartberg in a number of different areas.
“We have also launched a trainee initiative, to give young people the all-important chance of vocational training,” says co-founder Ulla Wannemacher.
To mark International Women’s Day 2022, RINGANA lent its support to the Hilfswerk International project “Frauen auf der Flucht” which is helping female refugees.
In designing the RINGANA canteen – known as RINGlunch – eco-conservation was also a key factor. It is one of the few purely vegetarian and vegan company canteens in Austria. “Meatless dishes are simply the most sustainable. We also see that the RINGlunch is helping to raise awareness among our employees,” says Patrick Sonnleitner.
Renewable energy and growth
By establishing the new RINGANA Campus in St. Johann, it has been possible to add lots of new tiles to the RINGANA sustainability. In terms of power generation, the Campus features photovoltaic installations on all roof surfaces which power the sophisticated heating and cooling system and the production plant by means of state-of-the-art heat pumps. This means that RINGANA has been able to more than quadruple the share of renewable energy it generates in-house. “We can proudly say that we only use renewable energy throughout the company, in all locations,” Patrick Sonnleitner says.
Switch to electromobility
The mobility concept at the RINGANA Campus also stringently adheres to the sustainability philosophy. The entire company fleet has been switched to electric power. Employees in the local area are also offered e-bikes and the use of car-pooling platforms. The company is currently working with the local authorities on improving the regional mobility concept.
Green events
RINGANA’s last major event was certified by the Austrian Ecolabel as a Green Event. The certificate’s standards contribute to environmental conservation, and also raise awareness among attendees with regard to a more sustainable lifestyle. These standards now serve as a guideline when planning and staging larger-scale RINGANA events.
Learn all about RINGANA’s RE*THINK sustainability strategy in the video:
https://vimeo.com/566496291/008669822e