For Keilhauer, Earth Day is more than a reminder to “go green.” It’s an opportunity to throw open the doors and critically assess how the company’s environmental endeavours are proceeding. With Earth Day 2018 upon us, Keilhauer is celebrating a number of successes – including the company’s recent recognition as Canada’s Greenest Employer 2018. To ensure that its doors are open to all, and that its practices are transparent to the community it serves, Keilhauer is also very proud to announce today the availability of its second annual Corporate Sustainability Report (CSR).
“Since founding Keilhauer in 1981, we’ve always held firmly to our belief that responsible, sustainable manufacturing was crucial to our success. In the interests of increasing our accountability to these beliefs, we are very proud to share today our second annual CSR,” says President Mike Keilhauer. “It is only through transparent business practices that we can be held responsible to follow through with our goals, pushed to achieve more, and to inspire others to learn from our successes and make more sustainable choices themselves.”
Keilhauer’s recognition as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers is a result of both legacy programming and new initiatives, each designed to bring the company one step closer towards its closed loop manufacturing goal. Every change is intended to reduce Keilhauer’s reliance on the planet’s limited resources, while extending the lifecycle of the resources and items it still depends on. Highlights include:
- Successfully diverted 90 per cent of waste through our extensive recycling programs
- Achieved zero waste to landfill
- Near-zero water usage was reduced another 4 per cent from 2017
- Greenhouse gas emissions reduced by 15.8 per cent vs. 2017
- Expanded product certifications by Forest Stewardship Council®
- Introduce new, unique recycling streams to improve our waste diversion
- Helped bees to thrive by planting a native pollinator garden on-site at our corporate headquarters
- Reduced our energy usage through an exterior lighting retro-fit and the installation of high-efficiency HVAC units“
“From material sourcing and product take back programs to water reservation – much of Keilhauer’s environmental advances are owed to the fact that our sustainability program is continuously fed from both directions. Our executive team is deeply committed to eco-responsibility and our employees are incredibly engaged, participating each day and even helping us to identify new opportunities for improvement,” explains Keilhauer Sustainability Officer Josephine Abate.
A limited print of 100 copies of Keilhauer’s CSR have been produced, each featuring Forest Stewardship Council® certified paper and a 100 per cent bio-degradable dust jacket of seed paper which, when planted, will bloom with pollinator preferred, North American wild flowers. The headline font, Ryman Eco was selected purposefully as a sustainable option which uses 33 per cent less ink than most standard fonts. However, the company encourages interested parties to access the report electronically to minimize the environmental costs of printing and shipping.
Detailed reasons for Keilhauer’s selection as Canada’s Greenest Employer were posted online here. A link to Keillhauer’s Earth Day Corporate Sustainability Report (CSR) is also available here.