Koehler Receives Sustainability Award: Gold in the EcoVadis CSR Rating

After silver comes gold: With a score of 65 points, the Koehler Paper Group is one of the best of all 35,000 evaluated companies worldwide and has now been conferred gold status by the internationally recognized sustainability rating platform EcoVadis for its corporate social responsibility (CSR). "Following the silver medals awarded in previous years, we had set ourselves the goal of winning gold. Sustainability is part of our corporate strategy, which has now also been confirmed to us from the outside," says Christoph Müller-Stoffels, Press Officer of the Koehler Paper Group.

The internationally operating EcoVadis organization assesses suppliers in terms of their sustainability and provides the evaluation results on its platform for monitoring global supply chains. The Koehler family business and all its plants have undergone this recognized evaluation since 2017. Following the extensive evaluation, all participating companies receive the EcoVadis scorecard, which makes it easy for them to monitor and improve their performance in areas such as climate protection.

With a score 65 out of 100 points, Koehler is now an official gold medalist, which means it is in the top 5 percent in sustainability worldwide among companies that EcoVadis has audited. The EcoVadis sustainability experts assess CSR activities in the areas of environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable supply chains on a scale of 1 to 100 in the respective categories.

Koehler convinces CSR experts by focusing on sustainability

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means an ongoing commitment to acting responsibly by inte-grating social and environmental issues into business activities. CSR goes beyond simple compliance with regulations and focuses on how companies address their economic, social and environmental impacts and how they shape relationships with their stakeholders (e.g. employees, trading partners, government, etc.).
The EcoVadis scorecard depicts a company's CSR performance in a ranking. This is based on 21 CSR criteria of international standards such as the Global Compact principles, the conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard, the ISO 26000 standard and the CERES principles for sustainable development. "This award is yet another milestone for us. It confirms that we take our responsibility as a globally active company very seriously and pursue sustainable supply chain management," stresses Müller-Stoffels.

Strong indicator in business relationships

The topic of CSR is becoming increasingly important in the business world. For many customers, a sustainable orientation in business relationships is one of the most important prerequisites and a decisive indicator. A responsible and socially acceptable supply chain plays an important role in pur-chasing. EcoVadis thus enables companies to inform themselves about their suppliers and to present themselves as committed suppliers. The Ecovadis ranking highlights their commitment.

By being awarded Gold status, Koehler has underscored its commitment to sustainable corporate development and the development of responsible business processes. After all, every human activity has an impact on the environment. The efficient use of natural raw materials, environmental protection and environmental management are basic prerequisites for Koehler and its employees. This is the only way to achieve sustainable economic growth and prosperity for people and society. And Koehler stands for always bearing precisely this in mind and improving its own processes.