Strategy and governance

Future perspective – the circular economy

In many of its fields of activity KHS actively and consistently embraces the various issues of sustainability. Circularity in conjunction with the protection of the environment and our climate plays an important role here.

Dear Readers:

You undoubtedly know KHS to be a supplier of durable and reliable filling and packaging systems for the beverage industry. Our mission is to holistically cater for the requirements of our customers and develop systems and solutions for them that are in operation for many, many years. Climate change presents us all with enormous challenges. In order to limit global warming we must significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions within the space of just a few years. This means that we want to increase our share of renewable energies and further reduce our use of materials – or make them circular wherever possible. Here, the key question for us is how we can better bring our lines, machines and services – already designed for durability and efficiency – into line with these objectives in the future.

Our machines are chiefly made of steel, stainless steel and plastic. In synergy with our modular designs largely based on standardization, we have already managed to lengthen the life cycle of our equipment considerably. In doing so, we maintain the value of our systems for our customers for as long as possible, with machines and lines often up and running for 15 years or more. We consider the numerous further developments and upgrades of our machines and service products, the majority of which aim to save energy and process media, to be a major contribution to the retention of this value. In both cases, these are important factors when it comes to cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, ergonomics and operator protection have a high priority which we consistently continue to observe.

Regarding packaging, for many years we have offered a broad portfolio of systems that save on materials. Lots of our [r]PET containers are extremely light, circular and gentle on the climate, for example, with select styles of secondary packaging consuming very little material indeed. We can provide our customers with validated information on questions about CO₂ equivalents for all KHS packaging systems and solutions. Here, we do not just want to merely comply with standards but rather to concentrate further on producing future-proof packaging systems that are fully circular. All of this commitment and our awareness and recognition of the urgent issues of our day and age underline our sense of corporate responsibility and our sustainable actions – for both people and the environment.

Our corporate responsibility centers on people with their individual ideas, requirements and goals, however. For KHS, our employees are our most precious commodity. Their encouragement and development are thus the focus of our activities. The above-average number of years of service to our company given by our employees confirms this approach and allows us to build on valuable expertise both today and tomorrow. We foster and promote our employees in all fields with targeted courses of further training and opportunities for development. This helps us to close the loop here, too, enabling us to further benefit from valuable knowledge down the generations and use it as a basis for new ideas and incentives, particularly with respect to the development of the circular economy.

Best regards,

Kai Acker
CEO
KHS Group