Company Name: GEMÜ Valves (China) Co., Ltd.
Award Category: ESG Performance
Company Size: Small and Micro Enterprise Group
Environment
Climate Change:
To introduce the decarbonisation strategy, GEMÜ has established a global coordination circle on the topic of sustainability, whose members come from various relevant departments as well as from different sites. In this circle, all important topics relating to sustainability are discussed, worked on and developed into projects, e.g. with regard to the expansion of renewable energy. The company also collaborates with environmental organizations, project teams or agency, governments, and other stakeholders in decarbonization and shares best practices.
Starting in 2021, GEMÜ works with a third-party organization to establish a standardized global process for a corporate carbon footprint to provide transparency on annual emissions, identify hotspots, and assess how effectively reduction measures are working. As a short-term goal, GEMÜ aims to optimize data collection. GEMÜ's decarbonization strategy focuses on reducing emissions within the company; unavoidable emissions are offset by supporting environmental projects after the carbon footprint has been recorded.
Last year, GEMÜ calculated the carbon footprint for 2021, which came to a total of 2380.74 tonnes of CO2, and we paid nearly 12000 euros to purchase certificates from the “VCS Forest China” reforestation project.
Over the next five years, until 2028, the company will be actively building photovoltaic systems, constructing photovoltaic panels on rooftops, and using solar energy to maintain 30% power throughout the buildings and factories. GEMÜ's mid-term goal is to restructure the company's energy mix with affordable, clean energy, with the hope that the green electricity generated will cover 30% of the consumption. The GEMÜ Group wants to reach its long-term goal of becoming a self-carbon-neutral group by 2040, without having to rely on external carbon compensation.
Natural Resources and Energy
The carbon footprint is based on the global carbon accounting standard Green House Gas Protocol. With the 3 Scopes, the environmental impact of heat consumption, fuel consumption, gas leakage, direct emissions, electricity consumption and its personal emission factor, district heating/cooling consumption and its personal emission factor, business travel and hotel stays, commuting, water and wastewater, waste accumulation, paper, hardware, consumables, third party transport and distribution, preliminary products Is measured.
Throughout the decarbonization program, the company monitors its own business areas and direct suppliers. The performance monitoring is a monitoring system set up by the subsidiaries themselves, with CCF experts in each division, through regular inspection tests, such as wastewater indicators, consumables usage, monthly electricity consumption, etc. At the same time, all office areas of the Chinese subsidiary set up a timed light-off system and additional electric shuttles to call for green travel, not only to provide convenience for employees but also to reduce energy consumption.
Every year, after evaluating the data, the GEMÜ coordination circle sustainability will hold a group sustainability meeting, where the global decarbonization project process will be regulated, and more environmentally friendly suppliers will be selected globally based on the available data.
In addition, every winter GEMÜ uses steam generated from power generation in the industrial park for heating.
Prevention of Pollution:
GEMÜ Valves (China) Ltd. is a company committed to environmental protection. Based on the concept of sustainable development, GEMÜ works on green projects on different topics, using environmentally friendly materials, optimizing production processes, saving materials and energy as much as possible during development, manufacturing, transportation and installation; saving water in the process; and establishing waste recycling systems.
According to the decarbonization instructions from the German headquarters, GEMÜ China actively calls on all departments to select CCF responsibility specialists to verify consumption and provide relevant data support according to the greenhouse gas emission data collection system. Under the leadership of MD Office, a working group consisting of MD Office, Administration Department, IT Department, Operation Department and Quality and Safety Department was established to hold regular seminars every two months to discuss the current status of the company's sustainable development.
Under the requirements of the industrial park as well as the company's environmental protection system, the administration regularly asks a professional agency to do sewage discharge testing and clean the pipes. Domestic waste is strictly implemented in accordance with Shanghai's waste separation requirements. Environmental protection slogans are posted in public areas such as pantries, and information related to sustainable development is promptly pushed to the company's corporate WeChat public account.
On the production side, waste materials are differentiated into general solid waste and hazardous solid waste, and the company will first safely package the waste materials in accordance with the GB18597-2001 standard, and then transfer them to qualified treatment companies for recycling. Recycling of paper, plastics, wood and metals is also usually handed over to specialized organizations for processing.
Other Actions Taken for Environmental Protection:
After obtaining the company's annual greenhouse gas emissions through the data collection system, GEMÜ worked with the “VCS forest China” project to contract the corresponding forest land for the purpose of carbon neutrality. The “VCS forest China” project involves improved forest management of forests created by converting deforested forest to protected forest, which contributes to the environment (biodiversity conservation and soil erosion control) and thus contributes to sustainable development
GEMÜ has offset the company’s greenhouse gas emissions for 2023 by purchasing 2,381 certificates from “VCS forest China”. The project contributes to the following sustainability goals:
Climate action:
The trees contracting in the forest serve as a carbon sink, saving approximately 2380.74 tonnes of CO2e.
Life on land:
Protecting forest areas preserves habitat for wildlife and promotes biodiversity.
Decent work and economic growth:
For the almost 8,000 ha of forest, staff are employed to maintain and manage the land and are paid fairly.
At the same time, the company plans to build a photovoltaic system on the company's rooftop within the next five years to transform the energy structure and achieve 30% power supply with renewable and clean energy, which is expected to save more than 10 million kWh of electricity per year, nearly 300 tons of CO2 emissions reduce.
Social
HR Development and Engagement:
GEMÜ has purchased supplementary medical insurance for its employees and puts the health and safety of its employees in the first place. In terms of production safety, GEMÜ has clarified the safety operation procedures, equipped each worker with appropriate labor protection items, standardized the ledgers and kept them on file even though. At present, the company has completed ISO 45000 Occupational Health and Safety Management System Certification.
During major festivals, HR actively organizes various activities and calls on all employees to participate, such as flower arrangement on March 8 Women's Day, dry land dragon boat on Dragon Boat Festival and outdoor activities on Mid-Autumn Festival, etc., which fully enhances the participation of employees.
In addition，our HR Department arranges annual medical checkups and seeks benefits for all employees from time to time, such as the supply of cold drinks in summer and the organization of smart heart sticker benefits to monitor employees' heart health, etc. Meanwhile，our HR Department liaised closely with Xinzhuang Industrial Park to apply for a variety of sports equipment for GEMÜ employees to protect their physical and mental health after work.
The company has set up an employee service number to provide relevant welfare information from time to time, such as job training, shuttle bus information, activity notification, and new employee orientation.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:
The diversity of the company's workforce is reflected first and foremost in its international composition, with employees from Germany, Canada and many other countries. The local workforce is also ethnically diverse, not only Han Chinese, but also from other ethnic minorities such as Miao and Dong. The company has recruited employees from a variety of study backgrounds, not only from universities in China, but also from Germany, France, the United States, Australia and other countries. Currently, the company's office staff have various academic qualifications such as undergraduate and graduate degrees. Meanwhile, GEMÜ provides free accommodation for new employees.
Due to the characteristics of production enterprises with more men than women, the company controls the ratio of men to women in its workforce at 2:1, covering all age groups, with 4 people under 20 years of age, 81 between 20 and 30 years of age, 145 between 30 and 40 years of age, 65 between 40 and 50 years of age, and 10 between 50 and 60 years of age.
Product Liability:
Our compliance department is responsible for maintaining the company's intellectual property rights, from utility model patents to trademark usage.
For the production, all our products and designs comply with GMP standards and have received various certifications such as PED, SIL3, DVGW, ISO9001, ISO14001, ISO45001, TS, API (certificate in progress), etc. From a regulatory point of view, all products are tested by our quality and safety department before they leave the factory, and the finished valves are tested for tightness and strength according to EN12266-1 standard.
Every year, the Marketing and Sales Department conducts a market satisfaction survey for our customers to ensure that the company effectively conducts all types of online and offline training while responding quickly to customer inquiries, questions or complaints in a variety of ways, listening to customer comments and feedback, and actively solving problems. In addition, we have opened a technical service hotline to deal with customers' problems and complaints in a timely manner and provide satisfactory solutions.
GEMÜ provides a personalized customer experience, offering them personalized services and solutions based on different needs and preferences.
Supply Chain:
The selection of suppliers will go through a strict procedure. Pre-selected suppliers need to fill out a questionnaire and provide qualification certificates and other related documents, and after confirming that they meet the criteria, GEMÜ will visit their company and factory on site and conduct small batch testing as well as assembly testing based on the sample provided by our pre-selected supplier before finally actually entering the mass production process. Meanwhile, our company has established a complete scoring system for suppliers, scoring them according to different criteria such as incoming material quality, delivery time, and feedback speed, etc. In order to avoid raw material interruption, GEMÜ will choose more than two suppliers for the same raw material to ensure a functioning supply chain.
In terms of supply chain ESG management, Germany chose IntegrityNext as digital platform to collect and evaluate suppliers' ESG performance, including environmental protection, quality management system, and supply chain responsibility, to complete their sustainability assessment, and ultimately to form Germany and China´s sustainability overview map. More information can be found at www.integritynext.com
Community Engagement:
We liaise closely with Xinzhuang Industrial Park to apply for a variety of sports equipment for GEMÜ employees to protect their physical and mental health after work.
During the three years of the epidemic, GEMÜ has been struggling on the front line of the fight against the virus, and all the employees have been working with all their might to strictly control the quality of our valve products to ensure the production of the covid-19 vaccine.
GEMÜ China actively participates in various activities related to sustainable development. Last year, GEMÜ China won the 2022 Responsible Practice Sustainability Award at the 5th Annual Responsible Practitioner Conference themed "High Quality and Sustainable Development" organized by Pengpai News for its performance in brand influence and social responsibility.
GEMÜ Group attaches great importance to the issue of sustainable development and this year our company's sustainability-related personnel participated in the Shanghai International Carbon Neutral Technology, Products and Achievements Expo to find new ideas and partners for the company's future energy saving and emission reduction.
Corporate Governance
Governance Organizational and Mechanism:
GEMÜ is organized in a structure of clear responsibility and authority, the company is owned by Gemini Holding AG, the Board of Directors consists of Mr. Stephan Mueller, Mr. Andreas Winkler and Mr. Zhen Xiao, Gert Mueller is our supervisor, the company has a total of 25 executives. GEMÜ has six departments: President's Office and Legal & Compliance, Finance, Operations, Sales & Marketing, Human Resources & Administration, and Quality & Safety. Departments have different levels of managers based on business needs.
Since its establishment, GEMÜ has continuously improved the guidelines and introduced dozens of standards such as GEMÜ Group Code of Conduct for Employees, GEMÜ Group Code of Anti-monopoly and Competition Law, GEMÜ Group Code of Anti-Commercial Corruption, GEMÜ Group Code of Business in the Armament Industry, GEMÜ China Rules and Regulations Management Measures, IT System Security Specifications, etc.
In addition to defining the company's business ethics policy and operating procedures, the Legal Compliance Department has also explicitly stated that the company will always ensure the protection of customer privacy and data. Meanwhile, the company uploads all guideline information on the company intranet for all employees to review. If there are significant changes in compliance documents, for example, the reimbursement policy of Finance Department, the company will organize relevant training and meetings to inform all relevant personnel.
Innovation Sustainability:
Based on the concept of sustainable development, GEMÜ has set up green sustainable development projects with different themes, using environmentally friendly materials, optimizing production processes, saving materials and energy as much as possible during development, manufacturing, transportation and installation; saving water during production; and setting up waste recycling systems.
GEMÜ is vigorously promoting the high-tech informatization process of its products, such as the Inevvo series that installs chips on valves, and the paperless mode that effectively reduces carbon emissions while improving the efficiency of systematic management of factories. The company has won many awards in the product innovation category, the responsibility to practice sustainable development awards and other environmental awards.
The company's organizational structure is clearly delineated, and under the leadership, it actively integrates ESG strategy into the company's operation, vigorously develops sustainable economy, incubates the company's green projects, and has now formed the 2040 roadmap. GEMÜ Group launched its Supply Chain Due Diligence program at the beginning of the year in response to the German Supply Chain Act, which came into effect on January 1, 2023, and which sets out the responsibilities of large German corporations in protecting specific human rights and environmental standards in their global supply chains. The German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains. The environmental aspects include the presence or absence of mercury, chemical contamination, and the release of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), while the human rights aspects include the elimination of child labor, forced labor, abusive practices, and unequal treatment in the workplace.
