Company Name: Wilo China Ltd.
Award Category: ESG Performance
Company Size: Medium-sized Enterprise Group
Wilo has developed an explicit sustainability strategy on the basis of its Ambition 2025 corporate strategy and the identification of key issues. The central tenet of the strategy is to provide more people with clean water while reducing ecological footprint. We set 18 goals under Water, Energy &Emission, Material &Waste, and Employees &Society four categories.
Wilo underscored its climate protection target by signing the Business Ambition for 1.5°C. In conjunction with the campaign by SBTi, we are pledging to reduce harmful emission to zero by 2050. With the support of Wilo China, Wilo was awarded platinum ratings by EcoVadis in 2022.
Environment
Climate Change:
All major production sites, including Chinese factories, will achieve Scope1 and Scope2 carbon neutral by 2025. The accumulated carbon emission reduction of Wilo’ s production sites would be 50 million tons by 2025.
Wilo’s climate neutral is based on four pillars: enhancing energy efficiency, purchasing green electricity, photovoltaic electricity generation and offsetting emission with Gold standard projects.
Wilo China will install and implement an energy digital management system by the end of 2023 to record energy and water consumption in real time.
To ensure the implementation of the sustainability strategy, Wilo established the sustainability management department and set up a mechanism under the leadership of CTO, responsible for the goal-setting process and integrating these goals in the business divisions. Wilo also takes uses of social media to promote corporate sustainability strategy and encourage employees involved.
Now Wilo has built the tracking and recording system to understand the greenhouse gas emission in time.
Natural Resources and Energy:
We also built the tracking mechanism for waste material. By working with suppliers, most of the raw material tray, package material are reusable, and the garbage is recycled through garbage sorting. The company has continuously improved the efficiency of energy and water use through projects such as LED lighting replacement, frequency conversion transformation of air conditioning, rainwater collection and reuse system establishment, and has formulated energy-saving and water-saving goals.
By 2024, Wilo is to build the photovoltaic on the Beijing factory roof, which will provide more than 1 million KWH green electricity.
In Wilo office, there are slogans and reminders everywhere, promoting water saving and electricity saving. The office light will automatically close after business closed every hour.
In 2023, we save more than 5 percent water compared with 2022. And we plan to save more than 20% in 2025 compared with that of 2018.
According to our climate goals for 2025, we will improve percentage of the recycling package to 100% and raise the percentage of reusable resources to 90%.
Prevention of Pollution:
The major pollutant of Wilo China is industrial waste gas, living wastewater, environmental noise and dangerous waste. We have made an integrated policies and process to manage each step of the production related to the pollution. We check the pollutant emission regularly according to Chinese regulation to ensure the compliance.
The company has established an environmental emergency plan and completed the governance record, and regularly conducted drills in accordance with the emergency plan requirements. Through process improvement and management measures, the company continuously improves the impact of environmental pollution and reduces pollution emissions. For example, through the adjustment of oil-based paint to water-based paint, the emission of volatile organic compounds is greatly reduced. By increasing UV photooxygen treatment facilities, the treatment effect of volatile organic compounds is continuously improved.
Other Actions Taken for Environmental Protection:
Since 2020, Wilo has been actively involved into the 35 wastewater outfalls management work of the Tangxun Lake basin ecological government projects, which would greatly lower the drainage load of COD, ammonia &nitrogen, as well phosphorus. When the Phase II project of 2023 finished, it would build up a 1.37 square km near nature ecological wetland.
Social
HR Development and Engagement:
As part of its “Vision Zero” strategy, Wilo China has set itself the goal of preventing all accidents and work-related illness. We have identified all potential risks and dangerous in the workplace and make detail rules to ensure the employee’s safety. Wilo China has recorded zero accidence for 2 million man-hours.
We have got the ISO45001 certificate.
We define people strategy and have well implemented labor management to ensure good labor practices to care employee whole career lifecycle, from role profile definition, fair interview, good experienced on boarding process, comprehensive on job training, motivation policy, good compensation and benefit, transparent discipline to maintain welcomed and safe working environment.
Moreover we encourage employee growth, create learning organization, give opportunity to employees to chase their career development.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:
Employee diversity is the engine of our success. The promotion of diversity involves career-specific variables ， such as technical and training background or length of service on one hand, and on the other demographic variables, such as age, ethnic background, gender and nationality. We offer various programs to support women in their career development. In 2022, Wilo China had more than 20 percent women in management positions.
Product Liability:
The quality goal of Wilo is to make ourselves the most reliable and sustainable partner for customers in the pump industry. By providing smart qualification procedures and transparency, we improve and release processes and products efficiently in order to ensure best in class quality and conformity. We insist customer and market orientation, providing the 100% compliance products to customer while ensure the sustainable development and resource efficiency.
Wilo has acquired IP certificate and builds annual IP growth plan and management project to keep the active IP protection.
Supply Chain:
Wilo established processes for implementing sustainability in the supply chain many years ago. Our goal is to create transparency across the entire supplier network and to ensure that 100 percent of our suppliers comply with basic principles of sustainability. Wilo had an integrated system with all related document for the supplier’s management and developed more than 400 long term suppliers in China. With the German supply chain act went in to effective, Wilo continued to focus our efforts on implementing the due diligence of human rights and other compliance requirement in 2022.
The supplier evaluation system ensures Wilo to manage suppliers’ status in compliance and carbon emission and make development plan for each supplier accordingly. For potential risks, we also have score card and tracking system with dedicated team.
Community Engagement:
In 2022, Wilo team donated books, food, clothes to local kids and villagers in Tibet during the annual dealer conference.
In 2023, Wilo made itself the popular science education center of the refrigeration industry by working the Chinese association of Refrigeration (COR), encouraging youth scientist actively involved into the science population and volunteer work. We hosted the Youth Scientist Speech Contest of refrigeration industry in 2023.
Passion is one of the keywords of Wilo’s value. Wilo China has hosted the football tournament among Wilo dealers for several years, encouraging people to enjoy the passion of football and sports.
Corporate Governance
Governance Organizational and Mechanism:
The code of conduct descripts the common values and principles that have been anchored in Wilo’s corporate culture for 150 years. When entering Wilo, all new employees need to finish the online courses of Anti-corruption and Anti-bribery policies, in which there are clear definitions of interested party and collisions.
Fair competition is a foundation of growth and prosperity of society. Wilo is committed open market and fair competition and comply with applicable legal regulations.
The articles of association clearly stipulate the subordinate relationship and the scope of responsibilities and rights among the board of directors, the general manager and various departments.
Innovation Sustainability:
Wilo China built up an integrated R&D system with clear goals in line with our sustainability strategy. Our key action areas are energy efficiency, system solution expertise and digital technologies.
Wilo China has been accredited as High-tech Enterprises for years. We have increased our investment on R&D over 10 percent in the past years and is planning to continue this momentum. We encourage employee to innovate at works with systematic measures. Wilo China attends the Innovation Day organized by group every year and have won many awards.
Wilo takes into account environmental aspects in the design and development process with the aim to reduce environmental impacts during the all the lifecycle of a product or a service. Eco-Design based on product Life cycle Analysis (LCA) is a philosophy that runs through the development of new products at Wilo.
Extra Points
ESG / Sustainability / CSR reports, e.g.:
Wilo Releases Sustainability report every year, publishing the performance achieved and targets for next step.
ESG rating, e.g. EcoVadis, MSCI:
Wilo got Ecovadis Sustainable Platinum Rating in 2022, top 1% among the 90,000 companies involved the award.
ESG Verification or Certification:
Wilo got the LEED Gold Certificate, ISO14001,ISO45001 certificate.
Responsive to or engaged in ESG Initiatives / Standards / Goals:
Wilo signed the SBTi in 2021 and started to calculate Scope 3 emission in 2022. Wilo also signed the Business Ambition for 1.5°C initiated by UN Compact Global.
Other ESG related awards, e.g. TOP ESG Employer:
Wilo won the Top Employer Award by the Top Employers Institute in 2023.
