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We include nature in all of our thoughts and actions, and we do so out of conviction. Our basic concern is to leave the Earth in a better condition than we found it and to contribute to healing our soil. We directly integrate this concern into our value chain – from the cultivation of raw materials to the social structures and manufacturing of products.
Working by hand meets modern technology
Many of our production stages are carried out by hand, such as the cultivation of our medicinal plants and their processing in the plant laboratory. However, WALA is also a pharmaceutical company with all the associated requirements, duties and hygiene regulations. Our production facilities feature state-of-the-art technology, such as large mixing and filling plants, conveyor belts, temperature control, ventilation and dehumidification systems. As our products contain no synthetic preservatives, we must manufacture and fill them in conditions that are as low in bacteria as possible – in fact, in the case of our ampoule preparations, conditions must be completely sterile. Of course, the operation of these plants requires a lot of energy. That is why we take care to employ efficient technology and processes in all areas. Implementing these concerns in the best possible way is a challenge for us, because we process a wide variety of formulations. We use completely different machines to produce our creams than we do to make our homeopathic globules; essences are produced in a different environment to solutions for injections.
Full-time environmental officers
Two full-time environmental officers help ensure that we follow through with our environmental commitments. They uncover any ecological deficits within the company and help to reduce them to an economically justifiable extent. They do this by examining new technologies, processes and methods and integrating these into the company in cooperation with the relevant employees.
A special management system for environmental protection and occupational safety provides the necessary infrastructure and ensures optimum implementation of the measures. It records and checks all company processes that have an environmental impact. We also have internal environmental groups that contribute to implementation.
Various environmental groups
The Employee Environmental Group meets every four weeks to discuss WALA-specific environmental issues. The Strategic Environmental Group meets three times a year and defines the overarching environmental goals for WALA. It also proposes the budget and time frame for achieving these goals. The environmental officers meet with a member of the management team approximately every six weeks to advise on current issues. In urgent cases, however, they have the authority to make fast decisions. This relieves the Strategic Environmental Group of purely operational considerations. The fact that management is directly involved shows the importance of this topic within the company.
Every year, we assess so-called direct and indirect environmental impacts. The decisive factors here are their relevance for and influence on WALA. Determined against this backdrop, our key environmental aspects currently include energy (gas, electricity, business travel), material consumption, construction planning, landscape aesthetics and biological diversity.
Environmental Prize for WALA
In December 2018, we received a very special award for our environmental efforts: the Environmental Prize for Companies in the category "Industrial companies with more than 250 employees". The prize was awarded by the Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector of the State of Baden-Württemberg and presented at Stuttgart's New Palace. The award recognises outstanding achievements in the field of corporate environmental protection activities. Decisive factors for WALA's success included our widespread promotion of biological diversity, our modern energy-saving building technology in the new laboratory building and the new distribution and logistics centre, as well as our environmentally friendly approach to mobility management.