Sustainability

Sustainable action at MENRAD

As a value-oriented family business, Menrad places great importance on sustainability, climate and environmental protection, in addition to uncompromising quality and outstanding design. Our central principle "Think Sustainably. Act Responsibly." reflects our commitment, which is continuously driven by our corporate climate strategy.

From a realistic point of view, it is obviously utopian that environmental pollution can be avoided 100%. So what can we as a company and each individual do to further optimise our climate-friendly operations? At the end of 2021, Menrad introduced a comprehensive action plan to improve the sustainability of the company and all its processes.

The actions are based on the 6 MENRAD Ps:

Partnerships

We select new partners on the basis of shared values and ambitions and give preference to partners who also care about sustainability and the environment. We also think about future (local) projects that we could support or participate in.

Products

The collections of selected brands are already predominantly made of recycled and/or biodegradable acetate or equipped with bio sun protection lenses. Titanium and stainless steel are used for all metal frames in the broad product portfolio.

Packaging

To protect the eyewear, we also emphasise recycled or biodegradable materials, including polybags. These efforts will be intensified next year by also switching cases, cleaning cloths and other packaging materials to sustainable materials and/or more sustainable production.

Point of Sale

Since 2022, we mainly use and produce POS materials made from recycled and/or FSC-certified components. To reduce our environmental impact, we are also increasingly using digital sales and communication channels.

Power

At our headquarters, we use green electricity and save over 50 tonnes of CO2 per year. In addition, the vehicle fleet was converted to lower-emission cars in 2022.

People

We encourage our employees to act sustainably and thoughtfully in their daily work. This not only refers to existing home office regulations and the way to work, but also, for example, business trips or the consumption of electricity and paper.

Our vision: climate neutrality

At the same time as taking measures in line with the 6Ps, we set ourselves the ambitious goal of climate neutrality. In order to be able to achieve this in a well-founded, measurable and comprehensible way, we decided on a certification procedure with the established agency and sustainability consultancy Fokus Zukunft, in which all aspects of corporate action as well as the employees are analysed.

The first step was to determine the CO2 footprint in detail. The next step was to identify potential savings on the basis of the results report and to initiate appropriate reduction measures.

By the investment in international climate protection certificates of high quality at the same time, we achieved to directly compensate the remaining, currently unavoidable emissions for 2022/23 and to set the company, including its international sales subsidiaries, climate-neutral.

Our path to climate neutrality is an ongoing process. As part of our efforts, we have therefore once again comprehensively analysed our greenhouse gas emissions. In the reference year 2022, our company-related emissions amounted to 753 tonnes of CO₂e per year. We have already taken the first steps to reduce our emissions by implementing comprehensive reduction measures such as switching to green electricity, reducing our company fleet and minimising business travel by supporting video conferences.

Offsetting and project support

To offset our calculated greenhouse gas emissions, we have also acquired carbon credits for 2024 and are supporting sustainable carbon offset projects worldwid. Our investments support a project in Brazil that focuses on sustainable forestry, a project in China that promotes forest conservation in Jiangxi and a project in Myanmar that utilises renewable water resources to generate electricity.

Buenos Aires Renewable Energy Project, Brazil

Jiangxi Province Le'an County Forest Farm Carbon Sink Project, China

Dapein (1) Hydropower Project in Union of Myanmar

Further information on Menrad's climate neutrality can be found here
or about the agency Fokus Zukunft at www.fokus-zukunft.com/

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