Shaping the Future with Paper and Renewable Energy:
Sustainability as a Corporate Strategy

THE KOEHLER GROUP
TAKES RESPONSIBILITY

„Sustainability is the key to ensuring that our children’s generation and all other future generations will be able to live a life worth living on this planet.
As a family business, our focus is not on quarterly results, but rather on the long term and the generations that will follow us.“

Kai Furler

CEO Koehler Group

Proudly Working
for the Future

As a family enterprise, we want to make a sustainable contribution to society and the environment through our business operations.

Successful,
Future-Proof Products

One of the most important development goals for us revolves around biobased recyclable and biodegradable paper. This will not only help us achieve our own goals, but will also provide our customers with a powerful tool that they can leverage to reach their own sustainability objectives.

Renewable Raw Materials and Responsible Sources

As a company with a global reach, we can promote sustainable development along our entire value chain together with all stakeholders. Our suppliers share our high standards
in relation to environmental, social, and ethical principles. Moreover, we are continuously improving the transparency of our supply chain.

Resource Efficiency

Material, energy, and resource efficiency are all subject to continuous improvement. Production waste is always a potential source of secondary raw materials, and we are already using it for this purpose or are developing methods to do so. Our packaging paper is recyclable, providing it with much greater material efficiency than plastic. This way, we make it possible to replace linear value creation with circular value creation.

A Visionary Approach to Climate Action

Back in 2014 already, we set an ambitious goal to produce more renewable energy than we need for paper production by 2030. We are pushing the expansion of renewable energy production forward and further reducing our greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. This way, we are making a positive long-term contribution to climate change mitigation and energy security.

People, the Key
to Success

The key to our success is the people who work at our company. This is why our employees’ health and safety take topmost priority and why we are continuously investing in development and advanced training opportunities and programs while proactively promoting diversity. We are an employer for anyone with talent who is able and willing to show commitment and dedication.

Growing the
Company’s Value

We want to achieve sustainable growth for our company through our sustainability goals and the actions derived from them. Success and profit make it possible for us to make the investments we need for sustainable development. In addition, we arrange for independent audits of our sustainability approach, as well as our actions and their results.

Foreword to the sustainability report 2021/2022

Our Sustainability Strategy

Our Contribution to the UN Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs)

Our 2030 sustainability strategy illustrates our focus on aligning the financial, social, and environmental aspects of the Koehler Group in order to create a more sustainable future. It is an essential component of the company’s corporate strategy, our operations, our values, and the way we conduct our business. With our sustainability strategy, we want to actively help drive our general transformation into a more sustainable economy and society.

Interviews

Wolfgang Furler
Chairman of the supervisory board of the Koehler Group

Thinking across Generations

What is the Supervisory Board’s opinion on the Koehler Group’s first sustainability report? Wolfgang Furler, who was the company’s COO for a long time and has been the chairman of the Supervisory Board since 2007, explains why Koehler has so much to tell when it comes to the topic of sustainability, how the family business handles it in its very own unique way, and what kind of support he expects from the political world.

Klaus Furler
Shareholder of the Koehler Group

More Sustainable than Ever Before

Klaus Furler believes that sustainability and growth have been inseparable from each other at the Koehler Group for generations now and will continue to be vital to the company’s future. Currently a company shareholder, he ran the family business together with his brother Wolfgang Furler as its seventh generation with enormous success for nearly 30 years. In this interview, he explains why he thinks the Koehler Group is well-positioned for upcoming generations and the kind of role that handing responsibility over to the next generation at the right moment plays.

We are visionary when it comes to climate protection

Sustainable Energy –
Helping to Shape the Future

One key pillar that has become established alongside paper manufacturing and also makes a significant contribution to bolstering Koehler’s sustainability efforts is the generation of energy from renewable sources by Koehler Renewable Energy, whose expertise extends across many areas of the energy sector. The company is investing in renewable energy projects in order to make a long-term contribution to the energy transition in Germany.

Sustainability in Figures

Input 2022

Raw Materials

Pulp,
used
in metric tons
(air-dry weight)

402.325

(2021: 418.042)

Roundwood,
used
in metric tons
(oven-dry)

29.453

(2021: 20.193)

Wastepaper,
used
in metric tons

37.450

(2021: 37.424)

Other
Input Materials
in metric tons
(as purchased)

334.961

(2021: 349.270)

Energy

Purchased ­Electricity
in MWh

377.915

(2021: 375.509)

Fuels
in MWh

2.351.900

(2021: 20.193)

Water

Well Water
in m3

5.085.182

(2021: 5.027.833)

Surface Water
in m3

652.219

(2021: 610.741)

Biomass

Biomass to
processing
in t (lutro)

982.872

2021: 1.031.761)

Output 2022

Production

Paper and Board
in metric tons, produced

556.711

(2021: 574.401)

Biomass Traded /Processed for Mechanical Recycling 1
in metric tons

786.447

(2021: 832.120)

Biomass Traded /Processed for the Production of Energy 1
in metric tons

193.394

(2021: 201.436)

Renewable energy generation

Electricity
in MWh

298.338

(2021: 279.520)

Process Steam 2
in MWh

509.602

(2021: 476.640)

Hot Water
in MWh

24.497

(2021: 22.543)

Greenhouse gas emissions

Scope 1
Carbon Emissions
in t

277.219

(2021: 280.233)

Scope 2
Carbon Emissions
in t

149.468

(2021: 149.481)

Wastewater

Wastewater
in m3

3.115.866

(2021: 3.269.244)

Waste

Waste
in metric tons, gross

150.813

(2021: 143.486)

Jens Kriete

Sustainability Manager Koehler Group

Hauptstraße 2
77704 Oberkirch
Germany