According to BOBST, sustainability is a key pillar for them to achieve their vision of shaping the future of the packaging world, and to support customers in achieving their goals. The Bobst Group has taken important actions on sustainability and will continue to report publicly along the strictest Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) standards. In 2021, BOBST established their baseline with an initial evaluation performed by Ecovadis -– the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings.
Following this initial assessment and rating of 34 points, the BOBST sustainability programme was established, containing three main streams: Operations, Equipment, and Product use and End of life. This programme has enabled the Swiss machinery company to continuously progress and has helped to significantly improve their Ecovadis rating. Their second Ecovadis rating saw BOBST awarded 49 points and a bronze medal. Now, they have received their third and latest rating, reaching 63 points and awarded a silver medal. This puts BOBST in the top 20% of companies in terms of sustainability.
High performance on a global level
Of particular interest was the analysis and benchmarking of the company compared to its peers. BOBST performed globally extremely well with labour & human rights policies, and concrete actions in place (e.g. health & safety, employee representatives, ISO certifications, carbon footprint, etc.) as well as with its reputation among stakeholders or the general public.
In a press release, the company wrote: “We will not stop there. We will continue to act across our three sustainability streams, and reinforce our detailed documentation and reporting across the company on information security and ethics, including anti-corruption training, whistleblowing procedures, and transparency on legal cases.”
“This is a great result and an important step forward, but not the end of our journey,” said Sylvain Lieb, Head of Corporate Sustainability at BOBST. “We are a leader in our field, and we have a responsibility to help proactively address the major global issues the world is facing.”
Sustainability ratings
Founded in 2007, EcoVadis is a global provider of sustainability ratings to more than 120,000 companies worldwide, including multinationals such as Nestle, LVMH, and Johnson & Johnson. Companies must undergo a process of questioning relevant to their business field and activities and prove their declarations. They are then given a global score calculated from the aggregation of four categories: Labor & Human Rights, Environment, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement.
“BOBST has a long-standing tradition of being at the forefront of offering good social conditions to its employees,” said Sylvian Lieb. “We stand alongside them and their families in good or challenging times, setting best-in-class practices in health & safety and responsible actions wherever we operate. Today, sustainability has a broad definition, and includes elements from calculating our products’ carbon footprint, to encouraging diversity in management or ensuring IT security. We will continue to tackle all these elements in a pragmatic way, not to greenwash but to have tangible results through science-based approaches. We have improved significantly since the first evaluation, and I am quite confident that we will continuously improve our impact and contribution to a more sustainable world.”