4 sustainability questions with Horn's Andreas Loock

Andreas Loock, head of quality assurance at Paul Horn GmbH, discusses the importance of sustainability.

Q: Sustainability is a growing concern in manufacturing. What are your perspectives on this topic?

A: As an environmental and management officer at Paul Horn GmbH, my first focus is on compliance with legal regulations. In addition, securing a long-term cooperation with business partners and employees comes into play.

Furthermore, local and regional value creation have priority over everything in this context.

Sustainability also includes fairness and ethically correct behaviour, the reduction or avoidance of environmental pollution and energy consumption, as well as the expansion of alternative energy generation and the use of non-fossil energy sources.

Q: What expectations do customers have?

A: Our customers expect sustainable business practices from us. This includes, for example, saving resources and using sustainable materials for products and packaging. In addition, energy and cost efficiency play an important role.

Q: What role do certifications play?

A: We consider certifications to be important. This enables us to ensure compliance with internationally recognized standards. These include, for example, quality, environmental, and energy management systems. The consequence of this is increased customer confidence in our company, especially since the verification of compliance with standards is carried out by third parties.

Q: What are the next steps at Horn?

A: Next, we will further reduce our product carbon footprint. However, those who have lived sustainably in all areas for decades, as we have, find less potential for optimization today. For example, we are refining our heat recovery systems and air conditioning, expanding the existing solar panels, and reviewing new materials for sales packaging.