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Our world is interconnected - on a large and small scale. Progress is made when we create stable connections that last for generations. This is precisely our aspiration: for the Würth Group, sustainability means harmonizing economic, ecological and social responsibility. Our vision: the transformation to the circular economy. To achieve this, we focus on three central transformation areas: Climate, material life cycles and social standards. Sustainable management is the basis for long-term success - for us, our partners and future generations.
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Growth is deeply ingrained in Würth’s DNA. And we have grown alongside our connections. We connect materials, but most of all we connect people, industries, and many different perspectives. As a family company, we aspire to ensure that these connections last, that this foundation remains stable for generations to come, and that everyone benefits from the growth. It was possible to create and foster these connections in the blink of an eye that constituted the last several decades driven by a linear economy: mining, sourcing, production, distribution, disposal. However, a long-term perspective requires something that we at Würth understand as a matter of principle: a circular connection!
With the Circular Way, the Würth Group is driving forward the transformation to the circular economy. Our compass sets the direction - with three central transformation areas.
The Würth Group accepts its responsibility to making a meaningful contribution to climate protection. For us, active climate protection means minimizing direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions that are harmful to the environment in the long term, including along the supply chain. The transparency of the climate footprint analysis can help us to better understand greenhouse gas emissions and to take targeted steps to reduce them. Energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change represent the material topics for the Würth Group in the climate transformation area.
As a globally active company, the Würth Group supports the goals of the Paris Agreement. It not only contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions but also has the opportunity and responsibility to effect positive changes.
The Würth Group ensures transparency with regard to its greenhouse gas emissions and their sources by analyzing its climate footprint in line with the Corporate Standard of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. This provides the foundation for developing the Group-wide climate strategy. The primary goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to make a real contribution to climate protection. First, this means avoiding all harmful direct and indirect emissions. If this is not possible, the Würth Group strives to reduce them to a minimum.
In 2024, the Würth Group expanded its focus from scope 1 and 2 emissions to include the development of a uniform recording methodology for indirect scope 3 emissions.
The reduction of all greenhouse gas emissions from upstream and downstream value chains poses a challenge for the future. In 2024, the Würth Group expanded its focus from scope 1 and 2 emissions to include the development of a uniform recording methodology for indirect scope 3 emissions. An upstream materiality analysis based on industry benchmarks showed which scope 3categories are likely to generate the most greenhouse gas emissions. The collection of scope 3 data poses a number of challenges, particularly due to the decentralized nature, the different business models, and the varying availability of data among the companies. In order to overcome these challenges, flexible and hybrid approaches to calculating greenhouse gas emissions have been developed so that each company can use the best possible underlying data. The aim is to combine pragmatism with the best possible quality in order to not only collect and analyze the main scope 3 emissions categories in the future but also to reduce them through effective measures.
In addition to collecting data, the Würth Group emphasizes the targeted transfer of climate knowledge within the Group and the personal empowerment of employees at the individual companies.
Only when they have understood the meaningfulness of the implementation can they find new paths on their own. This awareness also results in specific, targeted measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at each individual company in the Group. The climate round table “Let’s talk about CLIMATE” was introduced in 2023 to deepen the understanding of the climate transformation area within the Würth Group. Around 150 employees who are responsible for climate-related topics from Würth Group companies around the world meet here every six weeks to deepen their knowledge of climate management and resolve questions in an open forum.
For the Würth Group, the responsible use of resources means using them efficiently, keeping them in a closed loop, minimizing the consumption of primary materials, and extending the life cycles of ist products. In doing so, we aim to decouple our growth from the consumption of finite resources and proactively address the challenges associated with their environmental impact. The depletion and use of natural resources, circular business models, and waste and water management are the material topics for the Würth Group in the material life cycles transformation area.
The Würth Group records material flows in order to be able to evaluate and control environmental influences and thus close material life cycles.
The concept of the circular economy considers the entire life cycle of products, from the extraction of raw materials to production, use, and disposal. Due to the wide variety of products, transparent data management is crucial in order to respond to changing market and customer demands and advancing digitalization. Based on the data collected, we can measure, assess, control, and advance our transformation process so that we can gradually close our material cycles. In order to establish material life cycles, it is essential to know what materials products and packaging are made of, to what extent renewable and recycled raw materials are used, and how much waste is produced. Measures taken by Group companies to implement the circular economy are recorded centrally. The Würth Group is continually expanding its understanding of the data it collects, while simultaneously improving the quality of that data. The scope of the data collected for Group-wide sustainability reporting was expanded again in 2024.
In its sustainable product strategy, the Würth Group relies on product carbon footprints (PCF) and environmental product declarations (EPD).
To meet increasing customer demand, we determine the environmental impact of relevant products and provide information about it. The product life cycle is analyzed in terms of various impacts based on CO₂e footprints (product carbon footprints; PCFs) and environmental product declarations (EPDs). The Corporate Sustainability team supports and advises individual companies in the Würth Group with the preparation of PCFs and EPDs and facilitates the necessary contact with suppliers in order to make targeted use of existing expertise. Work was carried out on a Group-wide PCF standard during the reporting period. Among other things, it is intended to define binding life cycle phases and a uniform presentation of results in order to enable coordinated communication with our suppliers. In addition, a central roadmap was developed to create EPDs for the standard range of the Würth Line, prioritized according to customer demand and sales volume. In this way, the Würth Group aims to make optimum use of synergies and meet customer requirements more efficiently.
How digital material passports support our vision of the circular economy.
The material passport presents product data transparently and is particularly important in the construction industry. It contains all the important information about material, social, and technical compliance. In order to create a material passport, it is necessary to disclose the product components and their material properties up and down the supply chain. Among other things, this includes origin, toxicity of ingredients, and share of recycled materials. This data transparency needs to be continuously expanded. Carmen Würth Forum in Künzelsau served as a pilot project in 2019. The relevant parts of the interior fixtures and fittings were evaluated in a material passport. Almost 80 percent of the components used are low-pollution and thus contribute to a healthy construction method. Material passports are closely linked to the future introduction of digital product passports, which the Würth Group is preparing for.
We have a clear strategy for reducing and optimizing packaging, which we see as a direct lever for transformation.
The packaging is just as important as the product itself when it comes to establishing material life cycles. A general internal packaging manual has been written to create a shared basic understanding of product packaging design. A comprehensive chapter on sustainability is a key section of this manual, which is aimed at the Würth Line companies and also offers general starting points for the Allied Companies. It serves to provide employees in product related areas with general principles of sustainable packaging design and offers an easy way to assess the sustainability of product packaging. It is also intended to encourage more environmentally friendly designs for existing and new packaging. The manual provides an overview of preferred alternatives, as well as options to avoid when designing packaging. Last but not least, it provides a checklist to help make packaging more sustainable. The checklist can be used internally and also serves as a helpful tool in discussions with suppliers and other relevant partners. In addition, the implementation of reusable solutions was investigated in several companies during the reporting period.
The Würth Group understands social standards as helping to align the needs of people, the environment, and the economy and also to act in an efficient, socially just, and environmentally friendly manner along the supply chains. The companies of the Würth Group take an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to developing a global and sustainable supply chain management system. This system not only strives to correlate efficiency and quality of supply but also to create a more participatory, more equitable, and safer living environment, especially for people in countries associated with high social risks. Supplier management, working conditions, human rights, equal treatment, and equal opportunities in the value chain are the material topics addressed by the Würth Group in the social standards transformation area.
By using an international quality and supplier management system, the Würth Group strives to uphold due diligence for human rights, the environment, and quality standards within its supply chains.
As a company with international operations, the Würth Group sees global frameworks for social and environmental standards as guidelines to ensure consistent compliance with our corporate due diligence obligations. The Group aims to achieve a uniform understanding of sustainable supply chain management throughout the Group and pursues a three-pronged approach to this: commitment, assessment, development.
As part of its global supply chain management system, the Würth Group aims to establish not only efficiency and quality but also sustainability. With this goal in mind, clear exclusion criteria have been defined for cooperation with suppliers, such as child labor and forced labor.
The Würth Group has provided its companies with a template for a supplier code of conduct. For example, suppliers are also obliged to comply with ethical business practices, human rights, and environmental standards. In terms of content, the requirements of the Supplier Code of Conduct are based on the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, which are derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the core labor standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.
The Würth Group relies on a platform solution to ensure that supply chain management is implemented successfully.
A group-wide platform allows for the simple and efficient analysis of the extensive supplier portfolio and supports the identification and management of sustainability risks along the entire supply chain. It also leads to more uniform and optimized communication with suppliers. The risk assessment process is largely automated and comprises two stages: First, an abstract analysis of the country-specific and sector-specific risks is conducted using databases. Thereafter, a concrete risk analysis of the pre-filtered suppliers is carried out using questionnaires directly via the platform. The risk assessment process was initially carried out for all suppliers of the central purchasing companies and is being expanded to other companies on an ongoing basis. This expansion is based on a prioritization determined by legal and market requirements. To date, the Würth Group has been able to evaluate more than 20,000 suppliers using the abstract risk analysis, and, based on the results, additional concrete risk analyses have been carried out for over 11,000 of them. Collaboration via the platform enables the Würth Group to identify critical suppliers with a high risk potential for people and the environment according to uniform standards and to develop corresponding measures.
The Würth Group is committed to the very highest quality standards. In the future, audits will focus even more heavily on social and ecological standards.
During the 2024 reporting year, the central purchasing companies began carrying out targeted audits of suppliers identified as high risk, in accordance with environmental and social standards. Group-wide standardized questionnaires are currently being developed for these sustainability audits in order to ensure consistent supplier rating. By providing this support, the Würth Group pools synergies and ensures that ethical and sustainable practices are implemented consistently along the entire supply chain.
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