Sustainability

For Bolton Adhesives, sustainable development means running a good and successful business that respects the rights of the people involved in our value chains, respects local communities and protects the resources of the earth on which our business is based.

Driven by our commitment, our people and our brands, we strive for healthy and sustainable growth to ensure the prosperity of current and future generations.

That's why we believe we should keep both people and the planet in mind when developing our business, using ingenuity to develop new solutions for the future and improve the way we do things every day.

Bolton's new Sustainable Development Strategy sets out the priorities we want to focus on in the coming years, clearly underlines our long-term commitment and sets precise short and medium-term goals. It has been embraced by Bolton Adhesives.

Our products come into contact with millions of people every day. With our brands, we create value that benefits people and nature. 

Many of our products are manufactured in our own factories in Germany and the Netherlands. We are aware of our social responsibility towards our employees and business partners, as well as for the community around us. We support the active participation of our employees. 

By partnering with Ecovadis, the world's largest and most trusted provider of corporate sustainability ratings, we will continue to increase our influence on sustainable supply chains. We will progressively assess our strategic suppliers regarding their environmental and social performance and identify opportunities for improvement in the areas of 'Environment', 'Labour and Human Rights', 'Ethics' and 'Sustainable Procurement'.

Our activities are based on relevant laws, regulations and agreements on occupational health and safety and environmental protection with a view to systematically reducing risks. This enables us to create, maintain and develop safe and future-proof workplaces with opportunities for growth and development. We are committed to complying with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

In order to be able to meet these requirements in the long term, we are committed to an integrated management system that complies with international standards 9001 and 14001 and to continually developing our environmental performance and a zero-tolerance policy.

We have a responsibility to help combat global warming. We believe that everyone can make a positive impact. That's why we aim to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and do our best to protect the natural ecosystem on which our business depends. In 2023, we published our first CO2 footprint, which provides a solid basis for defining a clear decarbonisation strategy with concrete reduction measures. 

Since 2017, we have reduced our CO2 emissions by 40% (scope 1 and 2)*. We have switched to 100% renewable electrical energy at all our production sites and warehouses in the Netherlands and Germany. 93% of our waste is recycled or recovered, pursuing our goal of a zero waste policy when it comes to landfill. We apply a strict water management policy with closed cooling cycles to keep water intensity** at a low level. We also try to ensure that the supply of raw materials from suppliers is as near as possible to our production sites. To date, we have around 300 raw material suppliers, 96% of which are located in Europe.

'* 2022 compared to 2017

** Water Intensity Index Related to Finished Products = Water Withdrawal/Tonne of Products Produced = 0.97 in 2022

Promoting Sustainable LIFESTYLE

We are strong advocates for new consumption patterns and more sustainable lifestyles, extending the lifespan of items and using available resources more wisely. 

With our campaign "Broken? Fix it!", we want to make consumers aware of the need to extend a product's lifespan and show how broken items can be repaired quickly and permanently with our adhesive products. 

The campaign includes a partnership with the Repair Café International Foundation, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to minimise waste, use resources responsibly and connect people in new and exciting ways.

PACKAGING

Our overarching goal is to rethink (="RETHINK") our packaging (and, where necessary, our products) in line with the circular economy and transform it through innovation and inspiration from our markets' best practices.

Our priorities are to use less packaging and materials and to increase our packaging's recyclability or keep resources in the loop for as long as possible. We want to involve consumers in recycling, composting or reusing our packaging where appropriate. This approach is applied to all our packaging, starting with those achieving the largest sales volume.

We are also committed to proactively working with our key internal and external stakeholders, both upstream and downstream in our value chain, to make this approach a reality, recognising that we need to work together to achieve the best possible and most sustainable outcomes. For more information, see our "Packaging Directive".

RESPONSIBLE FORMULATIONS

We strive to minimise health and safety risks to consumers and workers, as well as environmental and social risks from raw materials and formulations,  in both existing products and our innovation and development process. 

All our products and technologies are carefully tested to ensure their safety for both health and the environment. For more information, please see our "Ingredients and Raw Materials Policy"

In addition, we have set a new goal to increase the circularity of our raw materials. Assuming a level of 28% in 2022, by 2030 we aim to source 50% of our raw materials from circular sources, i.e. using raw materials that are renewable/bio-based or recycled/regenerated/refined, come from abundant mineral deposits or a certified biomass accounting process.