Sustainability, climate neutrality and ecological awareness are currently the top priorities in our society. The various challenges of recent years have stimulated society to think about a sustainable lifestyle and to actively implement it. However, what this means for work and especially occupational health and safety is rarely discussed.
How sustainable is occupational health and safety?
As protection professionals, we have set ourselves the goal of summarizing the most important topics related to sustainability in occupational safety. Many manufacturers advertise with green terms, such as: ecological, organic, vegan, climate-neutral, CO2-neutral or sustainable. But what are the terms all about and are all products really sustainable?
Sustainability is environmental protection
We all have only this one earth – that's why environmental and climate protection affects us all. The topic is not only important in the private sphere, but also at work. In an attempt to live more sustainably, our team put some providers in the field of occupational health and safety through their paces and came to an interesting conclusion. In occupational safety, for example, there are various ways in which products or the production of protective clothing can be made sustainable. Back in 2019, we reported on the sustainably produced disposable glove Semperguard Nitril Green from the manufacturer Semperit in our blog for occupational safety. Even then, the brand manufacturer set new standards for disposable gloves. The press release of the Green Glove can be found here:
>> THE GREEN REVOLUTION | GREEN GLOVE DISPOSABLE GLOVE SEMPERMED <<
Reusable and recycled
Workwear and protective workwear should be reusable as much as possible. This means not only that it should be easy to wash and durable, but also have a robust material for increased durability. Of course, there is no way to rely on reusability in some industries, so the ultimate goal is the recycling of special materials. For example, several manufacturers (including CWS and Lyngsoe) are relying on new material concepts for the production of workwear. Recycled polyester is mainly used for workwear. This reduces the raw material and energy requirements in production.
Rental Service & Leasing Idea
Some providers rely on the reuse and reprocessing of worn workwear. Here, too, the character of sustainability is served and raw material as well as material and energy requirements are reduced.
It's not just clothing that is becoming sustainable
The topic of sustainability does not stop at the products of many producers and retailers of occupational safety. For example, some companies are also focusing on a sustainable restructuring of the entire work process. The company AAV was even nominated for the Innovation Award for Sustainability.
"We are constantly optimizing our processes and checking where we can save energy and resources. As a small, family-run medium-sized company, we can act flexibly and involve our employees in the processes. When packaging our Allprotec® gloves, we pay attention to reducing plastic, energy-saving lamps have been installed in the warehouse, more sustainable products complement the PPE range, cartons are recycled, parcels are sent in a climate-neutral way," says Dr. Hans-Jürgen Beyer (Managing Director)
The climate, the environment – that affects us all.
Sustainability and climate awareness have definitely already arrived in the world of occupational safety. Many manufacturers are researching more sustainable products and materials, and the first products are already available on the market. Safety shoes are made using recycled material (U-Power, Red Industry Green series), care is taken to last and there are already vegan safety shoes (Lemaitre).
>> CATALOGUE Red Industry Green <<
The protection professionals think we have to change something immediately. Everyone can do something, and even small changes will have an effect, such as by means of resource-saving production of occupational safety articles, such as the Semperguard Nitrile Green .