Taking responsibility for the environment and society

Sustainable solutions for the environment and society – Through our ESG strategy, we aim to maximize the positive ecological , social and economic impact of our actions.

Our sustainability management

Our commitment to sustainable living does not stop with our products. We pursue a clear ESG strategy with ambitious targets and concrete measures. It is our aspiration to integrate sustainable action into our daily work and to achieve all our self-imposed goals.

The basis of our ESG strategy is a comprehensive materiality analysis in which we identified our most important topics. This resulted in our five main fields of action.

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Our fields of action

Employees

Without our employees, HPS would not be able to contribute to the energy transition. We attach importance to a pleasant and safe working environment.

Governance & Compliance

Good, ethical and trustworthy corporate governance is the basis of our business activities.

Environment & Society

Our products save emissions and thus actively contribute to climate protection. We also deal with our own emissions and energy consumption and use all resources sparingly and in an environmentally friendly manner.

Customers & products

Our products and customers are core to our business. Therefore, we continuously optimize the quality of our products and services to keep them at the highest level and focus on innovation.

Supply Chain

We also address the sustainability and safety of our suppliers. This includes, above all, the monitoring and observance of human rights.

At HPS, we base our ESG strategy on concrete targets and measures in each area of action, the achievement of which we measure with key performance indicators (KPIs).

The strategy lies within the responsibility of the Executive Board, which reports annually to the Supervisory Board and is thus anchored at the highest level. The main responsibility is assumed by the Chief Financial Officer, who is also the Chairman of our ESG Council and, together with the other members of the Council, is responsible for implementing the measures and monitoring them.

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At HPS, we base our ESG strategy on concrete targets and measures in each area of action, the achievement of which we measure with key performance indicators (KPIs).

The strategy lies within the responsibility of the Executive Board, which reports annually to the Supervisory Board and is thus anchored at the highest level. The main responsibility is assumed by the Chief Financial Officer, who is also the Chairman of our ESG Council and, together with the other members of the Council, is responsible for implementing the measures and monitoring them.

All employees at HPS form the foundation of the company. Without this, HPS would not be able to contribute to the energy transition. A pleasant and safe working environment in which we enjoy working is particularly important to us. With our strategy, we aim to be a first-class and sustainable employer and to continuously improve satisfaction among all employees. We are also committed to supporting new employees and creating training programs. All employees and the company as a whole benefit from further training.

A diverse working environment is not only a matter of course for us, but also a great opportunity, because: a diverse working environment is particularly successful. To this end, we have resolved, for example, to record the gender pay gap for the first time in 2022, to introduce support programs, and to conduct unconscious bias training in order to eliminate unconscious prejudices among employees and managers.

Good and ethical corporate governance is a matter of course for us. As part of our strategy, we fundamentalize our approaches with the help of policies and training. The basis for us and all policies is our Code of Conduct, which we adopted and introduced in 2022 as part of our strategy. We are also introducing an anonymous whistleblower system to enable us to process tips and complaints from our employees anonymously.

Another milestone is the development of a comprehensive risk management system by 2023, which also takes into account and integrates sustainability criteria and external impacts.

Our stakeholders are also of great relevance to us. We actively advocate the energy transition and climate protection and plan to conduct stakeholder surveys and analyze conflicts of interest in order to be able to react at an early stage.

Code of Conduct

With our products, we contribute directly to an independent and CO2-free energy supply and thus actively support climate protection. Learn more about our contribution to the energy transition here. As part of our strategy, we want to conduct in-depth analyses on emissions in the value chain and on savings compared to the grey electricity grid.

But we also pay attention to our emissions and our impact on the environment in our business operations. Our strategy is to fundamentally expand our data collection over the next few years in order to make our performance and progress measurable and comparable over the long term. As part of our strategy, we will reduce our own energy consumption by analyzing efficiency measures and having energy audits carried out. We also aim to become climate-neutral by 2026. To this end, we have planned measures such as the use of green electricity, the conversion of the company fleet to sustainable drive systems, and the promotion of sustainable business travel. We will also analyze our use of resources and reduce our use of materials. For this, we will also establish packaging concepts and expand the repair concept. In addition, we are conducting substitution tests and intend to examine alternatives for specific minerals and conduct operational tests with green hydrogen for this purpose.

HPS is committed to environmental protection. The commitment is expressed not only in our environmental policy which addresses the environmental component of the material ESG issues relevant for HPS and the broader global community in line with laws, regulations, pacts, and agreements geared towards protecting the environment, but also the commitment of the management board to take full responsibility for the ESG issues and ensure the full compliance with all environmental regulations and the implementation thereof.

We are also committed to creating environmental awareness by consulting with all stakeholders on environmental issues, including among our own employees, clients, investors, vendors, customer, regulators and in the supply chain.

Our commitment to environmental protection propels us towards developing and implementing a comprehensive environmental management system which would serve as a blueprint for an annual measurement, monitoring and review of the company´s environmental performance. By this, we commit to an annual audit of our environmental performance.

Water Risk Management at HPS
Water risks have been considered by HPS. The management board of HPS has full responsibility for addressing risks posed by the scarcity of water. The assessment of water risks also forms an important part of the business strategy and risks assessment at HPS. We are aware of the impacts of climate change to water availability such as droughts, reduced levels of waterbodies, and reduction in freshwater volumes. Based on our business model (outsourced manufacturing), however, there is no foreseeable water risk to own operations. It should also be noted that the processes involved in the production of our products is not water intensive. The outsourced suppliers have adequately considered water risks in their own operations so that this does not create a supply chain risk on their ability to fulfill orders. HPS is taking steps to ensure that office water use is assured through innovations in our sanitary systems that requires less water use. HPS will continue to assess, evaluate, monitor, and report on the (lack of) water risks faced by the company. We measure, monitor, and report our water use (including freshwater use). We constantly seek innovative ways to ensure that we reduce and minimize our (fresh)water use through technology to ensure that future risks are also addressed and mitigated. We also commit to engaging with stakeholders at all levels and participate on local and global initiatives to address risks of water scarcity. At the moment, there is negligible water risk to HPS.

Our 3-year water consumption volume is shown below:
2022: 628,17 m3
2021: 682,05 m3
2020: 716,15 m3

3-year average = 675,46 m3.

Due to our commitment to reduce water use, we aim to cut water consumption by about 30 % by 2025 relative to 2021 values using innovative technologies. The targets (including intermediary targets) will be achieved by cutting water consumption by 10 % each year. The targets are:
2023: 751,62 m3
2024: 676,46 m3
2025: 608,81 m3

Our products are the core and heart of our business. We are aware of the responsibility for our customers and products. Therefore, we implement a detailed data protection concept and will continuously train and sensitize our employees. With a strong focus on innovation, we are committed to further increasing quality and continuously conducting analyses to ensure the sustainability and safety of our products at all times. We want to maintain this focus in the long term and continue to develop our products. This includes the continuous further development of our quality management system. For our products, we have undertaken an environmental product declaration and a holistic life cycle analysis in order to be able to analyze our products in the upstream and downstream value chain and thus continuously improve them.

As part of our strategy, we will also pay attention to sustainable products in our supply chain and analyze our CO2 footprint by 2025. For sustainability criteria in the supply chain, we have already adopted a purchasing guideline and a Supplier Code of Conduct based on our strategy, which is valid throughout the company and must be signed by all suppliers in the future. In addition, supplier self-disclosure is being sought and suppliers are being audited and analyzed on specific topics. In combination with defining and writing down of consequences of violations, we will actively promote trust in our suppliers.

Supplier Code of Conduct

ESG-Rating

HPS Home Power Solutions AG has received its first ESG risk rating. HPS ranks 17th out of a total of 73 companies in the sector assessed by Sustainalytics, scoring 19.5 points. On a scale of 0 to 100, lower scores mean lower ESG risk. ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance and deals with the influence a company has on these factors.

The Sustainalytics rating agency examined more than 70 indicators at HPS as part of a comprehensive analysis. These include a. o. product governance, corporate governance, business ethics, human rights, CO2 emissions, staff members, health and safety. The score for the ESG rating is derived from the evaluation of all indicators. Overall, no events were identified that may negatively impact stakeholders, the environment or the company.

International Initiatives

To further strengthen our commitment to sustainability, we are a member of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and will henceforth report annually on our progress. This UN initiative is the world’s largest and most important alliance for responsible corporate governance.

In addition, we are contributing to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and have fundamentally incorporated them into the analysis of our material issues.

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ESG Contact

If you have any questions on ESG topics, please contact Hannes Merlecker: hannes.merlecker@homepowersolutions.de