Our 5 commitments to the public and to the environment.
The platform for sharing approaches, events and numbers that
describe our commitment to being more and more responsible,
day after day.
Look at the updated data
Dear readers,
As the world's leading precious metals service provider, we are called to lead the global discussions on sustainability and responsibility. They are important pillars for the long-term success of the Heraeus Group, especially in the precious metals activities of the Global Business Unit “Heraeus Precious Metals”, which includes Argor-Heraeus.
In the last decade, Heraeus Precious Metals has continuously improved its processes in all business areas and further developed its measures for responsible sourcing, sustainability in production and traceability of precious metals. Today, our business decisions go beyond the usual KYC processes and include, for example, HR and biodiversity assessments. Our business model is not only based on margin contribution, but also on ESG principles.
This applies not only to our Gold and Silver business, but also to our activities around Platinum Group Metals. Heraeus Precious Metals is one of the few companies in the world trading all eight precious metals, processes them into value-added products, and recycles them.
This extensive expertise enables us to realize the full potential of precious metals and invest significantly in the development of new precious metal applications and recycling capacities for a more sustainable world.
In 2020, we further expanded our global market leadership in precious metals recycling and invested in new capacities in the USA, China, India and Europe. By recycling products containing precious metals, we can significantly reduce overall CO2 footprint for our products.
We also develop and produce platinum-based active pharmaceutical ingredients to fight cancer and invest in low-load iridium catalysts to make green hydrogen and PEM electrolysis the technology of choice in the global fight against climate change.
We are convinced that Heraeus Precious Metals will play an even more important role in shaping the future of sustainability and responsibility in the precious metals industry. The objective must not only be compliant behavior, but comprehensive and multidimensional due diligence throughout the precious metals value chain.
Argor-Heraeus has already set a decisive course here.
Enjoy reading.
Needless to say, 2020 was a tough year for everyone. The
sudden arrival of the pandemic profoundly affected the
lives of people and organizations in ways that no one
could ever have imagined. Argor-Heraeus faced many complex
challenges: we had to reorganize rapidly, not only to
ensure the continuity of our operations in order to remain
a reliable partner for our stakeholders, but most of all
to ensure the safety of all of our employees. The shutdown
of operations for nearly a month and the subsequent
increase in demand were also major challenges to be met.
By applying our company’s values, and with
constant and transparent dialogue with all of our
stakeholders, we faced these challenges as a team,
guaranteeing the safety of all of our employees (and
therefore of their communities) and coming out stronger as
a result. Our leadership role as the reference point in
the precious metals industry was confirmed, and, with
maximum collaboration with our stakeholders, this helped
the precious metals market regain balance following the
lockdown. All of this was achieved thanks to superb
cooperation by our partners and to the utmost commitment
and responsibility of our employees.
The pandemic and the extraordinary work methods it
demanded did not impede our commitments to our employees,
to the public, and to the environment. These include
strict control of the supply chain, a smaller carbon
footprint at our facilities and along the chain, and
cooperation with the local community: always our top
priorities and the focus of every working day, both
on-site and remote. This Sustainability Report leads us to
a significant goal for Argor-Heraeus, which celebrates 70
years of operation in 2021. This makes us enormously
proud, and also imbues us with responsibility to everyone
who has contributed to building our company and to the
world we will leave to future generations.
As always, the information in this Report
(prepared for the fifth year according to the latest GRI
Standards) is organized according to our five commitments
to all of our stakeholders. Our portal is also the tool by
which we communicate our progress and our renewed support
of the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact.
We hope you will appreciate our new "digital
first" method for sharing our commitment to corporate
responsibility.
Sincerely,
We are committed to acting responsibly, to forming lasting relations with all of our stakeholders in order to ensure long-term, sustainable success.
The United Nations development goals are a common basis for achieving a better and more sustainable future for everyone. We make a tangible contribution to these goals by means of our commitments. Each chapter contains full details.
