Dürr achieves gold status in EcoVadis sustainability rating
The Dürr Group has achieved Gold status in the EcoVadis sustainability rating for the first time, placing it among the top 3 percent of all companies assessed. The recently published rating shows an increase in the overall score from 66 to 72 points.
The reason for Dürr's rating upgrade was improvements in the areas of labor and human rights as well as sustainable procurement. The EcoVadis rating agency has been evaluating the sustainability performance of over 100,000 companies on a scale of 1 to 100 points since 2007. Gold status is awarded from 67 points, platinum status from 75 points. The EcoVadis rating takes into account 21 criteria from the four areas of environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. Dr. Jochen Weyrauch, CEO of Dürr AG, says: "Sustainability is an essential part of our corporate strategy. With low-consumption and low-emission technologies, we help our customers to reduce their ecological footprint. The Gold status in the EcoVadis rating is a great confirmation of our work in the sustainability area and an important signal towards the capital market, where companies' sustainability performance has an increasing influence on investment decisions. At the same time, we also see the good rating result as motivation for further improvements in the coming year, especially in the area of the environment."
The EcoVadis rating has an impact on the Dürr Group's financing costs. This is because the interest on several financing instruments with a total volume of € 1.4 billion is linked to the rating. As a result, ecologically and socially responsible business practices also pay off financially for the machinery and plant manufacturer, for example through lower interest rates. The Dürr Group underscored its pioneering role in the field of sustainable financing with a Sustainable Finance Framework published in November. It serves as a framework for future corporate financing based on sustainability principles and defines how sustainable financing instruments are to be used.