Living Responsibility. Shaping the Future.

As a family-owned company with a history spanning more than 125 years, transformation and long-term thinking are integral to who we are. Our goal is to make business decisions with their full impact in mind—today and for generations to come.

Our Foundation: The SDGs

The Sustainable Development Goals—the 17 goals established by the United Nations for sustainable development—provide the overarching global framework for the sustainable development of the international community. They also form the foundation of our sustainability strategy and serve as a compass, helping us prioritize and continuously advance our activities.

Our Understanding of Sustainability

For us, sustainability means incorporating ecological, social, and economic goals equally into our decisions. This is reflected in specific actions and objectives:

Long-term economic success achieved responsibly.
Development and production of environmentally and socially compatible products that meet the needs of our customers and the environment.
Creation of optimal working and social conditions for all employees to ensure a healthy and fulfilling work environment.

A Holistic Approach in the Value Chain

Our commitment to sustainability does not stop at our factory gates: We consider the entire life cycle of our products and integrate sustainability criteria into all core processes. Development, procurement, and logistics play a particularly important role in implementing our sustainability strategy. Close collaboration with our partners—customers, suppliers, and logistics service providers—is essential to our success.

Our key areas of action

Climate action: We promote the use of renewable energy at our locations and throughout our supply chain. By selecting low-emission materials and suppliers, we continuously reduce our indirect CO₂ emissions.
Circular economy: Through ecodesign and systematic materials management, we are making our products and processes increasingly circular.
Human rights: Through our compliance, risk, and supply chain management processes, we fulfill our due diligence obligations throughout the entire supply chain.

For more details, download our GRI Sustainability Report.

Milestones

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2026: Further modernization steps toward emission-free energy supply
At our headquarters in Velbert, we commissioned a new photovoltaic system and a total of 26 charging points for our electric company vehicle fleet.

In Ruse, as part of the plant expansion and an EU funding program, we significantly expanded the photovoltaic system and implemented additional energy-efficiency measures in the buildings. In addition to another high-capacity heat pump, automatically controlled shading systems were installed. These measures save around 700 MWh of electricity per year. Despite the plant expansion, the site now covers around 20% of its energy needs itself.

2025: New separation system in the Ostrov paint shop reduces hazardous waste by around 500 metric tons annually
Previously, paint residues from the paint shop were primarily disposed of as hazardous waste in the form of paint-water mixtures. By introducing chemical and physical separation processes, the water can now be separated from the paint residues and discharged through the municipal wastewater system. The remaining paint residues are collected and disposed of separately. This significantly reduces the amount of hazardous waste generated.

2024: Bulgarian Plant Wins Lean & Green Management Award

For outstanding performance in process and resource efficiency, our Bulgarian plant in Ruse has been awarded the Lean & Green Management Award as the overall winner in the Automotive category. This prestigious award is presented annually by the management consultancy T&O. The winners are chosen by a jury of representatives from academia, industry, and media.

2023: First WITTE plant powered by 100% renewable energy
Since early 2023, our plant in Ruse, Bulgaria, has been heated exclusively by a state-of-the-art, three-stage heat pump cascade. Combined with on-site electricity generation from photovoltaic systems and the purchase of green electricity to cover all remaining electricity demand, the plant now normally operates entirely without fossil fuels.

2022: Winner of the MATERIALICA Design + Technology Award

Together with our partners Mercedes-Benz, BASF, and Pyrum Innovations, we implemented for the first time a mass-balanced, chemically recycled plastic in an outer door handle. With this project, titled "Turning Used Tires into Door Handles: How to Close the Resource Loop," we won the MATERIALICA Design + Technology Award in the Materials category.

2020: Publication of the First WITTE GRI Sustainability Report

In 2020, we publicly reported for the first time on our sustainability achievements and activities in the form of an official sustainability report, following the internationally recognized standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Since then, a new report has been published every two years; starting in 2027, we will transition to annual reporting in line with the new European Standards (ESRS).

2019: Development of a Group-Wide Sustainability Strategy

As part of preparing the first WITTE sustainability report, we conducted a comprehensive materiality analysis and defined the key topics, fields of action, and goals for our sustainable corporate development. We implement the sustainability strategy integratively across all business areas.

2003: Introduction of the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System

As early as 2003, we introduced an externally certified environmental management system according to DIN ISO 14001 for the first time and have since established it at all WITTE locations. The ISO standards for occupational safety and health management (45001), energy management (50001), and environmental management form the foundation for our operational sustainability activities.