For the first time, a company from the hot-dip galvanising industry has secured a top 3 position at the German Sustainability Award 2015 in Düsseldorf.

If Gelsenkirchen-based Voigt & Schweitzer GmbH & Co. KG, alongside Bosch and BASF, makes it into the top three of the German Sustainability Award in the „Resource Efficiency“ category, that in itself is a considerable success. Not least because in the now 8-year history of this relatively young business award, no company from the galvanising industry has ever been positioned so prominently.

Right from the start, Voigt & Schweitzer, with its sustainability programme Planet ZINQ®, which has been intensely developed over many years, has worked its way up into the renowned top three of global corporations.

Last Friday, 27 November 2015, the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister for the Environment, Johannes Remmel, and Dr. Burkhard Lehmann from the Institute for Construction and Environment e. V. presented BASF with the special prize for „Resource Efficiency“ at Düsseldorf's Maritim Hotel.
Voigt & Schweitzer shares the TOP 3 position with Bosch for their outstanding corporate performance in sustainability. The special award thus recognises all three companies for their exemplary commitment to the circular economy in recycling, raw material and resource management.

The jury justifies ZINQ®„s positioning with the words: “Through the Planet ZINQ® initiative, the company has bundled extensive measures along the value chain to close cycles in the spirit of the Cradle to Cradle® principle and to increase resource and energy efficiency, particularly for zinc and gas – true to the motto: as much as necessary, as little as possible."

With its proprietary sustainability approach, „Planet ZINQ®“, Voigt & Schweitzer has entered the renowned German Sustainability Award for the first time. Dr. Thomas Pinger, Sustainability Officer at Voigt & Schweitzer: „Given the number and quality of applicants, simply being nominated was a real honour for us, which I am extremely pleased about. And the fact that an external jury has acknowledged our work with professionally recognised feedback adds further genuine value on top of that.“

At the nominee table of Voigt & Schweitzer, a select group of partners and friends celebrated with ZINQ®. All of them share with Voigt & Schweitzer an awareness of the importance of sustainable production, trade, and economic activity.