Voigt & Schweitzer (ZINQ) on the winners' podium of the German Sustainability Award for the second time already.

Together with the global corporation Procter & Gamble and Fliegl Fahrzeugbau GmbH, the Gelsenkirchen-based surface specialist Voigt & Schweitzer was also nominated for the special resource efficiency award at this year's German Sustainability Award in Düsseldorf.
Ultimately, the coveted award narrowly eluded the Gelsenkirchen hot-dip galvanisers. For managing partner Lars Baumgürtel, however, this was no cause for annoyance:

„It is a special honour to be nominated in the resource efficiency category two years in a row. To achieve this, we had to further develop our sustainability activities, and we are therefore delighted that the jury once again decided: ZINQ is back in the top 3.“

This year, the people of Gelsenkirchen have focused more heavily on the circular value chain – and thus on the Cradle to Cradle® concept. This is about sustainable business within loops. All this may sound abstract, and yet the award-winning efforts of the hot-dip galvanisers are having an effect, as fewer and fewer energy resources and raw materials are consumed in the production process. Ultimately, therefore, it is about saving as much as is technically possible today while at the same time ensuring, ideally, that no consumption arises in the first place, but rather acting in a circular manner. An approach that in principle creates endless growth potential.

And: Voigt & Schweitzer remains the only metal-processing company nationwide to have been nominated at all. This means the Gelsenkirchen-based company is unique not only in the field of hot-dip galvanising. „Being nominated in 2016 is further proof that we are on the right path, which we will continue to follow,“ adds Baumgürtel.

The German Sustainability Award was presented for the ninth time on 25.11.2016 and is the national award for excellence in sustainability in business, municipalities and research. The patron of this award in 2016 is once again Federal Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel. With over 800 applicants and 1,200 guests, the award is the largest of its kind in Europe. A scale that is also reflected in the supporting programme. Amidst stars and starlets from business, politics, sport and showbiz, numerous celebrities gathered that evening at the Maritim Hotel, whether to give a laudatory speech or to receive an award themselves.

And so, alongside companies and cities, the visiting American actor Nicolas Cage was also honoured for his outstanding humanitarian commitment.

After all, Cage visited various crisis regions for the United Nations to draw attention to the global fight against the illegal drug trade and international crime. The hip-hop group Die Fantastischen Vier received the honorary award that evening for their ecological and social commitment.

And last but not least, an honorary award was also presented to the Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, for his exemplary ecological, social and political sustainability policy.

The evening was musically accompanied by jazz virtuoso Jamie Cullum and, of course, the recently awarded Fantastische Vier.