Environment

Significance of sustainability

Each day there is a multitude of the decisions that have to be made in the company. For lots of years ecological and social factors play an important role for that in addition to the market economical aspects. In this context sustainability is very significant for Erfal. In our point of view it is very important to use this blue planet, its raw material resources as well as its ecological system in a way that a maximum life quality is also guaranteed for our descendants. That is why we consider all efforts that support this aim as eligible steps in the right direction.
We think that it is very important to consider the topic sustainability as an overall process. This process includes ecological aspects of environmental protection as well as facts of healthful digestibility, first-class product quality, optimization of technical production processes and social responsibility.

Sustainable production

As a manufacturer of sun protection and insect screen systems we always emphasized a high level of technology and automation of the production flow in the several departments and the compliance of high-grade quality parameters. Since 2004 we are working on the basis of a certification according to ISO 9001-2008. That is why besides a continuous optimization of the company process also decreasing process and reclamation costs, a high motivation of the employees and satisfaction of the customers are registered. Responsible acting related to energy policy of the company Erfal is reflected in the installation of the photovoltaic solar power plant on the roof of the buildings in 2004. It is characterized by a surface of 414 m² and a capacity of around 56 kW. On this basis we were able to produce 185,000 kWh of solar energy and around 74,500 kg of CO³ emission could be avoided.

Sustainable products

Our high quality products are characterized by a high longevity. Erfal already convinced its customers with durable product at a time, when this terminology didn’t exist.

Especially in cooperation with our system providers and suppliers we are permanently looking for solutions that correspond at the best to this difficulty. As far as the choice of the several collections is concerned, the components of the circle of sustainability also play an important role.
Lots of our current fabrics for sun protection products are free of PVC or rather halogen. Furthermore a lot of the qualities are tested for harmful substances and conform to the Öko-Tex 100 standard. Moreover our current collection of vertical blinds was verified by “Verband deutscher Sonnenschutzreiniger e.V.”, an association for German sun protection cleaning. Based on this we published information on an environmentally friendly cleaning for each fabric quality. Erfal holds a well-defined position and does not use system components of suppliers whose products are made by children.

Sustainability as a sales pitch

The environmental consciousness of lots of end customers has also risen concerning a directed choice of sun protection products. Nevertheless, trendy, functional and price aspects influence ostensibly the decisions of the customers. In our point of view, sustainability especially plays an important role for 35- 40 year old customers.

This is currently only a small group because some end customers but also some specialist retailers are not yet aware of the connection between sun protection/decoration and sustainability. But especially in the domain of insect screen this problem becomes more and more important.

Erfal is always aimed at enhancing its product range and to comply with the aspects of sustainability.
We will also include these aspects in our sales campaigns to support intensively the activities of the specialist retailers.

Certified sustainability

You can have a look on the information about certification of the fabric qualities in the several overviews.