Miele takes seriously the goal of reducing its carbon footprint by intervening at different levels on the entire production cycle. As an article in the South China Morning Post explains, the company has decided to purchase the steel necessary for its furnaces from the German steel mill Salzgitter whose production process, as verified by the certification body TUV Sud, reduces emissions by two thirds. of greenhouse gases both thanks to the use of arc furnaces and by using a greater share of scrap metal as raw material.

It is not clear to what extent this ‘green steel’ will be adopted in other productions, given the high cost and still very limited supply. Salzgitter is aiming to use ‘green’ hydrogen as an energy source, reducing the ecological impact of its product to 5% compared to conventional steel. In addition, Miele intends to increase the amount of recycled plastic used from 194 to 7,500 tons / year, especially for the production of vacuum cleaners.

The Gütersloh-based company has been offsetting the greenhouse gases generated by its plants since last year, financing reforestation projects in Mississippi, Uganda and Nicaragua, as well as solar energy plants in India and biogas in Nepal.

In 2021, honey sales rose by 7.5% to 4.8 billion euros and should easily exceed 5 billion in 2022 to reach 8 billion in 2030.