Sustainability at Arthrex – Relevance for Suppliers

Why We Take Sustainability Seriously

Reinhold Schmieding, Arthrex, Inc. President and Founder

Being aware of the global impacts that our business activities have on the environment inspires us to act in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner, which is something that we are strongly committed to.

At Arthrex, we strive to achieve the following goals as part of our sustainability and climate policy:

• Continuous improvement of our environmental performance
• Commitment to environmentally friendly behavior
• Promotion of biodiversity on our company premises
• Development of durable and environmentally friendly products
• Commitment to reduce the climate impact of our direct operations and supply chain
• Transparently report on our company’s greenhouse gas emissions

Sustainability and climate protection have become a topic of ever-increasing importance, not just in society in general but also globally in the health care sector.

In Europe, new regulations are promoting green public procurement, incentivizing hospitals to consider sustainability in their buying decision.

Furthermore, in line with European and international climate commitments, the European health care sector is developing a decarbonization plan, with the ultimate goal of Europe achieving a zero-emissions health care sector by 2050 at the latest. 

Expectations for Our Suppliers:

As a global health care provider and large employer, corporate social responsibility is important to us. We’re committed to ethical and sustainable business practices. This means we take account of our social, economic, and environmental impacts.

We set high standards for ourselves with regards to quality and sustainability. We invite all our suppliers to promote quality, sustainability, and social responsibility as well.

To support environmental protection, we would like suppliers to use life cycle assessment to minimize environmental impact from the beginning and along the entire product value chain. We encourage all suppliers to inform us about their sustainability efforts—in particular, measures to protect the environment and to reduce CO₂ emissions.

Suppliers should consider the following steps to promote a healthy environment and reduce CO₂ emissions along the entire supply chain:

• Reduction of packaging and transportation materials
• Reusable transportation packaging
• Promotion of reusable and/or recyclable materials
• Eco-design and eco-labeling of products
• Eco-friendly alternatives to plastics
• Energy saving and durable electronics devices
• Identify product disposal options
• Provide climate footprint analyses and decarbonization roadmaps
• Minimization of CO₂ emissions caused by transport
• Substitution of hazardous substances with eco-friendly alternatives
• Certification in environmental standards such as ISO 14001 and EMAS
• Legal compliance (eg, REACH, RoHS, WEEE, etc)

Our Green Procurement Policy, which is sent to every supplier, states the following:

• We favor suppliers with environmental certification and products with eco-labels
• We encourage minimizing product transportation routes to our plants and emissions
• We support reduction of waste along the complete supply chain
• We promote the use of reusable/recycled packaging materials

Additional information from suppliers regarding products:

• OEM product information
• REACH/RoHS/WEEE certificates
• Packaging material composition, weights, and labels
• Energy efficiency certificates
• Product eco-label certificates
• Product carbon footprint analyses
• Annual report on the fulfilment of due diligence obligations
• Management system certificates (ISO 14001, EMAS, etc)