Bundle Deliveries to Reduce CO2 Emissions and Increase Profitability

Our Logistics and Sales teams have found a way to combine profitability, environmental protection, and increased environmental awareness among staff and customers. In Europe, it is common practice to promote bundled deliveries to our customers.

Bundled deliveries avoid CO2 emissions by transportation and reduce costs for both parties. In addition, shipments are packed to minimize the use of packaging material and maximize pallet space. Hospitals especially appreciate more effective storage processes and less packaging materials, which results in less waste.

By driving such initiatives, Arthrex raises sustainability awareness in the health care sector.

Recycled Packaging Material and Office Supplies

Arthrex takes care to use recycled packaging material for shipments, such as cardboard boxes from recycled materials or paper-based wrapping, whenever possible. 

Carbon-Neutral Printing

Arthrex has also set ambitious environmental goals in Marketing. As a result, we have increased the number of marketing materials available only online, from 78% in 2018, to 79% in 2019, to 80% in 2020 (approximately 1476 titles). For example, surgical instructions can be accessed digitally via the Surgeon App.

However, printing cannot be completely avoided, particularly in the Orthobiologics field—for example, patient information flyers must be printed. Despite this, just 302 titles were printed in 2020 for this purpose (down from 21% in 2019 and 22% in 2018).

To offset this, in 2018 Arthrex decided to become carbon neutral in printing marketing materials. In cooperation with the Munich-based company ClimatePartner GmbH, we compensate the unavoidable emissions caused by printing by financially supporting recognized climate protection projects.

In order to make this transparent for our customers, all catalogs receive the “Climate Neutral” logo with an ID number on the back. This ID number shows the amount of CO2 emissions caused by printing this literature and which climate protection project was compensated to offset it.

In 2020, Arthrex supported 3 climate protection projects: Plastic Bank®, which supports worldwide marine conservation; clean drinking water efforts in Odisha, India; and Deutschland Plus Alpen, a certified natural woods reforestation program in Germany. These financial contributions offset 53816 kg in CO2 emissions produced in 2020 (54,196 kg were offset in 2019; 48,875 kg were offset in 2018).

Solar-Powered MobileLab

Arthrex GmbH has a new sustainable MobileLab for medical training, where doctors and specialists can learn and train in the latest Arthrex surgical techniques on site.

A major advantage of mobile training is that doctors do not have to leave the hospital for training, and the entire team can complete their training together.

The 12 m-long truck is an operating theater on wheels, fully equipped with a high-tech laboratory and state-of-the-art image transmission technology.

The new MobileLab is equipped with 12 solar modules with a nominal output of 3.2 kW per module to reduce the consumption of nonrenewable electricity from the local grid or the truck's diesel generator. The generated electricity is either consumed directly or stored in the lithium-ion batteries in the MobileLab.

In Central Europe, an annual solar energy yield of between 800 and 1000 kWh per kWp of installed system capacity is expected. Depending on the hours of sunshine, up to 3200 kWh of electricity can be generated annually. If the solar modules are used to full capacity, around 2200 kg CO2 are saved annually compared with the German electricity mix. If the diesel generator is replaced by the solar power source, about 12 kg less CO2 is produced per hour of solar operation.

Working in the MobileLab is not only more sustainable due to the addition of solar power, but also energy-saving due to the use of LED lighting in the truck.

Environmentally Friendly Business Practices

We have also introduced an environmental and sustainability management system in accordance with EMAS III and ISO 14001. With this, we want to protect natural living conditions and leave behind a "green" legacy for future generations. As such, corporate sustainability plays a major role at Arthrex.

A few examples are listed below:

  • Use of green energy
  • Fleet of electric cars
  • Company bikes for short distances and bike stands in front of the buildings
  • Office supplies made from recycled materials
  • Company garden for staff use in Munich
  • Installation of beehives

We are committed to helping nature and honeybees

Since 2017, the Arthrex Munich office has been home to 3 bee colonies. The colonies are looked after by our beekeeper, a licensed veterinarian, who shows us the results of her work on an annual basis. Employees have the chance to see how the "Bee happy @ Arthrex" honey is made, try a sample, and purchase some in exchange for a donation, with all proceeds going to the Arthrex Foundation.

In 2019, a company garden was created at the Munich office. This gives employees the possibility to grow their own organic vegetables.