In the period under review, total water withdrawal for the Lighting Segment fell by roughly 4% to 38,701 m3, and in the Components Segment the equivalent figure rose by 6.3% to 132,407 m3, this increase being almost entirely attributable to expansion of the workforce in Shenzhen (from 350 to 550 employees) and installing a water cooling-based air conditioning system.

53% of freshwater was obtained from the municipal water supply. Manufacturing the Zumtobel Group’s products requires relatively little process water. The degreasing baths used in the Lighting Segment are an exception to this. In order to reduce water consumption, little grease is applied to the parts, which are then kept as clean as possible throughout the production process.

Only a small proportion of water is contaminated so heavily during the production process that it has to be specially treated before being discharged into the public drain. This is the case with painting processes in the luminaire plants, for example. These processes lead to emissions of solvents and chemical detergents into the process water. The water is treated in four stages: first it is brought to a neutral pH level; then the paint particles are filtered out; the filter residue is pressed into filter cakes, which are passed on to local disposal operators; and finally, the water is carefully inspected and returned to the loop.