Dornbirn, Austria – The Zumtobel Group is publishing its first ever Sustainability Report, marking a further milestone in the international lighting group's strategic alignment with the principles of sustainable development. "Through light, we care – that's the banner under which we've placed our sustainability engagement," explains Zumtobel Group CEO Harald Sommerer. "This represents a commitment on our part to gear our business activities in economic, ecological and social respects to long-term success. One key driver of our sustainability engagement is our core professional lighting business, where our innovative solutions can make a major contribution to greater energy efficiency. In sum, we consider the alignment of our business with the principles of sustainability – and the topic of energy efficiency in particular – a great opportunity, an important growth driver and the central pillar of our long-term commercial success."

Transparent documentation of sustainability engagement
The report paints a transparent picture of the many different activities of the Zumtobel Group in the areas of product stewardship, in-process environmental protection, supply chain management, human resources engagement and sponsoring. A chapter dedicated to sustainable lighting solutions shows how the Group makes a far-reaching contribution to greater energy efficiency in its core business area. The process of drawing up and implementing a sustainability strategy is documented in an introductory chapter on sustainability management. The report sets out the Zumtobel Group's top sustainability goals, including targets for sustainable products, plant certification to ISO 14001, lower accident frequency and systematic expansion of compliance management activities. The report itself takes its lead from the international G3 guidelines published by the Global Reporting Initiative. Reporting is based on data from the 2008/09 and 2009/10 financial years.

Core business drives sustainability
With its Zumtobel und Thorn brands in the field of professional lighting solutions, Tridonic for lighting components and the young Ledon brand for LED lamps, the Zumtobel Group is one of the leading players in the lighting industry. The three pillars of its business processes are innovation, quality and customer focus. Accounting for 19% of the electricity generated worldwide, artificial lighting offers enormous potential in terms of energy efficiency. As innovation leaders, the Zumtobel Group's brands make a significant contribution in this respect through the consistent application of their knowledge of lighting technology and of concrete lighting applications. Through the use of intelligent lighting control systems, professional lighting design and innovative light sources and components, the power consumption of a lighting system can be substantially reduced – while at the same time improving the quality of light provided. The Group's brands promote the use of artificial light to enhance human well-being and in this context the company's engagement includes a commitment to various academic and scientific projects.

Sustainability commitment evolved over time
An appreciation of the importance of sustainable development has put down strong roots at this former family firm over the years. Ever since the Zumtobel Group was founded in 1950, it has continued to invest in research, products and marketing. Today, driven by the international lighting group's core business, sustainability is reflected in numerous activities. The cornerstones of the Group's operations are its ethical standards and continuous improvement processes, as well as its quality, environmental, and occupational health & safety management systems. Together these ensure efficiency, quality and good governance.

"Through light, we care" – defining a sustainability strategy
With the aim of getting a firmer handle on the topic of sustainability within the Group and of communicating its sustainability engagement transparently, at the beginning of 2009 the Zumtobel Group began to coordinate and systematise the many activities that fell under this heading. By the end of the year this had led to formal approval of a sustainability strategy entitled "Through light, we care" and to creation of the necessary organisational and reporting structures. Since then, four fields of action – Market, People, Processes and, at overarching level, Integrity – have formed the central elements of the Zumtobel Group's sustainability engagement.

In future, the Zumtobel Group intends to publish its Sustainability Report on an annual basis.

Media
Astrid Kühn-Ulrich
Head of Corp. Communications
Tel. +43-(0)5572 509-1570
astrid.kuehn@zumtobel.com

Investor Relations
Harald Albrecht
Head of Investor Relations
Tel. +43-(0)5572 509-1125
harald.albrecht@zumtobel.com