To celebrate the 170th anniversary of the Freudenberg Group, SurTec employees from Germany planted 170 trees in the local ‘Odenwald’ at the end of September. The 170 Douglas Firs symbolically stand for the remarkable and successful development of today's global technology group, which began as a small tannery.
Tree planting activities such as these took place not only in Germany but at numerous locations worldwide: Whether it’s China, Japan, Portugal or South Africa - SurTec colleagues all over the world planted 170 trees each with great joy and energy. In areas destroyed by forest fires and tsunamis, SurTec helped to reforest important forest areas and restored a piece of nature to the communities.
Sustainability is firmly anchored in the corporate philosophy of SurTec. Economic success, social responsibility and sustainable use of our products and services are intrinsically tied to each other. We take care for the impact of our actions on people and the environment. Activities such as these, our environmentally friendly product portfolio or the production building in passive house standard at our location in Zwingenberg, Germany, as well as many other examples, show that this principle is actually lived.
A brief excursion into the history of the Freudenberg Group:
On February 9, 1849, Carl Johann Freudenberg and his former partner Heinrich Christian Heintze founded the company Heintze & Freudenberg in Weinheim. This is the birth of today's Freudenberg Group. The company, which became the exclusive property of the Freudenberg family in 1874, began producing fine calf leather as a tannery with 50 employees. The pillars of Freudenberg's economic success are - back then as well as today - the high quality standards, the internationality and the innovative strength of the company. From a tannery, Freudenberg at first developed into Europe's largest leather manufacturer until the early 20th century. Since 1929, it evolved to today's global technology group through a consistent diversification.
