- Henrik and Martin Erfurt, Managing Directors of the 7th generation.
The issue of sustainability has always been topical in our family company, founded over 180 years ago and located directly adjacent to a bird and landscape conservation area. The founding fathers of ERFURT simply called it taking responsibility for nature, the region and its people. The combination of environmentally-aware and efficient actions and the careful and sensible use of water, wood, energy and air, the key resources for the manufacture of paper, have always been and still are a matter of course for ERFURT.
ERFURT’s entire production process is governed by an ecological approach: we have minimised the production of refuse and waste materials, we avoid the generation of emissions and waste water, which can harm the environment, and we have reduced our energy consumption to an absolute minimum. We have always selected our raw materials in terms of their sustainability. We therefore primarily use renewable raw materials, especially recycled paper, and add to this cellulose and woodchips from sustainable forests. We have been evaluating and testing this regularly since 1996 with eco audits using a DIN EN ISO 14001 compliant environmental management system.
In 2009 Erfurt & Sohn was the first wallpaper manufacturer to join the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). The role of the German Sustainable Building Council is to raise awareness of and encourage methods and solutions for sustainable building. The aims of the DGNB are to a large extent congruent with the performance of ERFURT products in terms of their sustainability (high proportion of recycled materials and an ability to be covered by several coats of paint) and environmental friendliness / healthy living benefits (PVC and softener-free and CO2-binding). For further information about DGNB, please visit: www.dgnb.de.
ERFURT woodchip consists of 75 % of selected recycling paper, 24 % natural spruce wood fibres and 1 % natural binding agents. ERFURT products contribute to reducing the greenhouse effect as sustainable forestry binds environmentally harmful CO².
All ERFURT woodchip and nonwoven products can be painted over several times and therefore have a longer service-life than other wall coverings.
A number of certificates are independent proof of the sustainability of ERFURT products, both in terms of their production and use. These include the Blue Angel, the first and best-known global environmental mark, the RAL-Quality Mark issued by the German Institute for Quality Marks and Labelling (DIGK) e. V., a very good ECO-Test by the magazine of the same name (Öko-Test) and the FSC-Mark (FSC = Forest Stewardship Council) for the use of wood products from sustainable forestry.