At the end of October 2009 the SGL Group – The Carbon Company – was designated an "ÖKOPROFIT" operation within the Augsburg administrative district for the year 2008-2009.

Being designated an "ÖKOPROFIT" operation is an endorsement of the SGL Group's commitment in two particular areas, namely the "continual improvement in environmental protection" and the "sustainable business management".

Together with five other participants from the Augsburg and Aichach-Friedberg administrative districts, SGL Group`s Meitingen site has taken part in the first round of the "ÖKOPROFIT" initiative. In doing so, it is pioneering the way for other companies in the region.

Protecting the environment has been an integral part of our Company's activities for many years. Central aspects of this have always been the continual improvement of the process stages and the concept of their sustainability. Special emphasis is placed on four interconnected areas:

• Environmental safety
• Employee safety
• Process safety
• Product safety  

For all subsidiaries and plants within the Group, continual improvement in all four areas is specified as a key corporate objective. Hence, acting with an awareness of the environment at corporate level is a principle firmly established within the SGL GROUP and clearly defined as an entrepreneurial task of management.

The Company already manufactures efficient and innovative products from graphite, carbon fibers and their composites. In doing so it makes an important contribution to the further development of lightweight construction technology that provides savings in resources. Graphite, in combination with PCM (phase change material) components, makes for more efficient energy utilization, as well as better energy storage.

Capital expenditure in our plants involves state-of-the-art innovations, and the plant operations themselves are also continually being improved. The concept of "integrated environmental protection" is already applied at the process development and plant planning stages. During plant operations, all economically reasonable technical means are used within the legal requirements to reduce environmental harm and ensure the health and safety of the employees, as well as that of the immediate neighborhood.

ÖKOPROFIT is the German-language acronym for "Ecological Project for Integrated Environmental Technology". This project systematically implements cost-cutting measures in the company, especially in the areas of energy, water, resources and waste. As a result it also ensures sustainability by linking ecological, economic and social aspects to an even greater extent than the law requires.

The aim of ÖKOPROFIT is, first and foremost, to combine the two pillars – ecology and economy – and to do so profitably, to offer practical assistance in the introduction of an environmental management system, and thereby to cut operating costs and operational risks in a sustainable manner. This creates a "win-win" situation for the company as well as for the environment.

Some examples at the Meitingen site show this to good effect:

• The installed preheating facility for the combustion air in the foil production plant brings an annual energy saving of some 7,000 Euro,
• the automatic switching-off of the ventilation system in a production hall during idle times brings an annual energy saving of some 12,000 Euro and
• extension of the filter tar injection in the RTO (regenerative thermal oxidation) of ring furnace waste gases brings an annual natural gas saving of some 70,000 Euro.

Through these measures the annual carbon dioxide emissions at the Meitingen site are reduced by more than 120 metric tons.

These examples show active environmental protection to be an important objective of the SGL Group at the Meitingen site. The "ÖKOPROFIT" designation therefore serves to confirm our unremitting efforts in the field of environmental protection and represents another milestone towards harmonizing ecology and the economy.