Environmental protection through reusable filters - Aqua free Interview

Mr Dibbern, how do you view the topic of environmental protection?

Everyone should make their own contribution in their private life, no matter how small it may be!

Whether in terms of one's own mobility or when buying food. However, the key is to inform yourself precisely about what is truly sustainable. You must always consider the entire value chain. The research for this can sometimes be very complex and time-consuming.

Companies in particular significantly shape sustainability through their decisions, as their influence on climate change is much greater than that of private individuals.

How does Aqua free do justice to the topic of environmental protection?

As an owner-managed company, we at Aqua free feel a special sense of responsibility for the social and ecological impacts of our operational activities. For this reason, we have been committed to environmental protection since our company was founded over 25 years ago and hope to make at least a small contribution to preserving the world and livable conditions.

And if every company did that, I think we would already be a significant step further. Fortunately, we see in our everyday work that our customers and business partners also take concrete measures to protect the environment. Even if it is "only" the use of our reusable products.

What does Aqua free specifically do to protect the environment?

We are one of the few companies that can claim environmental protection is part of our corporate DNA.

Aqua free was founded out of a research project with the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg. This project specifically resulted in approaches for designing a reusable filter to protect against bacteria from drinking water.

We have continuously developed and optimised this reusable system over the years and remain the only provider on the market today that offers sterile water filters that do not have to be thrown away.

Our reusable filters are reprocessed and reused multiple times according to a process validated with the university hospitals of Tübingen and Heidelberg.

The potential is particularly evident in hospitals. By using reusable filters, over 95% of waste can be avoided here compared to disposable filters. In total, this saves our customers almost fifty tonnes of waste annually – a measurable contribution to climate protection.

In addition, we ship our reusable filters exclusively in reusable boxes, which then return with the filters for reprocessing. As a result, we save approximately another 6 tonnes of waste by not using cardboard boxes that are thrown away after a single use.

Last but not least, we produce our filters ourselves in Germany and Belgium, thereby ensuring the shortest possible delivery routes. Our production is carbon-neutral, and we use 100% renewable energy – primarily from hydropower.

How do your customers specifically benefit from the Aqua free reusable filter system?

For hospitals, the topic of reusable filters has long been relevant. Due to hygiene reasons, they cannot avoid using filters. This creates a significant amount of waste that can be prevented by using our reusable filters.

In recent years, an increasing number of hospitals are facing up to their ecological responsibility. Many hospitals actively align themselves as a "green hospital" and have appointed environmental officers who specifically look after this topic.

Using our filters is a fast, cost-effective measure to improve the environmental balance. The moment a hospital installs reusable filters on the corresponding showers and taps instead of disposable filters, it automatically saves – without any prior investment required – at least 70% in CO2 emissions and avoids 95% of waste compared to disposable filters, at comparable prices for the filters themselves.

We take care of the reprocessing service free of charge and also arrange for the return transport. In addition, the hospital can also have the filters replaced by our own hygienically trained service technicians.

In our view, these are plenty of good reasons to switch to reusable filters immediately, if you have not already done so.

Expressed as a school grade, what grade would you give Aqua free in terms of sustainability?

I would give us a B+. Although we are already very good, one can always be even better. And we certainly still have potential, too.

Together with our colleagues, we regularly review our work processes in our daily routine and try to design them to be even more environmentally friendly.

For this purpose, we have also committed ourselves through the environmental management standard ISO 14001. We are regularly audited by an independent institute to certify that we actually achieve our set environmental targets. This way, in addition to our own standards, we have an external institution that drives and monitors us to continuously improve in terms of sustainability.

To give a concrete example: one of our goals is the localized sourcing of all required raw materials and external components. Most of our suppliers are located in Germany and the EU. This saves us unnecessary transport routes, but naturally also provides us with additional security in logistics and quality. Nearshoring and insourcing of further manufacturing steps are also currently being planned and implemented.

But small things count too. For instance, we have motion detectors so that our lights only turn on when actually needed. Or we consciously avoid drinks in single-use and reusable bottles. For this purpose, we specifically purchased special beverage dispensers some time ago – naturally filtering our water beforehand with our own Aqua free inline filters ;-).

What do you personally do for environmental protection, Mr. Dibbern?

We have had a solar system on our roof at home since last year. This allows us to generate up to 80% of our electricity needs ourselves and sustainably over the year, and in spring and summer – when the sun shines even in Hamburg – we feed additional green electricity into the grid. It is quite funny how much our habits have changed as a result. To make the best possible use of the system, we now always turn on our washing machine in the morning and forenoon, for example, so that the system can produce enough electricity by the evening to charge the car and provide evening lighting. Both professionally and privately, I try to avoid flying when travelling.

What was your biggest "environmental sin" this week?

I accidentally disposed of a green bottle in the container for white glass.

Sustainability is a popular and important topic, especially for the younger generation. Do you see advantages there when recruiting new talent?

We experience that the choice of career for younger people is increasingly about meaningfulness. The key is to be able to make one's own meaningful contribution. In that regard, we already hold quite good cards with our corporate vision: "We protect people from water germs and their dangers through sustainable solutions."

Protecting people is at the forefront of what our 150 team members do. The sustainability argument comes rather on top of that.

On its own, it would probably offer little added value and would be interpreted more as "greenwashing". When choosing an employer, I think that besides all the hard facts like salary, home office and the like, it is primarily about authenticity, co-determination and perspective.

We are a steadily growing company that offers individual development opportunities. And one that scores as an owner-managed, medium-sized company with fast decision-making processes, flat hierarchies, degrees of freedom and fun at work. And, of course, works sustainably. So feel free to apply.