beeskin GmbH is committed to reduce its impact on the environment. Our goal is to promote sustainability and environmental awareness at all levels of the firm by:

- Considering the environmental impacts into our decision-making process.

- Complying with all applicable environmental legislation and sustainability commitments.

- Training and educating our employees about environmental issues that may affect their work.

- Promoting environmental awareness among our employees as they indeed work in an environmentally conscious way, as well as,

- Communicating our environmental commitment to the public and encourage them to support it.

- Measuring and analysing our Firm’s carbon footprint along other climate change adaptation efforts.

- Preventing pollution and reducing consumption of resources. We create waste management strategies that promote waste reduction and recycling, as a result.Promoting efficient energy use in all areas of business activity.

- Promoting and continuing to invest in technologies that provide alternatives to business travel.

- Adopting a procurement program that considers our products environmental impact.

- Pursuing a program of continuous improvement by reviewing our Environmental Management System.

We are implementing measures to help reduce our waste and stay green, indeed:

- We package our products in FSC-certified, recyclable paper only.

- We import our packaging paper from Sweden. For every tree used to produce our packaging, we plant 3 new trees.

- We recycle 100% of our paper waste in cooperation with Berlin Recycling Services.

- Products like our beeskin labels are made with 100% recycled Polyester, for instance.

- Our Repair Kit helps our customers prolong the life of their beeswax wraps.

- We repurpose our leftover cuttings from the waxing process as Natural Fire Starters.

- We purchase organic products for our Office and Production Facility.

- After its intended use, our beeswax wraps are 100% compostable.

- beeskin has the ability to increase the shelf life of foods. This reduces the amount of purchase done. Consequently, this reduces a person’s own carbon footprint.

- Assessing our carbon footprint yearly, according to the Kyoto Protocol Guidelines. We offset our GHG Emissions by contributing to climate protection consequently.

- Efficient stove systems for families in Nigeria. This leads to about 80% energy savings.

- Power generation from crops’ residues in India. As a result, this provides 15 households with one year of renewable power.

beeskin bases its activities on the idea of sustainability. If we live in such a way that the generations after us can also benefit from the advantages of an intact environment and an intact social interaction, this is the fairest way to behave towards our children and grandchildren.

Plastic is one of the great challenges of our time. Not only does plastic destroy the habitats of many animal species, but ingredients such as BPA (bisphenol A, one of the plasticisers in plastic) are now detectable in the urine of 93% of all people (https://www.earthday.org/fact-sheet-the-plastic-threat-to-human-health/). BPA is directly associated with miscarriages and hormonal imbalances. The overall health risks associated with the constant use of plastic in everyday life are largely unexplored. There are situations where plastic is necessary. But where it is easily replaceable, we should offer alternatives in our everyday lives that come from natural resources and do not harm our environment.

People are wondering about increasing food intolerances and growing cancer risk. More and more studies are seeing connections between harmful plastic components and these diseases. 

beeskin replaces plastic film, keeps food fresh for longer and is 100% compostable. With three beeskins you can save 100m of plastic foil per year.There is some criticism of the use of bee products. We believe that sustainable beekeeping benefits our society, not harms it. The more beekeepers we can support with our products, the greater the interest in a healthy bee population in Europe. We only use natural and pesticide tested raw materials from Europe. More about beeskin and the use of beeswax here: https://beeskin.com/blogs/interesting-reads/is-it-unethical-and-or-unsustainable-to-use-bees-wax

Climate change is tangible and, according to broad scientific opinion, caused by humans. We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint through a variety of measures, including:

- We make an effort to reduce air travel.

- We prefer telephone and video conferences for international communication.

- We promote local, healthy and low-meat nutrition.

- We use green electricity.

- We offer home officeWe recommend public transportation or electric mobility.

- We use exclusively European ressources for our products.

- Our shipment is carbon neutral and plastic free

It is important for us that our employees feel comfortable and are fairly remunerated. Flexible working hours, a sympathetic ear and overtime pay are just some of our principles. beeskin takes into account the individual challenges of an employee in his or her specific life situation. Small children, a new apartment or parents to be cared for, we try to find a solution. For unskilled labor we pay our employees a starting salary of EUR 13,- per hour.

We do not want to condemn anyone who does not share our goals. Flightshaming, for example, is not a means to support. Air travel has brought an incomparable development to international understanding and has made the world grow together. But every small step is a step in the right direction. Even if a frequent flyer reduces his trips, or eats once less beef per month, or if you balance your CO2 balance by certificates: every single measure helps our environment. For us, an intact environment is on-par with business success.

beeskin follows the stakeholder approach, according to which the needs of all stakeholders of a company are taken into account for the success of the company. Every customer, our employees, our suppliers and the environment are beeskin’s most important stakeholders. As a pure family business, we are not subject to any growth constraints or investor requirements. We aim for a profit margin of 20%, which is necessary for a healthy company in the long term.Our employees receive a share of the profit and we generally support the following projects:

 - The sustainable beekeeping.

- Projects to reduce plastic waste in our environment.

- We support the Aurelia Foundation (read below for more information)

beeskin uses pure cotton, tree resin, jojoba oil and beeswax as raw materials. Next to cotton, wax is the most important component of our products. We are aware of our responsibility towards the bees and also of the problems of today’s beekeeping. beeskin supports sustainable beekeeping and it is important to us that the reasons for bee mortality are fought. Unfortunately, in today’s partially industrial beekeeping, many methods are used that are not in our opinion true to nature. For example, some beekeepers cut off the wings of the queens to prevent them from swarming. Artificially bred bee colonies are sent by mail.

However, the most important reason for the continuing bee mortality is still the unrestrained use of pesticides. Pesticides are cited by almost all experts involved in this topic as the most serious reason for bee mortality. The EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) has already identified the use of neonicotinoids as the main cause of bee mortality at the beginning of 2013 (https://www.efsa.europa.eu/de/press/news/130116) and the use of three neonicotinoids was banned in 2018 https://www.sciencemediacenter.de/alle-angebote/rapid-reaction/details/news/eu-ausschuss-stimmt-fuer-verbot-von-neonicotinoiden-im-freiland/.

As we believe that we cannot solve all the problems of today’s beekeeping at once, we would like to focus with beeskin on the reduction of pesticides in agriculture. The big advantage of this is that the use of pesticides can be checked very well with today’s analytical methods. Over 70% of the waxes we are offered do not meet the GOTS standards we are aiming for.

The Aurelia Foundation in Berlin was established in 2015 on the initiative of Thomas Radetzki and Markus Imhoof with seven donors. Since then, the foundation has been working for the well-being of pollinating insects, the preservation of biodiversity and a bee-friendly design of city and countryside under its motto “Long live the bees”. As an independent expert, the Aurelia Foundation advises politicians, the media and civil society and, as a bee advocate, fights in court against the approval of pesticides and agro-genetic engineering that are harmful to bees. One focus of her work is the organisation and networking of grassroots democratic popular initiatives for biodiversity. Aurelia initiates and promotes projects that strengthen research and general education about bees. More at www.aurelia-stiftung.de

The use of pesticides in conventional agricultural production is an everyday occurrence. There is no other way to compete with the dumping prices of the world market. The situation is comparable to doping in top-class sport: whoever does not do it is the stupid one. With the project “Europe without pesticides” we intend to support beekeepers who are committed to pesticide-free. Together we have set up the following programme:
We offer every beekeeper with wax batches of over 200kg to have the wax tested for pesticides in the laboratory free of charge. Swarms of bees serve us as small agents, each of which collects samples individually in the flown landscape of about 50 square kilometres and brings them back to the beehive. The collected pollen and nectar are processed into honey and wax and the pesticides are detectable in the wax. In this way we would like to get an overall picture of pesticide use on the European and North African continent. Transparency is an important basis for taking meaningful local measures.