Fronius Earth Mission - Sustainable Business Practices

Economic performance

Long-term growth instead of short-term profits - this has been Fronius' motto since its founding.

With three business units that are completely different in their areas of application, the company has a solid foundation and is therefore more resistant to crises. With durable and repairable products, we not only protect the environment, but also create added value for our customers.

This gives us a competitive edge. As a result, we are growing, and now employ almost 8,000 people worldwide.

All figures at a glance

Business ethics and compliance

Compliance with applicable laws and internal and external regulations is ensured at Fronius by a digitally set-up legal register that covers the laws that are essential to Fronius, particularly in the areas of employee protection, environmental protection and sustainability.

Fronius undertakes to ensure appropriate and safe working conditions, to pay appropriate wages, to respect freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, and not to tolerate child labor, forced labor or discrimination.

Fronius expressly rejects any form of corruption or bribery. Comprehensive measures have been defined to prevent corruption and bribery, including raising awareness among our employees by teaching them the Fronius Code of Conduct and providing them with mandatory training on compliance-relevant topics.

Transparent, fair and professional conduct in the market serves to safeguard our interests in the long term and helps us to achieve secure and sustainable competitiveness.

All political participation is done responsibly and transparently, and public policy processes are not obstructed by unfair practices or undue influence.

In the Fronius Code of Conduct, these topics are made available internally and externally. Fronius requires all employees to act in accordance with these standards of personal and professional integrity.

Guidelines and work instructions on how to handle personal data regulate compliance with the applicable data protection laws (specifically the EU General Data Protection Regulation) in the company. In addition, procedures have been set up for auditing existing and new data processing operations for the introduction of new software tools, for the conclusion of order processing agreements, and for the fulfillment of data subject rights (such as requests for information, requests for deletion).

The Fronius whistleblower system was introduced and communicated internally in spring 2022. In addition, a whistleblower policy was created that describes how reports can be submitted and processed via the whistleblower channel. The channel can be accessed here. It is therefore accessible to all internal and external stakeholders and complies with the requirements of the EU Whistleblower Regulation.

Sustainable products and services

Quality awareness

At Fronius, we don't just pay lip service to quality awareness - it's a corporate value we live by. That's why we don't just double or triple check our products, we subject them to a total of 13 different endurance tests during the development phase, including an impact and drop test, a dust and salt spray test, and a test of cold behavior and service life. All tests go far beyond the standard specifications.

Long service life and repairability

“Repairing instead of throwing away” is a principle that has been firmly embedded in our DNA since the beginning of our company’s history. This is why we develop highly advanced service concepts in all areas to ensure that our products can be repaired quickly, if necessary, and to a high standard. We lay the foundation for this as early as the product development stage.

Recyclability

When selecting materials and during the product development process, we pay attention to the proportion of secondary materials used as well as the repairability and recyclability of our products at the end of their life cycle. We pay particular attention to the amount of recycled material used when selecting aluminum components, as this significantly reduces the environmental impact compared to primary aluminum.

Sustainable packaging

To protect our products from potential damage in transit and to reduce our environmental footprint, we at Fronius take care to select suitable packaging materials and reduce their use. Factors considered in terms of sustainability include the following:

Packaging required for optimum protection of the devices and the resulting packaging volume and weight
Potential for reusing and recycling the packaging material
Environmental footprint of the packaging material

Research and development, innovation

The development of sustainable products and services is an important part of our sustainability strategy. Particularly important to us in reducing the ecological footprint for our product development are the

Durability and
Repairability & recyclability of the products,
Material & energy efficiency in manufacturing and the
use of sustainable components and recyclates.

„Sustainability by Design“ program

With the "Sustainability by Design" program, we are pursuing the goal of ensuring that our products are designed in an environmentally compatible way that goes beyond the legal requirements. To this end, we are developing methods and technologies to measure and reduce the ecological footprint of our products.

We take the following steps to achieve our goals:

We generate, collect and analyze data on our products.
We create further life cycle analyses of our products.
We optimize product service systems in terms of sustainability and circular economy on the basis of data-based analyses.
We cooperate with upstream and downstream companies and customers.

Life cycle analysis Tauro ECO

Following the life cycle analysis for the Fronius GEN24 Plus inverter, one has now also been prepared for the Fronius Tauro ECO, an inverter for large-scale PV systems. The results have been summarized in a white paper and are available here.

Video: Endurance tests for products

Sustainable procurement

At Fronius, we take a holistic view of the value chain: starting with the extraction of raw materials, through the refinement stages, all the way to the end user. This is where responsibility lies and where we actively operate mechanisms, organizational units and processes in order to supply customers and markets with products and services in a sustainable manner.

As part of our supplier management, both new and existing suppliers are continuously evaluated, monitored and further developed using the following standardized methods:

Supplier evaluation/qualification
Compliance with the Code of Conduct
Supplier Risk Monitoring
Comprehensive assassment of logistics partners
Supplier review/audit
Material compliance processes
Awareness

Suppliers (direct services): Review 2023

Percentage of new suppliers that were screened using environmental criteria: 100%.

Percentage of new suppliers that were screened using social criteria: 100%.