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Next steps to sustainability

AXA Home Security is focusing on Cradle to Cradle

Sustainability in steps

The term “Cradle to Cradle” (C2C) has its origins in the English phrase “cradle to cradle.” The concept was introduced by chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough in their 2002 book “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.” Cradle to Cradle means that products can be reborn into a new life after use, rather than ending up as waste (as in “cradle to grave” or “cradle to grave”).

According to this design philosophy, products and systems are developed with an infinite life cycle in mind. Materials and products are not discarded after use (leading to waste and environmental pollution), but reused or recycled without loss of quality and reintroduced into the production chain. This promotes sustainability, reduces waste and encourages the use of safe and renewable materials. Cradle to cradle aims to create ecosystems and economic systems that are healthy, ecologically intelligent and socially just.

Learn more about our ambitions

Encouraging recycling

The Cradle to Cradle philosophy: a circular vision

Het Cradle to Cradle-certified Bronze® certificaat

Cradle to Cradle Certified® Bronze is part of the Cradle-to-Cradle Certified Products Program, which evaluates products based on their sustainability and environmental friendliness. Bronze is the first level of certification, a foundation for advancement to silver, gold and platinum levels. The certification program evaluates products on five categories: material health, materials reuse, renewable energy and carbon management, water management and social justice. Basic criteria have been established for each category, such as avoiding harmful substances, having a plan for future reuse of the product and implementing renewable energy and social justice initiatives.

The C2C Bronze certificate shows that a product has already taken significant steps towards sustainability. However, there is still room for improvement. The certificate encourages companies to continuously improve their processes and make them more sustainable until they ultimately realize a positive impact on both the environment and society. The certificate also helps consumers consciously choose products that meet strict sustainability standards.

Discover the certified security fittings

The Cradle to Cradle logo

Recognizability among products

The certification is recognized by the logo visible in the image above. In addition, the logo can be seen, among other things, on the product pages, with all AXA Home Security products that have the certification.

Focused sustainability

As producers, we are aware of our impact on nature and our environment and take responsibility. We naturally comply with the laws within this framework, but we ourselves also consider it important to treat our people and our planet as carefully as possible. In order to achieve this even better, we have increasingly structured our sustainability activities in recent years and taken a collaborative approach.

For example, in our Green Team, we partner with our four sister companies in three locations to implement the sustainability policy of our parent company Allegion, This joint broad program covers three focus areas: Environment, Social and Governance (ESG). In parallel, however, we also give our own company-specific ambitions the attention they deserve, and the Cradle-to-cradle certification is an excellent example of this. With this we have zoomed in on essentially the same areas of focus at the product level, but divided into five categories: material health, material reutilization, renewable energy & carbon management, water stewardship and social fairness. Given the complexity and amount of information to be provided, we had the support of innovation partner EPEA in submitting our report.

A sustainable future

Acceleration as a logical step

To be fair, we had originally planned that zooming in for a slightly later date. Aware of the social importance, however, we concluded after a concrete demand from the market that speeding up was the only logical step. By obtaining Cradle to Cradle Certified® Bronze for our security hardware, we are now also demonstrably in line with the sustainability requirements of the current market and the wishes of society.

We had no idea at the time how complex and time-consuming the certification of our security hardware would be. Perhaps it was just as well, because the impact on our daily work was huge for almost all of our departments. For example, every aspect of our security hardware and production had to be noted and checked down to the smallest detail, in-house and external production facilities had to be assessed against the high C2C requirements, and product developers had to work to replace certain materials in our products, to name but a few examples.

Nevertheless, we have not regretted our choice of certification for a moment. Thanks to this joint effort, the process not only yielded countless insights into opportunities for improvement (many of which, moreover, we were able to capitalize on immediately), it also boosted sustainability thinking throughout our company.

One of the first manufacturers in security hardware with the certification

At the time we started the C2C process, version 4.0 had just been released. However, thanks to the enormous efforts of our employees in both the Netherlands and Poland and our cooperation partners, after more than one and a half years of hard work we can still call ourselves the first security hardware manufacturer to achieve Cradle to Cradle Certified® Bronze. And while we thought we had taken quite a long time, we were actually among the first to achieve this positive result across the board. That too is rewarding.

Improving across the whole organisation

Everything is included

The process of product certification covers so much more, than fixing and improving things at the product level. HRM, safety, energy and water use, everything is included in the assessment. Moreover, you are often dependent on third parties for information. For us, this meant that it sometimes took longer than we would have liked. For example, when we needed a statement of working conditions or a Restricted Substances List statement. Incidentally, this was certainly not a question of unwillingness on the part of the suppliers. Our products involve small parts and semi-finished products, some of which are manufactured abroad. That all has to be checked and traced. Sometimes the information is not readily available or language is a barrier. Sometimes the priorities of our liaisons lie elsewhere, and sometimes what we ask for is simply particularly complex and detailed.

“There are still many steps we can take”

We at AXA Home Security are betting on , a very solid ambition that at times demands quite a lot from us. At the same time, there is momentum. We have the awareness and are now asking with everything: if we make this like this, what happens to the various components and what can we do with them at the end of their life? Can we replace, separate, melt, reuse? What does this mean for our people? Which partners share our vision? The C2C certificate absolutely does not mean that we are already there. But we are well on our way. And we continue to investigate how we can further reduce the number of materials, for example, which materials we can replace with even more sustainable alternatives, which energy sources we can best use and how we can keep our people sustainably employable to make all this happen.

On the way to a greener future

Engage, enthuse, inspire

We are now in the implementation phase of our certification. This means that we are setting up the necessary processes and implementing improvements. This helps us secure our actions at the system level, but also benefits the development of new product groups and sustainability of existing products. After all, we want to look ahead and address the rest of our assortment. Which products will be next for certification is not yet fixed.

What is certain is that we can build on what we have learned from this first certification. Whether it’s about hinges or window locks, for example, the “C2C thinking” is already a part of our mindset. That is something we like to promote. If only because we know from experience that involving and enthusing others is just as important to achieve our sustainability ambitions: we will only be truly proud when our entire product range is certified. Yet in the meantime, with the certificate we have obtained, we will hopefully inspire not only our own colleagues, sister companies and suppliers, but also others on the road to a No Waste environment. And explore how we can help our customers in the market to make a difference.