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Sustainability

To go beyond the surface, operating transparently and creating exceptional, high-quality products that blend beauty, performance and sustainability.

At Surface Solutions we're lighting the way to a more sustainable tomorrow, implementing credible, authentic practices that push us beyond compliance to positively impact society and the planet. We innovate for the future and for our customers, delivering extraordinary solutions that advance their social and environmental goals as well as our own. And, through it all, we're stepping up to lead the industry in proactively and transparently raising the bar, inspiring suppliers to pursue responsible operations while delivering products that are responsibly sourced, developed and applied.

Our 4 Sustainability Cornerstones

The 4 Cornerstones of our sustainability journey summarize our vision: to realize tangible sustainability progress; to pass on these benefits to our customers; to inspire all partners in our industries to operate more sustainable; and our aspiration to never stop improving.

We make the world more beautiful, serving our customers high-performance products that meet their functional and aesthetic needs. And our commitment to product excellence is more than skin deep.

We go beyond the surface – pushing boundaries to deliver solutions backed by credible sustainability strategies; solutions that are sourced and produced in line with strict environmental and social standards. From natural and recycled raw materials, to optimized production, application methods and packaging solutions, we're developing best-in-class products that fit today's needs and tomorrow's world.

And, at every step, we strive to light the way for our industries, setting the gold standard on transparency and teaming up to drive real change. We're championing best practices, advocating for business approaches that promote responsible stewardship and supporting customers in achieving their own social and environmental goals.

We know true beauty has depth, which is why we continuously pursue excellence to take our products to new, more responsible heights. We're diving deep into what we make and how we make it to help transform the world into a more extraordinary, effective, and sustainable place.

DISCOVER ALL OUR STORIES

Experience Digital Colors | EMD Surface Portal
Effect pigments are going digital. Learn how colors and effects come to light on 2D and 3D objects, like panels and car shapes. Move the light source to discover the full secrets of stylings, with their unique sparkle, highlights and color travel effects. Experience how your favorite color translates from a panel to our sportive M-One car, resting in its garage or out on the road.
Instrumental Color Release | Surface Solutions
Data driven technologies are moving forward at top speed: Also EMD Electronics as a quality leader offers a new digitized color release process for the global QC of pearlescent pigments. Highly reliable color data will replace the perception of the human eye. How? Instrumental color data have been correlated with visual evaluations to derive instrumental specifications based on the DIN99o formula.
Banish the Microplastics | EMD Surface Portal
We offer effective, scientifically proven alternatives to microplastics: equivalent but sustainable solutions that let you eliminate them from cosmetic formulations and regain consumers’ confidence.
Clean Beauty | EMD Surface Portal
Every year, we witness the come-and-go of countless make-up trends and new beauty standards. Some focus on a specific segment, some only come as seasonal inspirations, and some stay with us long enough to become a norm in the beauty industry.
EcoVadis rating 2024 | EMD Surface Portal
We are proud of the continued recognition of our sustainability leadership. This is reflected by further improving our official EcoVadis score to 75/100 in 2024, now placing us among the top 3% of all companies, across all industries, taking part in this assessment and resulting once again in a gold medal! The score is even higher than in 2023, when we also received a gold rating for our sustainability progress.
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany x TRASCE Consortium | EMD Surface Portal
We are part of a consortium of 15 cosmetics industry companies that have announced that they have joined forces to create the TRaceability Alliance for Sustainable CosmEtics (TRASCE) to enhance traceability in key ingredient and packaging supply chains across the industry.
Always Advancing
We're always seeking to improve – from what we create to how we create it. We drive operational efficiences and embed quality processes to inspire ongoing excellence, while harnessing the latest guidelines and methodologies and delivering innovative thought leadership to keep us on track as a more sustainable business.
Our Sustainability Culture
Sustainability lies at the heart of our decision-making processes, shaping both our strategy and our culture. We embrace sustainability as a shared mission, collaborating across departments to integrate responsible practices into the very fabric of our business.
Helping Our Customers Shine
We excite customers with beautiful, effective solutions, contributing to exceptional formulations that empower them to achieve their sustainability goals. Through it all, we're unlocking new stories that connect with evolving consumer expectations.
Certifications
Many new and creative labels and certificates have emerged in recent years to inform customers and consumers of healthy, safe and sustainable facts about products. Such labels and certificates are a confirmation of good practices, suitable product designs and a sustainable background. Many of our products meet such label and certificate (third party or self-assessment) criteria and we're happy to use them.
Responsible Sourcing
We are dedicated to championing best practices across our supply chains, even when it isn't mandated or typical in our industries. We believe in taking a proactive approach and doing what’s right.
Sustainable Supply Chains
Global legal guidelines are increasingly forcing transparency in global and local supply chains. But when we demand more information, data and security from our own scope-3 suppliers, we should realize we ourselves are our customers' scope-3 suppliers. We're all in it together, all in one supply chain.
Lighting the Way
Collective progress requires collective action. We recognize the sustainability challenges facing our industries and we're ready to lead in addressing them, using our unparalleled experience to transparently share best practices, drive global harmonization and collaboratively raise standards and transparency.
Harmonization & Verification
Global harmonization of CO2e calculation and reporting standards, combined with independant verification methods that are trustworthy and acceptable for all stakeholders, are prerequisites for sound environmental progress and a positive sustainability culture in our industries. Harmonized standards strengthen the comparability, consistency and decision usefulness of climate-related disclosures around the world.
Partnerships for Success
We understand that we cannot enact meaningful change on our own. That's why we work closely with partners across our value chain to drive collective action at scale.
Working Together Works Better
We truly believe in the power of cooperation, that supporting sustainable progress throughout our industries works better when we do it together. We're therefore actively scouting for initiatives and organizations that promote new standards and we love joining from the start as co-founders, like we‘ve been with some of these organizations.
Protecting What Matters
We're committed to responsible stewardship, setting clear, ambitious goals that guide our efforts to reduce our environmental footprint, support people and communities, and deliver positive impact at every stage of the value chain.
Tracking Emissions
At Surface Solutions, we are committed to climate protection. We are focused on reducing our environmental impact, pushing best practice in line with industry standards, and communicating responsibly and transparently about our performance and our ambitions.
Environmental
Because it's up to all of us to halt the tide of climate change and protect the environment, we are cutting down our emissions, reducing our energy consumption and manage natural resources responsibly. We have formulated several goals, defined clear measures and plans to achieve them and we report regularly on our progress.
Social
Sound sustainability policies include social and ethical factors, like how organizations interact with people, communities, society and respect human rights. At Surface Solutions this starts with our value system and our principles-based approach to our daily practices. We believe it's our duty to meet our fundamental responsibilities in topics like human rights, labor conditions and anti-corruption practices. We are incorporating social and safety factors in our policies to improve health and wellbeing for all people that interact in any way with our company, and we have strong internal guidelines to ensure we adhere to ethical business practices. We subscribe to the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact and have incorporated these in our internal guidelines for good behavior and practices.