Sustainability in the bathroom – from manufacture right through to end user
• Preserving resources and protecting the
environment matters in the bathroom to
• Greater sustainability in the bathroom helps
save costs
• Key to sustainability: the durability of
high-quality products
• Climate-neutrality by 2045 is Duravit’s
express corporate goal
The stated objective of the UN climate conference COP 27, which took place from 7 to 18 November in
Egypt, is to put an end to global warming and its devastating consequences for our climate.
While the members of the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change define the guiding
principles for sustainable action at a global level in Sharm El Sheikh, every one of us can play our
part today in putting less strain on the environment. There are a range of approaches to
increased sustainability – including in the bathroom.
Preserving resources reaps sustainability benefits
Preserving resources is one of the key measures we can take to protect the environment. Saving energy
releases fewer greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and lower water use prevents soils from drying out.
Preserving resources is important for increasing sustainability in the bathroom. This benefits the
end customer as it almost always means cost savings – an attractive incentive, especially in times of
rising energy prices.
Practical Duravit technologies that can be retrofitted in any bathroom boost cost savings
without reducing comfort. For example, modern faucets with an additional FreshStart function offer
potential savings because only cold-water flows in the central position. It is only when the handle is
deliberately moved to the left that hot water is added to the mix. The Duravit single-lever mixer
thereby ensures economical use of energy and resources – without requiring too much extra
thought.
LEDs on mirrors and mirrored cabinets reduce resource usage in the bathroom. The intelligent
control dims or turns the light off completely as required. Modern night lights, such as those
available with the SensoWash® products, can be individually deactivated as needed. In automatic
mode the night light only comes on when it gets dark. Because an LED only consumes 85 mW of
electricity, energy consumption is negligible.
The Duravit faucets with MinusFlow function allow for a particularly efficient use of the ever-scarcer
resource of water. Water consumption when washing hands is reduced by up to 40 percent while ensuring
an almost equivalent experience, rising to as much as 60 percent on the showerheads.
Water-saving flushing technologies on toilets have a huge impact and already enables savings of 290
million liters of fresh water per year in Europe. Duravit AG has been supplying these for the last 15
years. Similarly, Duravit products bear the UWL label (Unified Water Label), which transparently
classifies water consumption for the end user.
Durability – the most sustainable concept of all
Durability is an essential aspect of sustainability. This starts at the planning stage: if bathrooms are
planned with foresight – and for instance in an age appropriate manner – they can promote users’ well being for decades. Contributing factors are not only manufacturing precision and the highest-quality
materials, but also a design that remains timelessly modern.
Ceramic production is Duravit’s origin story.
Ceramic is one of the world’s oldest cultural materials. Its stability, robustness, and use of
purely natural materials lend it properties that from the outset go a long way to satisfying the
requirements for preserving the environment and saving resources. Most ceramic products from Duravit
also come with a lifetime guarantee. Further, durability plays a central role in the
selection of materials at Duravit AG beyond ceramics. One example are the toilet seats made from
urea, which are more robust in daily use and retain the material’s characteristic sheen even after 15
years. This means they need to be replaced less frequently. Moreover, urea has a lower CO2 impact of
up to 30 percent than materials made from oil-based plastics such as ABS or polypropylene.
Duravit AG also constructs further product details such as hinges to be durable. These are made from
robust and recyclable metal elements instead of plastic. Drawers for drawer systems as well as
hinges and edging bands on pivot doors need to complete 80,000 cycles in demanding product tests to
prove their long-term durability. Stainless-steel toilet-seat hinges need to flawlessly withstand
50,000 drop tests. Based on these exacting practical tests, Duravit AG offers a five-year warranty,
assuming proper care and use. 15 carefree years are usually possible in practice.
In terms of durability and quality requirements, Duravit faucets fit seamlessly into the complete
bathroom provider’s high-quality product portfolio. And not least the customers also benefit here from a
five-year voluntary manufacturer’s warranty and a 15-year availability guarantee for spare parts
following the discontinuation of a faucet range. Sustainability as a commercial challenge
The ecological footprint of a product starts much earlier than its delivery to the customer. The key
factor above all others is manufacturing. For that reason, sustainability is becoming an increasingly
important topic particularly for small and mid-sized enterprises – and is even more essential for a
complete bathroom manufacturer such as Duravit AG whose beating heart – ceramic production – is
especially energy-intensive.
The company is concentrating on finding ways to reduce both its consumption of resources and raw
materials and its emissions as far as possible. As part of the comprehensive package of measures, the
manufacturing facilities in Germany already use electricity generated exclusively from renewable
energies. Some internal solutions continue to reduce energy and resource requirements during the
manufacturing process. Waste heat is also consistently reused. PEFC-certified furniture
production that adheres to the principles of sustainable forestry as well as “local for locals”
production methods that ensure shorter transport routes are further key aspects of the portfolio of
measures.
Recycling and avoidance of waste are also part of resource preservation. For example, Duravit Group
uses 60 percent recycled water at its oldest company site in Hornberg alone and has constantly been able
to reduce the proportion of fresh water used. Similarly, packaging for Duravit ceramics consists
of up to 80 percent recycled wastepaper and is 100-percent recyclable. The active recycling of paper,
cardboard, cartons, PE and PP plastics, wood, aluminum, steel, and sheet metal reduces emissions
by some 320 tonnes of CO2 in Germany alone.
Duravit AG is constantly striving to further increase the use of recycled or recyclable material
in its production processes. For example, a centrifuge is being planned at the Hornberg site
that is intended to filter out raw materials from manufacturing waste and feed it back into
manufacturing processes. Ten percent of the material– some 550 tonnes a year – could be reclaimed in
this way. Sustano – the first recyclable shower tray made from the mineral cast material DuraSolid®
Nature developed in-house – was launched in 2022. Because that is not enough for the illustrious
company, Duravit AG has embarked on an ambitious and comprehensive climate mission. The goal: to be an
exclusively climate-neutral business around the world by 2045.