FRIENDLY
THE BUSCH + MÜLLER SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPT
Our friendly philosophy
touches all areas of the company.
From the initial idea to the end of a product’s life cycle.
Cycling is healthy, environmentally friendly, and relieves traffic congestion in the city. Our products help to increase safety when riding a bike, especially at dusk and in the dark. Thus enabling a significant extension of the time frame for cycling we contribute to the desired traffic transformation. As each and every Busch + Müller product stands out for its special quality and durability, we help to save energy, conserve resources and reduce electrical scrap volumes.
Staff
A vital resource
Good to know: Busch + Müller produce exclusively in Germany. This ensures that our entire staff works in accordance with the highest standards of occupational health and safety as well as under healthy and environmentally friendly conditions. This decision also safeguards and creates local employment.
Busch + Müller actively promote a working culture where the most diverse individuals with the most varied life stories successfully work together.
The electrical circuit boards required for our headlights, rear lights and other electronic products are assembled at our associate company BEW located just a few kilometres away from our company’s place of business. We can guarantee the high standards required for these components because, for all electronic parts we need to source in the world market, we attach great importance to our suppliers ensuring safe and fair working conditions.
Home office and work-at-home
If not before already, but certainly ever since the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, everybody has been talking about home office work! Busch + Müller enable and promote mobile working for employees in administration with due regard to individual work requirements and personal circumstances. A special feature in the Busch + Müller production concept is work-at-home. For many decades, this system has enabled many employees to work independently from their home. Saving travel time on the one hand, this concept also provides a good, if not the only opportunity to ensure gainful employment for some persons.
Products
High-grade, functional and durable
Every single day, we are striving to develop, produce and distribute products of inspiring function and reliability, superior quality and durability. Our products stand out for their minimum resource consumption while in use. Therefore, the production and disposal stages are particularly significant for the balance of sustainability.
IQ-XS friendly with compostable plastic housing
Innovation is our motive and mission. Also when it comes to using novel materials. The Busch + Müller IQ-XS friendly headlight is the first headlight worldwide featuring a compostable, 100 percent biodegradable plastic housing. This special material neither contains any fossil raw materials nor leaves behind any micro plastics, even if it is not properly disposed of.
Packaging and packaging materials
We are successively converting our range of product packaging from paper/plastic to cardboard material. This process will be almost totally completed in 2021. In the course of this conversion, we are now only using FSC-certified cardboard for all boxes. The wood comes exclusively from sustainable forestry. Outer cartons are also being switched to FSC-certified cardboard. The filling material (chips) currently used by Busch + Müller is already biodegradable. Also, the adhesive strips are made from an environmentally-friendly material. Without exception, durable transport boxes are used in our internal processes, in production and in the warehouse.
We are currently working to develop solutions to
reduce the use of small plastic bags in exchange for other materials instead of plastic.
Any progress on this issue along with appropriate solutions
will be communicated here as soon as available.
Disposal
Actually, we do need your assistance regarding the disposal of our products and packaging. Please always dispose of our products and packaging in accordance with the laws and regulations in force in your municipality. All products containing electronic components, i.e. all headlights and rear lights, must be discarded as electronic waste. This ensures that the components can be properly recycled. Waste products can be turned in at your dealer’s or the respective collection point of your municipality free of charge.
Consumer advice centres state: “Devices that are not entirely defective,
must not be discarded as electronic waste!“ and continue ”Charity shops or
second-hand shops are one way of giving old appliances a second chance."
We fully support this advice.
Production and administration
In the heart of Germany
Made in Germany. We take that seriously. Research and development, lighting and product design, production and final assembly, marketing and sales, warehousing and shipping, service and administration - we do all that locally at our company headquarters in Meinerzhagen in the Sauerland region.
Our in-house manufacturing depth is enormous. For instance, we have insourced circuit board production which, ever since 2017 has been pursued at our subsidiary just 15 km away. Another example is our own tool shop.
We do our best to use regionally available raw materials, semi-finished products and a wide range of other materials in order to reduce transport distance to the absolute minimum. Our entire range of cardboard packaging, packaging and printed products are manufactured in Meinerzhagen.
Plastic injection moulding
The plastic injection moulding process always entails rejects as a by-product of the desired moulded part. At Busch + Müller, we ground all these plastic parts into fine-particle granulate which is then fed back into the production process. On the one hand, this saves new granulate, thereby conserving valuable resources and, on the other hand, no transportation is necessary.
International Environmental Management Standard EN ISO 14001
All Busch + Müller products as well as all processes in the company conform to the regulations set forth by the EN ISO 14001 standard as a minimum requirement. Compliance with this regulation is checked (audited) and officially certified at annual intervals by an independent testing institute. In addition, Busch + Müller has an environmental management system in place that goes far beyond the requirements of the standard. Controlling compliance with sustainability policies has also been extended to our suppliers.
This is how the family-owned company
practices sustainability
OIL FILTERS
The hydraulic oil used for injection moulding machines is continually checked for contamination. In case of deviations, the oil is filtered and can then be reused. Due to this process, less waste oil accumulates while operating our machines.
WASTE HEAT
Even the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art injection moulding machines need electrical energy. This is mainly converted into heat to melt the plastic granulate. At Busch + Müller, we supply the resulting waste heat into the company’s heating system, thereby reducing the primary energy consumption by approx. 25 % per year.
BIO-OIL
Bio-oil is used as the hydraulic medium in our lift installation.
GREEN ELECTRICITY
Since 2021, Busch + Müller has exclusively purchased electricity generated by hydroelectric power plants. Thanks to this concept, we will be saving more than 850 tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide) per year. Simultaneously, we are promoting the expansion of renewable energies.
INSULATION
The new building has been designed and constructed to conform to the most recent standards of building technology and thermal insulation. Only high-quality materials were used to ensure an above-average lifespan. All materials used are recyclable.
The old building was completely refurbished in 2020 to make it more energy efficient. Here, too, we relied on durable and sustainable materials.
STAFF
Our entire team at Busch + Müller has been made aware of the importance of resource-conserving materials handling and consumption. Waste is minimised and cleanly separated. Collectively, we influence humanity with our thoughts and actions. We act environmentally-friendly so that we can make our products available to millions of people with a clear conscience - now and in the future.
LIGHTING
The new part of our building (commissioned in 2017) is equipped exclusively with LED lighting. In the old building, the previous light sources are gradually being converted to LEDs. The lighting in the new building is also controlled by a system of motion detectors and time switches. However, this has so far only been implemented in the new building.
RAINWATER AND
SEWAGE PLANT
60 % of the run-off rainwater from the sealed company grounds is fed directly back into the natural groundwater cycle through a soakaway system. This efficiently relieves the municipal sewage treatment plant and the public sewers.
ELECTROPLATING
We operate our own electroplating shop at our business location and manufacture our products according to European and German specifications. Consequently, this ensures that our electroplating always complies with the latest state of the art, occupational safety and environmental soundness. Cleaned in our modern ion exchanger plant, the waste water generated in the electroplating process can then be safely fed into the sewage system.
COOLING
For fresh-air cooling, Busch + Müller relies on a simple ventilation system using natural air flow. An energy-consuming air-conditioning system is used neither in production nor in the administration building.
This is how the family-owned company
practices sustainability
-
OIL FILTERS
The hydraulic oil used for injection moulding machines is continually checked for contamination. In case of deviations, the oil is filtered and can then be reused. Due to this process, less waste oil accumulates while operating our machines.
-
WASTE HEAT
Even the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art injection moulding machines need electrical energy. This is mainly converted into heat to melt the plastic granulate. At Busch + Müller, we supply the resulting waste heat into the company’s heating system, thereby reducing the primary energy consumption by approx. 25 % per year.
-
BIO-OIL
Bio-oil is used as the hydraulic medium in our lift installation.
-
GREEN ELECTRICITY
Since 2021, Busch + Müller has exclusively purchased electricity generated by hydroelectric power plants. Thanks to this concept, we will be saving more than 850 tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide) per year. Simultaneously, we are promoting the expansion of renewable energies.
-
INSULATION
The new building has been designed and constructed to conform to the most recent standards of building technology and thermal insulation. Only high-quality materials were used to ensure an above-average lifespan. All materials used are recyclable.
The old building was completely refurbished in 2020 to make it more energy efficient. Here, too, we relied on durable and sustainable materials. -
STAFF
Our entire team at Busch + Müller has been made aware of the importance of resource-conserving materials handling and consumption. Waste is minimised and cleanly separated. Collectively, we influence humanity with our thoughts and actions. We act environmentally-friendly so that we can make our products available to millions of people with a clear conscience - now and in the future.
-
LIGHTING
The new part of our building (commissioned in 2017) is equipped exclusively with LED lighting. In the old building, the previous light sources are gradually being converted to LEDs. The lighting in the new building is also controlled by a system of motion detectors and time switches. However, this has so far only been implemented in the new building.
-
RAINWATER AND
SEWAGE PLANT60 % of the run-off rainwater from the sealed company grounds is fed directly back into the natural groundwater cycle through a soakaway system. This efficiently relieves the municipal sewage treatment plant and the public sewers.
-
ELECTROPLATING
We operate our own electroplating shop at our business location and manufacture our products according to European and German specifications. Consequently, this ensures that our electroplating always complies with the latest state of the art, occupational safety and environmental soundness. Cleaned in our modern ion exchanger plant, the waste water generated in the electroplating process can then be safely fed into the sewage system.
-
COOLING
For fresh-air cooling, Busch + Müller relies on a simple ventilation system using natural air flow. An energy-consuming air-conditioning system is used neither in production nor in the administration building.
DEDICATION
For the bicycle and the cyclist
Our commitment and
certifications
“AKTION MENSCH“ LOTTERY
Busch + Müller has been supporting the ”Aktion Mensch“ lottery since 2011. The association pursues and maintains projects that contribute to improving the living conditions of people with disabilities, children and adolescents.
Social facilities and organisations in our region
We support local organisations in the environmental sector, in social, sports, school and church activities.
Awards and certifications
Quality at top level
DIN EN ISO 9001
Quality Management Standard
since 1997
DIN EN ISO 14001
International Environmental Management Standard
since 2019
Green Award
In 2009 already, Busch + Müller received the Eurobike Green Award for E-WERK. This award recognises special products and ideas that raise sustainability and environmental protection in the bicycle market to a new level.
The jurors’ reasoning: "E-WERK is a congenial idea - generating electricity while cycling. This way you are completely independent of any power supply system even in remote areas."
Up to the year 2021, no more than eight Green Awards have been granted by the critical jury!
VSF Product certification
In 2021 we have been awarded the VSF certification.
Verbund Service und Fahrrad (VSF) is an independent trade association of the bicycle industry representing more than 300 dealers, manufacturers and service providers. It stands for high quality standards, sustainability, fairness and reliability.
VSF has established a system that involves experts from various fields and with many years of professional background in the analysis process. The result is reliable product recommendations and high-performance components with the highest functionality and durability, which ideally have been produced to a particularly sustainable concept and under fair social conditions.