SUSTAINABILITY
Our approach to sustainability
OUR approach
Sustainability is embedded in Bolton’s strategy through three long-term commitments:
1. To craft brands that help people make more responsible choices.
2. To improve our environmental performance and support initiatives focused on ecosystem protection.
3. To ensure that human rights are respected throughout our value chains and that we help our employees and local communities to thrive.
We have set priorities and measurable targets in the short, medium and long term.
OUR BRANDS
We are working to always improve our brands to allow people making for responsible everyday choices.
Our adhesives intend to enable people’s embracement of a more sustainable lifestyle by fostering their creativity and promoting a culture of repairing, upcycling and home improvement.
We continuously strive to improve our products and offer innovative solutions in order to meet the needs of our customers and end-users as well as those of future generations. In 2025, 25% of our revenue was generated from more sustainable products*, aiming to increase this to 40% by 2030.
We are also putting great emphasis on innovations that enhance consumer safety and reduce the environmental footprint of buildings.
*More sustainable compared to the rest of our portfolio, refers to the respect of sustainability-related criteria and thresholds defined in our BA internal Portfolio Sustainability Assessment (PSA), which is based on the methodological guide published by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
Climate change
OUR APPROACH
We’re accelerating actions and initiatives to improve our environmental performance and help address the climate crisis.
In our own operations, we are committed to reduce emissions through energy efficiency, electrifying our production and increasing our use of renewable energy.
In our supply chain, we are committed to engage our suppliers to scout innovative solutions for raw materials and packaging.
Tracking our progress:
roadmap
We updated our decarbonization roadmap and will set ambitious targets for Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions within 2026
95%
of our electric energy used in our production plants comes from renewable sources
electrification
We are investing in energy efficient and fully electrified production sites in Waalwijk (NL) and Greffern (DE)
75%
We installed a heat recovery system in our production site in Goes with 75% efficiency in our solvent filling area
B SCORE
The entire Bolton company, including Adhesives, achieved B Score in CDP Climate
MAKE IT ZERO
We joined the Make it zero initiative, a scope 3 decarbonization initiative of the DIY sector
For more information see: Reports | Bolton
Circular resources
OUR APPROACH
We are integrating circular economy principles into our business to keep resources in the economic loop for as long as possible. Our approach centres on three areas:
- Reformulating our products and increasing the use of circular resources* in our ingredients and raw materials.
- Pursuing circular packaging solutions.
- Reducing waste across production sites and in our value chains.
Tracking our progress:
38%
of our plastic packaging comes from recycled or bio-based sources
99%
of paper packaging comes from recycled or certified sources
93%
of the waste generated in our plants is recovered or recycled
27%
of our ingredients come from circular resources* or from abundant materials
*Circular Sources can be e.g. renewable/ biobased, recycled/ regenerated/upcycled and biomass balance certified.
For more information see: Reports | Bolton
Water resources
OUR APPROACH
Water is an important ingredient in many of our products, and it plays a vital role in many of production processes – from cooling to cleaning.
We aim to manage water resources responsibly by improving the efficiency of our water use and ensuring that the water we discharge is appropriately treated.
Tracking our progress:
B SCORE
The entire Bolton company, including Adhesives, achieved B Score in CDP Water disclosure
Assessment
All our production sites* completed a water risk assessment
water intensity index
We've kept the water intensity index** of finished products <1 (stable water consumption)
*Excluding Repair Care
**Water withdrawal per ton of finished product produced
For more information see: Reports | Bolton
Workplace
OUR APPROACH
We want Bolton to be a place where our people thrive and feel valued, wherever they work, whatever their role, and whatever their background.
For us that starts with looking after employee wellbeing – ensuring they operate in a safe working environment, receive fair pay, and have access to key benefits and social protections.
We want all our employees to have equal opportunities to grow and succeed. We’re pursuing that by investing in training and skills development, providing clarity on career progression pathways and ensuring our people practices are fair and quitable.
We recognise and value the voice of employees in decisions on the workplace. Building from a culture of inclusion, we engage our workforce directly to understand what matters to them as well as recognising the importance of social dialogue and collective bargaining through worker representatives.
Tracking our progress:
20%
of management positions in Bolton Adhesives are held by women with the ambition to achieve 38% by 2030
1.75 LTIR
We achieved a low Lost time injury frequency rate (LTIR) of 1.75
For more information see: Reports | Bolton
Society
OUR APPROACH
We ensure the protection of human and labor rights of workers in the supply chain by providing clear standards to our business partners.
Among our actions, we actively assess risks and address any issues with corrective action and monitoring, working with NGOs and supplier ratings agencies to support us.
Ecovadis Gold Medal: Bison International B.V.
Ecovadis Silver Medal: UHU GmbH
Tracking our progress:
For more information see: Reports | Bolton
ISO
OUR APPROACH
Most of our products are manufactured in our facilities across Europe. We take our social responsibility toward our employees, business partners and the communities in which we operate seriously. We actively encourage and support the engagement and participation of our employees.
Our activities are based on relevant laws, regulations and agreements related to occupational health & safety and environmental protection. We are committed to systematically reducing risks in everything we do. In this context, we aim to ensure safe and sustainable workplaces that respect people and the surrounding ecosystem, offering opportunities for growth and development.
To meet these requirements in the long term, we are committed to operating an Integrated Management System in accordance with the international standards 9001, 14001 and 45001 at our sites in Bühl/Greffern (Germany) and Goes (The Netherlands), and 50001 (new for Bühl in 2026). We also commit to the continuous improvement of our environmental performance and to keeping our lost time injury frequency rate continuously below 2.5.
download our latest certificates:
Contact
We want to engage in an open dialogue with all stakeholders. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us: