How do you say corporate social responsibility in one word?

We don’t hide behind business buzzwords. We call it RESPECT. What’s more, at GELITA, respect is a management-level issue, we live and breathe it at every level of the company.

It’s also multifactorial, including the uniqueness of individuals, the diversity of cultures and nature, with all its flora and fauna. Respect means tolerance, maintaining good relationships and considerate communication. It doesn’t end with business integrity and legal compliance: that’s just the beginning.

Ethical, social - and successful

We respect and, in many, cases even exceed legal requirements. As a global supplier, we interact with many different societies. As a result, tolerance is one of our highest values. Child labor and corruption are simply not acceptable for us – a principle we extend to our partners and suppliers.

We grant freedom of association to all our employees; we help to support their careers, their health and their work-life balance. We support local communities and contribute to health-related projects. At all our facilities, we engage with our neighbors and respect local needs. We are committed to the International Labour Organizations’s standards, to the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code and to SEDEX, with all GELITA sites being registered.

Based on nature

We strive to reduce our carbon footprint and protect our environment. We employ responsible sourcing and clean technologies to save water, energy and significantly decrease transport emissions. We use state-of-the-art equipment at all our sites to reduce waste and wastewater to a minimum.

Our modern composting system reduces CO2 emissions and, at the same time, produces waste-based fertilizers. We are continuously looking for innovative solutions that help us to minimize the impact of our activities. In fact, more than half of our production takes place in ISO 14001-certified facilities with environmental management systems, and we aim to certify more.

All our production sites in Germany are ISO 50001-certified and equipped with an energy reduction management system. This not only allows us to continuously improve our environmental performance, it also helps us to cut costs and will soon be implemented at our Dutch site.

Responsible sourcing

We exclusively source fresh, hygienic and high quality raw materials. We buy pork rind, split cattle leather and pig/cattle bones from trusted suppliers. In this way, we ensure that our high quality collagen proteins are safe for consumption, be it in food, pharmaceutical, health or nutrition products, and are equally fit for use in biodiesel or organic fertilizers.

Sustainably managed for 140 years

GELITA is a family owned company with a long history of success based on virtues such as efficiency, customer focus, quality consciousness and long-term profitability. Today, as a market-leading supplier of collagen proteins, we continue to grow and expand. Quality is still key to our long-term success and customer trust, and always will be. All our sites are ISO 9001 and FSSC 22000 certified.

Our most important resources, however, are our employees. Thanks to an open and respectful culture, GELITA attracts and retains the best experts. With a systematic and creative approach to management, the company sets high product innovation standards and holds a significant number of patents for food and technical applications.

Our Sustainability Report for 2021 has been published! Read more about what GELITA is doing to further reduce energy and water consumption, cut emissions, eliminate waste and create a safe working environment for our employees here.