OUR COMMITMENTS

Caran d'Ache has put sustainability at the heart of what it does in order to protect the natural world – the source of our materials and the secret to our products’ success.

We take concrete measures every day to reduce the environmental impact of our production and encourage responsible consumption.

We have significantly reduced our annual CO2 emissions by installing 800m² of solar panels and a heating system fuelled by 80 tonnes of wood shavings from our pencil production.

We are also focusing our efforts on our water usage; 20% is currently recycled and we have managed to reduce our consumption by 30% over four years. In recent years, more than one third of the waste that has been recovered, sorted and recycled has been reintegrated into the production chain.

Caran d'Ache has also developed a water-based varnish for almost all of its pencils to replace the solvent-based varnishes used in the past.

In addition, all the Haute Écriture instruments can be repaired as they are assembled by hand and are therefore intended to serve their owner for a lifetime.

Because the women and men who make up the Caran d'Ache team are its greatest assets, the company strives to reconcile performance with the well-being of its employees.

This balance stems from the family principles at the heart of our company and we have been particularly progressive in this area: In 1970, we co-founded the Inter-Company Social Service (Service Social Inter-Entreprises, SSIE) to help our employees to learn and grow.

Showing the same support for the community, Caran d'Ache has also partnered up with the Public Establishment for Integration (Établissements Publics pour l’intégration, EPI), notably in developing an in-house workshop that each day works with around 10 employees who have a disability or who wish to return to work.

Moreover, Caran d'Ache shares its values by working closely with important cultural, humanitarian and social figures and institutions. It is also dedicated to passing on its expertise by offering free training to hundreds of teachers of the visual arts each year throughout Switzerland.

Continuing its natural commitment to social responsibility made many decades ago, in 2018, Caran d'Ache became one of the signatories of the UN Global Compact – a United Nations initiative that encourages companies to adopt a socially responsible approach to their business.

This is complemented by the many different certifications that our company holds, which include compliance with international production standards ISO 9001 for quality management and ISO 14001 for environment management, along with European and American product compliance requirements for toxicity (AP) andhealth and safety (CE).

As a living raw material, wood is crucial for Caran d'Ache. In order to help preserve this resource, we prioritise sustainable forest management, as guaranteed by the fact that all our pencils are FSC™ certified.

Out of loyalty to our local roots and the values of the Swiss Made label, we are also committed to using more certified Swiss wood in the manufacture of our products.