For all structural customers, we maintain customer-specific safety stocks, which we monitor in a data-driven manner. In this way, we absorb disruptions in the supply chain and ensure that care can always continue. The positive impact of this is that care processes can always proceed on time when our products are used.
For all regular customers of our products, we apply optimal pricing, through which we realize demonstrable and structural cost savings. In addition, we eliminate all (hidden) costs related to supply chain management, such as following up on and resolving backorders. In doing so, we make a touchable contribution to keeping healthcare as affordable and accessible as possible in all countries where we operate.
Our entire product portfolio complies with all relevant (inter)national requirements and standards. In addition, through our optimal pricing, we lower the threshold for implementing innovations that enhance the quality of care. With this, we ensure that as many healthcare organizations as possible can innovate and achieve continuous improvement.
We strive for personal service through a personal local point of contact and direct lines of communication. Support, guidance, and training are always available upon request. Short average turnaround times ensure prompt responses to questions. With this, we ensure that healthcare organizations can work as efficiently as possible in accordance with their processes.
The healthcare sector is responsible for a significant footprint, and as a Medical Supply Chain Partner, we contribute to this. We are aware of this and therefore take our responsibility to continuously and sustainably improve our sustainability. In doing so, the safety of both the patient and the user is our top priority, as is the quality of care.
For last-mile distribution, we collaborate with selected partners who provide us with fully data-driven insight into our CO2 footprint for last-mile transport from our distribution center to our business partners. These partners have been deliberately selected for their demonstrable and continuous efforts regarding sustainability. Examples include a growing electric fleet, fully off-the-grid distribution centers, and central real-time reporting on the footprint of our shipments. We have set the goal of performing all last-mile transport completely CO2-neutral by 2040, and we work closely with our selected partners to achieve this.
Our products are increasingly produced in facilities that are not only ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certified, but ISO 14001 certification is also increasingly applicable. This standard is internationally accepted as the standard for a demonstrable environmental management system. The production facilities are subject to periodic audits, both in accordance with the ISO standards and in accordance with our own additional field audits to assess compliance and progress.
To prevent unnecessary CO2 emissions, all transport packaging for our own-brand products will be completely unprinted from the end of 2025. All necessary information will be displayed by means of a sticker. For inner packaging, there is also an increasing use of completely unprinted, stickered packaging, provided that the application and nature of the product allow this. As a result of this tangible measure, tens of thousands of cardboard boxes will no longer be printed annually, and this number will increase every year. In addition, by 2030, all outer packaging will be required to consist of 100% recycled material.
Through our method of working with customer-specific safety stocks, we ensure that goods can be transported from production locations to our warehouses in the most sustainable manner. This eliminates the need for air freight, and we have sufficient time in our planning to consolidate optimally and choose the most sustainable carrier.
Our product range is periodically reviewed to assess sustainability. The previously mentioned switch from printed to unprinted outer packaging emerged from this process, among other things. However, we also include products in our range that promote sustainability. Two concrete examples are the Goodpac+ cuff-first packaging for non-sterile gloves, which results in at least 10% fewer gloves being used, and our switch from sterile to non-sterile gloves and catheterization accessories, based on Dutch findings that catheterization can also be performed safely in a clean rather than sterile manner.
For all our regular business partners, we plant trees in our company forest based on an annual calculation of the number of deliveries made. In addition to the tangible contribution to sustainability and CO2 compensation, this program also adds value due to the strong link with our company name (Husk is English for a protective natural covering, such as a husk) and the value we add (stability, security, and shelter), as well as the type of partnership we strive for (close, fruitful, and long-lasting). We carry out this tree planting program in collaboration with Trees for All.
We are currently conducting practice-oriented research into the possibilities of (partially) recycling our products after use. We are in discussions with various market parties to ultimately select the right option. In doing so, we are taking the entire recycling chain into account, from collection after use to demonstrably recyclable material suitable for new products. Due to the application and nature of our products, single use is currently unavoidable, but we are working hard on the necessary steps to explore all options and choose the right path.
