Sustainability & Commitment

Sustainability is not a buzzword for us but a self-imposed commitment on which our entire company is based. We voluntarily commit to the following four principles: 

1. Sustainable handling of our employees

The most important thing in our lives are the people we meet every day. That's why we pay fair wages and offer our employees a pleasant and friendly working environment with potential for growth and personal development. It is more important to us that everyone understands each other, feels heard and seen than optimal sales.

2. Sustainable handling of materials

A large part of our products consists of plastic – but: plastic is not just plastic. We print exclusively with PLA, a material made 100% from renewable raw materials like corn or sugarcane.

PLA is also industrially compostable and can be recycled using suitable facilities. We send our waste to the recycling factory https://www.recyclingfabrik.com/. There, new filament is made from it. Unfortunately, we currently cannot use recycled filament because our technical components have high requirements for dimensional accuracy. For private users, this is usually not a problem. Should 3D printing become a standard manufacturing process in the future to establish for plastic parts, I think there will also be more recycling centers. 

Unlike aluminum parts, plastic parts generally require much less energy during production and therefore produce fewer emissions. This already applies to injection-molded parts, and 3D printing is even more energy-efficient, especially for small series < 10,000 pieces.

In the end, 3D printing produces hardly any waste because it is an additive process. With aluminum, you always have a larger plate from which something is milled out. The chips then have to be melted down again in an energy-intensive way. Besides, our lens plates, as you already said, are not disposable items but last a long time. 

All in all, from our point of view, 3D printing with PLA is currently the most resource-efficient and lowest-emission manufacturing process for technical components.

3. Sustainable waste management

Wherever there is planing, chips are known to fall. That's also the case with us. That's why we work with the small startup "Recycling Fabrik" from Braunschweig and send them all our 3D printing waste quarterly so they can make new filament from it.

The recycling of the shipping packaging we use is handled by your local recycling center. We as the retailer cover the costs in the form of a legally required contribution to the Central Packaging Registry.

4. Sustainable interaction with the world

We love photography and we love photo gadgets. At the same time, we are aware that there are people in this world who are not as well off as we are. That's why we donate 1% of our total sales to changing NGOs. 

At ausgeknipst.de, we believe that sustainability not only includes protecting our environment but also actively supporting projects that improve people's lives worldwide. In addition to our previous donations to NGOs like ugani.org, we have now also supported Glia.org, an impressive organization that promotes medical solidarity through innovative technologies.

Glia.org is a pioneer in the field of open medical hardware and uses 3D printing technologies to produce affordable and high-quality medical devices. Their approach is based on openness and sustainability: they make their designs freely available so that communities in resource-poor regions can produce devices like stethoscopes, tourniquets, or prosthetics themselves. This strengthens local self-sufficiency and reduces dependence on expensive imports.235.

Especially impressive is Glia.org's commitment in crisis areas like Gaza, where they not only provide life-saving medical care but also operate local production sites for 3D printing. This enables the production of prosthetics and other urgently needed medical aids directly on site.35. Their work impressively shows how technology and compassion can work together to create sustainable solutions for global challenges.

With our donation, we want to help Glia.org continue their mission: to make the world a bit fairer and equip people in need with the tools they need for a better life. We are proud to be part of this movement and look forward to supporting projects in the future that share our values of sustainability and social responsibility.