At technology leader Sto, sustainability has a long tradition (Text long)

Motto: “Building with conscience.”

Sto SE & Co. KGaA is a major international manufacturer of products and systems for building coatings. The company is a leader in the business field of facade insulation systems. Sto’s core product range also includes high-quality facade elements, as well as renders, plasters, and paints for building exteriors and interiors alike. There is also a focus on concrete repair/floor coatings, acoustics systems, and rainscreen ventilated facade cladding systems. In 2022, consolidated turnover amounted to EUR 1.787 billion.

The origins of Sto SE & Co. KGaA, based in the town of Stühlingen in South Baden, can be traced back to the lime works founded by Anton Gäng in 1835. This was acquired by Wilhelm Stotmeister around 100 years later. Its rapid transformation into a globally operating company began after the Second World War. Then known as Stotmeister GmbH, it was the first company to bring organic reinforcing plasters onto the market in 1955. There are now more than 1,500 different products and systems available for use in facade insulation, acoustics optimisation, and concrete repair as well as for the coating of new and existing buildings – for both interiors and exteriors. With its main markets in Europe, Asia, and America, Sto SE & Co. KGaA is now globally positioned and is on course for further international growth. In 2022, the Group achieved a turnover of EUR 1787 billion with more than 5700 employees. At the end of 2022, the technology leader was represented in 38 countries with 50 subsidiaries of its own and their operating sites. In addition, we are in supplier relationships with distribution partners in many other countries.

Sto SE & Co. KGaA has market partners all over the world in the form of architects, specialist planers, tradesmen, investors, and building owners who value the product and system quality, the services and consultation as well as the innovation of Sto – the brand for professionals.

Until 2016, the company was led by the third generation of the Stotmeister founding family, which also owns 90 per cent of the voting shares (ten per cent Sto SE & Co. KGaA). Around a third of Sto’s securities are preference shares that are traded freely. The Stotmeister family continues to be part of its company and now determines its fate through its presence on the Supervisory Board.

Responsibility for society and environment

The secret behind Sto’s lasting success is its excellent strategic positioning. It is the result of corporate policy based on traditional, long-term orientation. At the end of the 1980s already, Sto established the “Building with conscience.” Guiding Principles to embody the concepts of corporate social responsibility and sustainability. The company’s Guiding Principles were brought up to date in 2009, when “Pacemaker for the design of environmentally-conscious living space on a human scale” became “Technology leader in the sustainable design of living space tailored to human needs. Worldwide”. Sto SE & Co. KGaA lives up to the sociopolitical responsibility implied here in many respects. Sto’s key activities in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility are membership of the UN “Global Compact” initiative as well as its commitment to the non-profit Sto Foundation, which has primarily been supporting the further education and training of young tradesmen and architectural students for ten years with an annual fund of today EUR 1,000,000.

Façade systems make a major contribution to climate protection

Sto SE & Co. KGaA has received many international ecology awards for its coating products and systems that have been developed with sustainability in mind. Much research is invested into the continuous improvement of these products and systems. The core business of Sto SE & Co. KGaA, the manufacture of facade insulation systems, is not only key to the company’s continued growth, but it also makes a significant contribution to climate and environmental protection: between 1965 and 2022, around 130 billion litres of heating oil were saved worldwide through the use of Sto systems on buildings. This saving means that around 416 million tons of CO2 were never released into the atmosphere. Sto products cut emissions of this flue gas by around 26 million tons in 2022 alone.