"To communicate to my customers in a tangible way that they can experience healthy living materials that have been produced sustainably, and to get them enthusiastic about the issue. That is my goal."
Paul Flintrop, Purchasing & Supplier Management at Konrad Knoblauch GmbH.
As a materials scout and purchasing manager, I am always on the lookout for new, sustainable materials, surfaces or innovative manufacturing processes.
I also procure the right materials for our interior designers for their customer presentations. Because falling back on tangible samples still illustrates my colleagues' creative ideas best. I am also responsible for the administration of the materials warehouse and advising our project teams.
My duties also focus on the issue of sustainability, which is also a really big concern for me on a personal level. With the VITACard, a format was created that not only provides a quick overview of the properties of the respective product, but also of its production process and much more.
My principle: to offer enhanced material safety and, in addition to providing the customer with a visual and haptic impression, to also give them transparent background information to accompany them in their decision-making process.
"My focus is on conveying the emotional impression of the respective material to the customer in the best possible way and making it as tangible as possible."
With the VITACard, we are building a database to find the "right" product quickly and easily, and to provide a very clear decision-making aid along the way.
With this format, we want to provide an overview of ingredients, production methods and manufacturing locations, as well as communicate very transparently how recyclable the respective product is.
Is the material new? Is it innovative, or does it have a label – with 1000 labels throughout Germany, there are unfortunately also many questionable labels – and what kind of CO2 footprint are we leaving behind with this material? And we care not only about what we buy, but also from whom.
With this overview using VITACard, the customer can make a conscious decision.
It's currently the leader with 120 points; much more than that would be almost impossible.
The fact that it's uncomplicated, medium-sized, regional, transparent, natural and honest.
There are four locations in total: Gera, Kürnach and Hamburg in Germany. And even further, across the Atlantic, more precisely in Ontario, Canada.
The goal of all our work is to create spaces that are as real as we are as humans.
We all need "real" spaces - spaces to grow, spaces for beauty, spaces for ourselves, spaces for arriving and leaving. The team at Konrad Knoblauch GmbH creates these feel-good rooms with real and, above all, home-healthy materials for real people.
Our company was celebrating its 111th anniversary, and at the same time, an employee who was working on reforestation of a forest told us about the high loss of trees due to the bark beetle – so the company visited his location and we planted 111 new trees.
From the company owner to the apprentice, everyone helped with this project. It was not only a meaningful afternoon, but also, in a way, an emotional act for each and every one of us.