Sustainable manufacturing: recent achievements in our production facilities
In addition to our indoor climate comfort solutions, our people and the communities in which we operate, our production is one of our main focus areas on our journey to a more sustainable future. We constantly strive to improve our production and delivery processes so that we can achieve a more sustainable manufacturing in our production facilities worldwide. In 2022 our combined efforts already allowed us to generate a lot of impact, which only motivates us to keep improving in 2023.
Reduced water consumption
Water is one of our most precious resources. Although we may think it will always be plentiful, according to the WWF, by 2025 two-thirds of the world population may face water shortages(1). To help prevent this, we are very conscious of the water consumption in our factories. At our Yangzhou plant in China, for example, 2 sets of blowing devices were installed that help to recycle and reuse water on the one hand and reduce the water consumption on the other hand. This in turn also reduces the amount of contaminated wastewater and the amount of chemicals that need to be used.
In Brescia (IT) they ended the year with the installation of an evaporator implant that collects all the wastewater from the production and automatically separates the water from the waste. The water is then reused for the washing machines, which allows for a remarkable savings of about 100.000 litre water per yeaIn our Zonhoven (BE) plant too, water is part of sustainable manufacturing. There they updated the membranes of the ultrafiltration module and replaced 4 leaky heat exchangers to reduce water consumption, wastewater and chemical usage. On top of that, old leaky taps in the sanitary areas were replaced by automatic taps which helped to save up to 90% tap water.
Gas consumption & heat recovery
Just as we try to reduce the consumption of water, we do the same for gas and heating in the context of sustainable manufacturing. In Ochtrup (DE), for example, gas consumption was reduced by repairing and improving the heat recovery in the crosslinking department. Heat recovery is also being studied and improved in other factories. Additionally, various plants are in the process of reducing usage of natural gas, either by replacing gas emitters by electric emitters or, as in Diemlach (AT), by planned updates to the shrink oven (2023) and steam generator (2024).
Efficient energy use for sustainable manufacturing
In order to further optimise our daily energy consumption, multiple plants, among which those in Biache (FR), Diemlach (AT) and Rybnik (PL), have implemented an energy monitoring system. Moreover, in many production facilities machines are completely shut down when they’re not being used and old machines are replaced by new, more efficient ones.
Sustainable manufacturing under LED lighting
Most of our plants have started replacing old lighting by modern LED lamps which use much less energy to provide the same amount of light. In Vienenburg (DE), for example, the LED coverage in the plant increased from 60 to 85% in 2022, accounting for annual CO2 savings of as much as 71 tonnes. In Diemlach they managed to save 60% electricity by replacing 80% of the old lights with new LED lights.
In Vigonovo, thanks to the renovation of the lighting stock in the warehouses and offices, the average monthly consumption went from 11,022 kWh (in the warehouses) to an average monthly consumption of 4,502 kWh. A projected annual savings of 78,240 kWh equal to almost 22.3 tons of CO2!
Electric charging points
On top of changing our own car policy to favour electric cars, the majority of our plants now also have electric charging points.
In Vienenburg, for example, 8 car charging stations are being installed, in Markaryd we have 10 points, in Ochtrup 6, in Sankt Barbara 4, in Diemlach 5 and in Vigonovo 2.
The Biache plant and Brescia plant each had their first point installed in 2022. In Brescia there are plans to install 3 more in 2023 and also Yangzou is planning to install 5 charging points before the end of the year.
