Environmental protection
from the start
We see sustainability through to the end
Sustainability doesn’t end with the product
Creating more climate and environmentally friendly production environments
Our protective films protect valuable products and surfaces and help to prevent unnecessary waste. But our contribution to the circular economy begins much earlier, in our production process. For example, we reduce production waste, reduce process waste and use materials that can be reused multiple times in multiple stages.
In addition, we have several production sites around the world, thereby keeping the transport routes from our plants to our customers as short as possible, reducing our CO2 footprint. We regularly create projects where we can make an important contribution to climate protection. Three of these projects are detailed below:
Our responsibility: careful use of resources
Efficient use of resources and effective waste avoidance
Reduce consumption
Investing in low-energy solutions
Co-extrusion and coating are energy intensive. Therefore, responsible use of energy resources is extremely important to us. Many of our initiatives prove that operational efficiency and resource conservation go hand in hand.
Savings at a glance:
- Around 12 percent less electricity consumption
- Around 24 percent less natural gas required
Increased energy efficiency –
Production site: Ferrera, Italy
When we modernised a coating line at our plant in Italy, we invested in a high performance, energy efficient dryer. As a result, we have increased production speed and efficiency, thereby consuming significantly less energy. The new drying unit operates on a fraction of the amount of gas that the previous unit consumed. The old dryer had to heat and circulate three times more cubic metres per hour to achieve the desired degree of dryness, whereas the new dryer achieves the same result with just 30% of the cubic metres. This means that significantly less air has to be heated. In addition, the new dryer uses the hot water generated by the afterburner for heating.
Reduced energy consumption –
Production site: Wipperfürth, Germany
In order to make better use of waste heat, two solvent recovery systems that had previously been operated separately were merged together into one optimised process. The resulting savings are huge.
Savings at a glance:
- Electricity and gas combined: the modernisation saves around 12.1 gigawatt hours.
- Carbon dioxide emissions are also reduced by at least 2,870 tonnes per year.
- The use of an air cooled condenser instead of a water cooled one reduces water consumption by about 55,000 cubic metres annually.
Using natural resources
CO2-neutral power generation and optimum use of daylight
Intentional sustainability –
Production site: Changsu, China
A number of sustainability aspects were taken into account in the planning of the newly built factory in China. Solar panels generate energy for hot water in the administration buildings and daylight is optimally used for lighting, which alone saves around one megawatt per year.
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