11/13/2017
Efficiency of resources as responsibility
- Accolade from Baden-Württemberg’s Minister for the Environment Franz Untersteller
- Energy value stream mapping project makes machine tools more efficient
- Voith's commitment to sustainability combines climate protection with added economic value
Through exemplary flagship projects, the select 100 companies present their solutions for production processes that make efficient use of material and resources. The award doesn't just consider technical measures, but also looks at innovative concepts from the organizational realm that can be demonstrated to save material and energy. The positive examples are intended to make the economic potential of such measures plain to other companies.
One such example is the winning project from Voith. On three typical machine tools, Voith personnel carried out detailed measurements of individual consumers and then analyzed them. They found that just by systematically switching off unnecessary individual consumers during idling or standby periods, energy consumption can be substantially reduced, and usually by even more than in the case of other more complicated technical solutions. As a result of measures that were implemented immediately, electricity use on the three machine tools investigated in the project decreased by around 136,000 kilowatt hours. On these machines alone, this results in savings in electricity costs of around EUR 24,000 per year. Carried over to all machine tools in the company worldwide, Voith can reduce its total energy consumption by around 8 percent – the potential savings for the Group are therefore in the region of EUR 3.2 million a year.
“As a technology corporation with a global reach, Voith assumes responsibility for the efficient use of energy and resources at all its locations worldwide,” said Ulrich Weiße, Head of Sustainability and OHSE at Voith, on accepting the accolade. “Through our sustainability management we have been proving for many years that this responsible use of resources leads to a specific economic value. Our goal is for Voith to become a benchmark in our industry for the sustainable use of resources – and this award is further motivation for our activities in this area.”
Systematic management of resources to protect the environment
As far back as 2008, Voith started to establish a team of experts to develop and implement the process for the efficient use of energy and resources at its facilities. So far, the company has been able to reduce its own energy consumption by more than 20 percent thanks to a wide range of projects and initiatives. At Voith headquarters in Heidenheim, energy consumption was cut by as much as 37 percent during this period.
Voith has been implementing systematic sustainability management for more than ten years now. In respect of the use of resources and environmental protection in particular, the company is already one of the leading firms in its sector. The company’s recently published sustainability report provides comprehensive information on Voith’s sustainability management scheme. It follows the internationally recognized guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and has been published regularly since 2009. You can download the latest issue online at
www.voith.com/de/konzern/nachhaltigkeit-178.html.
About Voith
For 150 years, Voith’s technologies have been inspiring customers, business partners and employees worldwide. Founded in 1867, Voith today has around 19,000 employees, sales of €4.3 billion and locations in more than 60 countries worldwide and is thus one of the largest family-owned companies in Europe. Being a technology leader, Voith sets standards in the markets of energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials and transport & automotive.