Datwyler ‘hit-and-miss’ on sustainability targets

Up to 2020, Datwyler aims to reduce in relation to revenue: fuel consumption by 6% a year, electricity consumption by 3% a year, water consumption by 3% a year and waste volume by 3% a year.

In 2017, the Swiss group achieved per-unit-of-sales reductions in its consumption of fuels (-5%), electricity (-0.4%), water (-9.6%) and waste (-4.5%), the company said 23 May.

The figures appear in Datwyler’s 10th sustainability report and mainly cover its Sealing Solutions division, which consumes over 95% of group resources.

Electricity and fuel

Absolute energy consumption in the production-oriented Sealing Solutions division increased by 8.8% to 231,578 MWh during the 2017. Of this, 81.1% related to electricity consumption, which increased by 10.1% year-on-year.

Datwyler linked the increase partly to the first-time inclusion of figures from German injection moulding company Ott, acquired in September 2016.

Another factor, it said, was the start-up of two new mixing plants in 2017 at existing production sites in Belgium and the Czech Republic.

In Belgium, for instance, Datwyler said “the business is manufacturing mixtures under cleanroom conditions for the first time, and this results in a disproportionately high increase in electricity consumption.”

Datwyler also added new production facilities into operation at various plants and increased production of more energy-intensive components such as healthcare products from cleanrooms.

However, the 0.4% reduction in relative electricity consumption, left Datwyler well short of its 3 % reduction-target for 2017.

Among its efforts to use electricity more efficiently in future, Datwyler invested CHF3.7 million in an ecological cooling system at its Swiss site in 2016. Using groundwater for air conditioning, ventilation and other processes, it said, reduced electricity demand by over 60% in 2017 compared to using conventional chillers.

Overall, absolute CO? emissions at Datwyler increased by 13.4% to 97,006 tonnes. This, it said, was due to “growing production capacity at plants in China and India, which increase the average level of CO? associated with the electricity consumed.”

Water consumption

At around 2.1 million m³, absolute water consumption at Datwyler in 2017 was almost unchanged from the previous year. Reduction per revenue unit amounted to 9.6%, well ahead of the 3% target.

Water-intensive operations at the Sealing Solutions division include the cooling of seal profiles used for construction and civil engineering applications, the cleaning of healthcare components, and the cooling equipment used for manufacturing ‘consumer goods’ items.

The water demand at the Swiss production site of around 865,000 m³ – accounting for over 40% of water consumption across the Group – is largely covered by process water.

Waste volume

The absolute volume of waste increased in 2017 reached 13,913 tonnes, compared to the prior-year 13,191 tonnes. But the relative volume of waste per revenue unit fell by 4.5%.

The recycling rate increased from 67.6% to 68.3%, helped by finding new customers for process-related elastomer waste. Applications, for example, include uses in floor coverings at sports facilities.

Datwyler said it is also targeting ongoing reductions in process-related elastomer waste by improving both production processes and the way components are engineered.