“An investment in sustainability” 

Mrs. Reehten, in the past, production was all about quality and output. Now the focus is turning to issues such as sustainability and energy efficiency. Do these even fit together? 

Lisa Reehten: Yes. Things are hap­pening, albeit to a dif­ferent extent and with dif­ferent out­comes, depending on the com­pany. Many larger com­pa­nies now have a cli­mate strategy. The focus is usu­ally on the var­ious emis­sions and how they can be reduced. This brings us to CO₂ reduc­tion and energy effi­ciency. This may seem new to many, but dis­cus­sions about effi­ciency are a familiar issue in pro­duc­tion.   

Mr Falb, how is sustainability embedded at Pilz?  

Jan Falb: We have had these issues on our agenda for a long time; for example, we have been using man­age­ment sys­tems for energy and envi­ron­mental man­age­ment for 10 years. And we’ve imple­mented some projects already, whether it’s the analysis of trans­port routes or the pur­chase of CO₂-neu­tral elec­tricity. 

Mrs Reehten, what are the main drivers of emissions?  

Lisa Reehten: A man­u­fac­turing com­pany, such as a machine builder, pro­duces cor­po­rate emis­sions in its vehicle fleet or through the energy it buys, for example. How­ever, it is impor­tant to under­stand that the majority of emis­sions, namely 80 to 90 per­cent, occur in the value added chain. This includes not only the man­u­fac­ture, but the oper­a­tion of the built machine once sup­plied to the cus­tomer. Many com­pa­nies are not even aware of this.     

Do I understand this correctly: the machine builder’s CO₂ footprint depends to a large extent on how efficiently the machines are operated? 

Lisa Reehten: That’s right. Fac­tors include the type of elec­tricity – grey or green – used to operate the machine. Or how effi­ciently does the actual machine work and how effi­ciently can it be oper­ated? For example, does the machine have an auto­matic shut­down man­age­ment system?      

Mr Falb, can you give us an insight into how this looks in practice?  

Jan Falb: In a bach­elor thesis two years ago, we exam­ined the CO₂ foot­print of a product over its entire life­cycle. On the one hand, of course, we have the poly­car­bonate housing, the man­u­fac­ture of which pro­duces CO₂. But on the other hand, the immense effect of energy effi­ciency also became clear. Our prod­ucts are designed for a long ser­vice life – we are talking about 10, 20 or even more years. And then sub­jects such as power con­sump­tion become impor­tant.  

Mrs. Reehten, many companies have been acting sustainably for years. The reporting obligations that are now required are perceived as an additional unnecessary burden, which also costs money.  

Lisa Reehten: Unfor­tu­nately, I hear that a lot. And then I say: ‘Yes, it involves effort and expense. But what issue in your com­pany doesn’t cost money?’ By the way, the amount involved is usu­ally over­es­ti­mated quite sig­nif­i­cantly. And: it is an invest­ment in the sus­tain­ability of your com­pany!  

Could you explain that? 

Lisa Reehten: Com­pa­nies reg­u­larly come to us in need of sup­port because they have been removed from the sup­plier list; pre­cisely because they do not meet the required evi­dence or cri­teria regarding sus­tain­ability. Sales are then at stake. And when I’m under pres­sure, it becomes really stressful.  

And how much effort does it really take to fulfil the required reporting obligations? 

Jan Falb: Ini­tially it does actu­ally require a lot of effort. That’s why we brought in sup­port from the Bosch Cli­mate Solu­tions team. It wouldn’t have been pos­sible alone. So we have an advisor to show us the most effi­cient way to get through it.  

We recently com­pleted the mate­ri­ality assess­ment. Now we know which issues are actu­ally rel­e­vant to us. And now we’re going to work on that.   

Lisa Reehten: I’d like to add one thing here: sus­tain­ability is not just about gen­er­ating data and pro­ducing a report. The whole point is to change some­thing! 

Mr Falb, finally: What advice do you have for those in companies who are responsible for safety and sustainability?  

Jan Falb: They need a thick skin and per­se­ver­ance (laughs). It’s not a sure-fire suc­cess, espe­cially if the issue is new to the com­pany. But it’s also a lot of fun because you get to meet so many people and get to know the com­pany itself much better. The work is very varied and I can rec­om­mend the job to anyone.