The Netherlands: Act sustainably, think of the future

The Nether­lands is working hard on inno­v­a­tive and sus­tain­able solu­tions in order to achieve the United Nations’ Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs), which aim to tackle global chal­lenges such as poverty, social inequality or cli­mate change. The country also sup­ports other coun­tries in achieving these global goals.

The Nether­lands is very active in the field of sus­tain­ability: the country is making progress, par­tic­u­larly in areas such as cli­mate pro­tec­tion, clean water, the pro­vi­sion of afford­able, clean energy, and respon­sible con­sump­tion and pro­duc­tion. Nev­er­the­less, achieving all the sus­tain­ability goals remains a chal­lenge.

Improved infrastructure of bridges and sluices

The Pilz sub­sidiary is also com­mitted to sus­tain­able busi­ness prac­tices. At its head­quar­ters in Vianen, 48 employees work on inno­v­a­tive and sus­tain­able automa­tion solu­tions to mod­ernise bridges and sluices. Working with end cus­tomers and other part­ners in the supply chain, proven and new tech­nolo­gies are com­bined to extend the ser­vice life of energy and trans­port infra­struc­ture in the Nether­lands.

After its foun­da­tion in 1990, the Pilz sub­sidiary focused heavily on prod­ucts. Over time, the site in Vianen devel­oped into a ser­vice and market-ori­ented organ­i­sa­tion with its own busi­ness units, spe­cial­ising in bridges, sluices, rail­ways and industry.

Most recently, hydrogen has been on the Pilz agenda. Employees in the Nether­lands use their exper­tise to help their cus­tomers con­vert to hydrogen as an energy source, safe­guarding hydrogen refu­elling sta­tions, for example. Pilz cre­ates a holistic safety con­cept with its cus­tomers and accom­pa­nies every step of imple­men­ta­tion, so that the cus­tomer’s employees can work safely with the explo­sive ele­ment.

Sus­tain­ability is a core value for Pilz Nether­lands because it’s con­sis­tent with Pilz’s mis­sion: safety for human, machine and envi­ron­ment.

“We have set a long-term vision to create a sus­tain­able future for the next gen­er­a­tion. Because, as our Man­aging Director Susanne Kun­schert is keen to stress, we want to pre­serve the world for our chil­dren, and our children’s chil­dren. That’s why sus­tain­ability is also a cru­cial factor in all impor­tant deci­sion-making processes at our site in the Nether­lands,” says Peter Eland, Gen­eral Man­ager at Pilz Nether­lands.

Sustainability is also practised internally

Pilz Nether­lands is set­ting a good example inter­nally: from reusable coffee cups and employee health pro­mo­tion to plug-in hybrids as com­pany vehi­cles, which are charged with solar power. The Pilz sub­sidiary also sup­ports bee pop­u­la­tions through its green wild­flower meadows sur­rounding the building and the pro­mo­tion of bee­keepers, who are trained directly in-house.

Thinking of the future

Pilz Nether­lands plans to get involved in more hydrogen appli­ca­tions and is increasing its efforts to digi­tise its rail tech­nology and make it future-proof. Employees of the Busi­ness Unit Rail in the Nether­lands are working on sev­eral inter­na­tional projects in India and Europe, including coop­er­a­tion with the Dutch gov­ern­ment to con­nect the rail net­work to the Euro­pean EULYNX net­work.