For the 14th consecutive year, Danish packaging company publishes Green Accounts that illustrate its efforts to minimise environmental impact
“Today, the market expects organisations to be able to document their environmental impact. However, we took the lead on this back in 1996 and in many ways showed the way with our environmental considerations,” says Faerch Plast’s CEO Lars Gade Hansen.
As a result of measuring its environmental impact, Faerch Plast has implemented systematic improvements that have led to a reduction in energy consumption of 29% over the past 14 years. This equates to the annual energy consumption of around 4,300 households.
It is the company’s aim that by 2013 all the energy it consumes will come from renewable sources. “We fulfilled our own target to ensure that renewable energy should account for more than 40% of energy consumption in 2009, and we are confident of meeting this year’s target to increase that figure to 53%,” continues Lars Gade Hansen.
Measured using the so-called CO2 equivalents, the company’s total environmental impact has been proportionately reduced by more than 50% since 1996.
As part of its efforts to optimise processes that have an environmental benefit, Faerch Plast is also aiming to reduce raw material consumption by 30% by 2013.
“In collaboration with our customers, we are continually assessing whether we can reduce the material weight of our packaging without compromising performance and we fully expect to achieve this target,” says Lars Gade Hansen.
Additionally, Faerch Plast is studying the possibility of substituting “virgin” raw material with recycled materials. The company is in the process of replacing some of its raw materials with recycled PET from recycled bottles that, after being thoroughly chipped and cleaned, meet the same high hygiene standards as “virgin” raw materials.
However, there is still room for more improvement, concludes Faerch Plast’s CEO: “In 2009, some of our key figures were negatively affected by deferrals in our raw materials. What is most important for us, however, is that we can document that we are taking a targeted approach to minimising our environmental impact in the longer term. I am in no doubt that in future we will see a product’s environmental impact as an important competition parameter. We will therefore continue our search for improvements where we can.”
Faerch Plast
Tel: 020 8254 2300
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