ALTDORF, Switzerland—Datwyler Group reduced its consumption of electricity, fuels, and water, and lowered carbon dioxide emissions at its production plant in Italy, as part of its 2019 sustainability campaign.
The Swiss group said it cut resource consumption for the third consecutive year, decreasing electricity use by 3.2 percent, fuels by 0.5 percent, water by 15 percent, and waste volume by 5.5 percent overall.
The cuts represent an overall 3 percent reduction in energy and water consumption as well as waste volume, Datwyler said in its 2019 sustainability report, published in mid-July.
Among other projects, the group said it installed a new closed cooling circuit for the mobility production facility at its Schattdorf plant in Switzerland.
In addition, Datwyler put into operation two of three projected processing units for multiple water usage at its plant in Alken, Belgium. Datwyler also reduced the CO2 emissions per revenue unit by 5.5 percent in 2019.
According to the Swiss manufacturer, an interdisciplinary project group currently is working on "further advancing the sustainability and climate strategy with the long-term goal of carbon neutrality."
In Switzerland, Datwyler said its plant has been CO2-neutral since 2012, using a wood-fired heating plant for process energy and heating power as well as hydropower for electricity.
This has resulted in annual savings of 500,000 metric tons of fuel oil and 3,600 tons of CO2.
Last year also saw an investment of $1.86 million in "a modern co-generation unit" at the group's facility in Pregnana, near Milan. The upgrade, Datwyler said, will contribute an additional 900 tons per year of cuts in CO2 emissions.
Overall, however, the Swiss rubber goods manufacturer said its absolute CO2 output rose by 1.2 percent to 89,388 tons in 2019.
Datwyler linked the increase to the inclusion of its Parco facility in California and its Bins plant in Brazil in the calculations for the first time.