At SEW-EURODRIVE A/S, we are always looking to find new ways to reduce our carbon footprint. That’s why we decided to start a process with the consultancy Hansen & Ersbøll Agenda and the industry association BITVA called Business Plan Earth, where we focused on developing our own sustainable strategy.
After two intense months of mapping risks, sustainable business opportunities and developing specific strategies, it was time to present our new sustainable business plan in Børsen. Here, together with the other participants in the course, we launched our ambition and associated aspirations, and received valuable input from both Brian Mikkelsen, managing director at Dansk Erhverv, Stig Irving Olsen, associate professor at DTU Sustain, and Lotte Hansen, director and partner at Hansen & Ersbøll Agenda.
Our sustainable ambitions
Our overall corporate ambition is that we will increase our focus on sustainability. We will do this by strengthening our decentralized business model and thereby reducing our own CO2 footprint. At the same time, we want to help our customers reduce their CO2 footprint through energy advice and a focus on extending the lifespan of their existing transmission solutions. We have an ambition for our sustainable profile to be a competitive parameter in relation to both existing and potential new customers.
In order to fulfill this ambition, we have set ourselves three ambitious goals:
1. During 2022, we will increase our local assembly capacity so that in Denmark we can assemble 70% of the gears we sell and thus reduce our CO2 footprint compared to having ready-assembled units delivered from Germany.
2. Through energy advice and guidance in choosing the most energy-efficient gear, we will help our customers reduce their CO2 footprint.
3. We will help our customers reduce their CO2 footprint by extending the life of their SEW products through preventive maintenance, remanufacturing and retrofit.
Next step
But of course the journey does not end here. In the nearest future we will work hard to define our CO2 footprint at the company level as well as at the product level in cooperation with our German head office and our colleagues worldwide.
"We will work on calculating the climate footprint of our products, so we can put documentation behind our words. For us, it's about being able to offer the most energy-efficient products, which can ultimately help our customers reduce their CO2 footprint.”
Morten Holmstrøm, CEO, SEW-EURODRIVE A/S.