Since September 2019, Aebi Schmidt Germany has been sourcing 100% of its energy requirements from fully renewable sources, thus reducing CO2 emissions by more than 600 tonnes year after year. With the largest European plant in St. Blasien, the logistics centre in Laatzen/Hanover and service locations distributed throughout the country, Aebi Schmidt Germany has a double-digit share of the total electricity consumption of our group. The plants in Burgdorf and Kielce, as well as most of the branch offices, are also supplied with electricity from renewable sources. In the Netherlands, we produce around 54% of our electricity needs with our own solar installation. As a group, we are committed to successively supplying all units with sustainably generated electricity over the next few years.
Our factories are also reducing emissions with measures in many other areas. In all factories, conventional light sources have been replaced with more efficient LED technology. In Kielce, a plant for the reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOC) with an efficiency level of over 95% has been in operation since 2020. When purchasing new equipment, we consistently use economical and environmentally friendly machines, such as electrically powered forklift trucks. Finally, the goal is also to minimise thermal energy losses, for example by replacing logistics gates with sluice gates. In St. Blasien, we are investing in a new, environmentally friendly heating system based on wood chips.
The concept of the circular economy is also steadily gaining importance in the Aebi Schmidt Group. One example: today, we develop product platforms that allow components to be used for several product types and not for just one, as was the case in the past. In this way, we save resources and the environment – and increase efficiency in production. The very high recycling rate for certain vehicles is also impressive. For the Cleango, for example, it is 96%. This means that only 4% of the material of a machine has to be scrapped at the end of its lifecycle. And last but not least, we also successfully implement retrofit projects time and again. Instead of selling new vehicles, we take back worn-out models and make them fit for daily use again. In a joint project with the Dutch province of Utrecht, for example, we increased the service life of their gritters from 13 to 25 years.