Environment Raw materials and corresponding usage rates Material usage and proportion of renewable material Raw material Usage rate* Steel 78.94% Zinc 98.2% Cardboard 95.3% Plastic (granules, master batches and coating powders) 93.4% Material Total weight in tonnes Proportion of renewable material Raw materials (steel, zinc, aluminium, plastic) 262,810.04 t 0.00% Semi-finished components 23,043.61 t 3.01% Operating materials and supplies 66,438.95 t 22.87% *Calculation method: The usage rate is the amount of material used as a percentage of the total purchasing volume. Efficient use of resources We are taking targeted action across our business – notably in research & development, procurement and production – to improve the efficiency with which we use our resources. This process begins right from the initial product design and our choice of materials. Our aim is to reduce the amount of wastage in production and feed as much waste material as possible back into our own production processes. Thanks to our efforts to date, the current average usage rate for our key raw materials is 80.7%. Closed-loop cycle for zinc in production Zinc is another key raw material for the production of our product components. Given that the production of primary zinc is another very energy and carbon-intensive process, we take great care to use this material as efficiently as possible. The zinc sprues produced during our die-casting process are fed directly back into our machinery or sent to our in-house remelting furnace where they are reprocessed to create new raw material. This internal recycling system ensures that, on average, 85% of our waste zinc goes back into our own production process. Not only does this conserve valuable raw materials, but it also saves us transporting our waste zinc away for disposal and ensures we have access to a ready supply of this important raw material. Any zinc that is contaminated and therefore cannot be recycled internally (usually around 70 tonnes per year) is sent to our recycling partner for reprocessing in line with stringent environmental standards. We then reuse the resulting high-quality zinc as a raw material in our production process, thus creating another closed-loop cycle. Waste steel recycling We are also committed to recycling the waste steel generated during our production process. Since 2018, our steel cutting centre at our site in Dornbirn, Austria, has been home to a fully automated material logistics system, which sorts our waste steel ready for recycling. This sorting system is vital for the recycling process, because we use a range of steels with different compositions and properties. To enable the system to separate the waste steel into different types automatically, we have defined several categories of steel and assigned an ID number to each. These ID numbers enable the type of steel to be identified at every stage of the production process – from the delivery of the material to the manufacturing process and finally the disposal of any waste steel in the recycling skips. The recycling skips are located directly alongside the production machinery and are labelled with barcodes corresponding to the relevant ID number to ensure all waste is deposited in the correct skip. As soon as the skips are full, they are transported to the relevant silo using material handling equipment and emptied. Fill-level sensors on the silos alert our recycling partner automatically via an app when the silos are full. The waste steel is then collected and sent to foundries and smelting plants for recycling. By using this system, we create a closed-loop cycle for our waste steel, which helps increase the recycled content of the steel used in our manufacturing process and, in turn, reduces the CO2 emissions associated with steel production. 47
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