Environment Energy usage at our sites Since the production machines are electric powered, electricity accounts for the largest share of total energy consumption. It also takes a lot of electricity to generate the air pressure needed for our pneumatic processes. In order to minimise emissions in this area, our production sites obtain electricity from renewable energy sources. To further reduce our reliance on fossil fuels – notably natural gas for heating – we are also using energy-efficient building design to cut our heating requirements and increasing our use of waste heat wherever possible. We are not yet in a position to move away from natural-gas heating entirely, but we are trying to optimise our existing systems to make them more efficient. This includes optimising the heating systems and gas boilers at our plants and also upgrading production processes that consume natural gas, such as epoxy coating. We remain in constant dialogue with our system partners and external experts and are continually looking for ways to reduce our energy consumption or replace fossil-fuel sources entirely. Sustainability is also a major factor in Blum's transport operations. In 2019, we passed a resolution to convert the fleet of internal trucks (for in-plant transport) at our Austrian sites from diesel to biogas. Since then, each time one of our diesel tractor units has reached the end of its standard lifespan, we have swapped it for a modern gas-powered model. These new trucks run more quietly and also produce significantly fewer nitrogen-oxide and soot emissions than their diesel counterparts. The aforementioned resolution also stipulates that the new trucks must run on biogas. This biogas consumption can be seen in the table above. In switching to green electricity sources and biogas at our Austrian sites, we have taken some important steps away from fossil fuels. While non-renewables continue to make up a proportion of our energy mix, they are, however, outweighed by renewables, which at 66 % account for the majority of overall energy consumption at all of our production sites around the world. As a business, our energy intensity (i.e. our absolute energy consumption in relation to our turnover) stands at 0.095 kWh per euro. ➔ GRI 302-3, GRI 302-4 36 © Copyright by Blum
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