The Kautex Sustainability team and the EHS team have a strong synergy with a similar goal: to reduce our CO2 footprint and make our plants more environmentally responsible. The EHS team has been a great supporting factor to reduce our carbon footprint for scope 1 and 2. Scope 1 pertains to emissions from manufacturing operations, and scope 2 pertains the emissions from purchased electricity. The plants are required to use a KEMAP score card which stands for Kautex energy management action plan, where most elements of energy usage are analyzed in depth and plans are made for energy reduction. The KEMAP applies the best practices for energy conservation and efficiency to be applied across all Kautex locations with known effect. These energy efficiency elements have also been built into new equipment machine standards; purchasing these features at the outset is more efficient than justifying a retrofit later. The EHS team has active visibility of the plant, so their support is essential to identify high CO2 contributors and find solutions for scope 1 and 2 emission reduction.
We are now working to develop a K-WAP plan, which is a waste management action plan, where collaboration with EHS will continue. The K-WAP plan will be completed in various waste Kaizen workshops throughout our plants. Due to the success of the first Waste Kaizen in Kautex Avilla (KUS), an additional two have been planned this quarter in May at Kautex Bohemia (KBO) and Mallersdorf (KBK), and one in June at CWC Textron Castings.
Some examples of the completed projects from 2022 led by EHS that relate to sustainability include:
- Kautex San Antonio (KTX) large cigar tank recycling project won the 2022 Textron Environmental Health and Safety Award for Excellence. By installing a new shredder and grinder unit to regrind these large tanks inhouse, this project will divert from landfill 2,400,000 lbs of plastic waste while also resulting in significant cost savings.
- Kautex Windsor (KOC) fuel lab exhaust fan upgraded to VFD (variable frequency drive) to promote energy savings from decreased run time.
- Kautex Lavonia (KLA) has switched out an outdated 400ton chiller unit with a new one to increase energy efficiency resulting from a unit that can now vary speeds based on load.
- CWC implemented a water reuse method through installation of a solar panel system resulting in an estimated 8,000,000 gallons of water saved or the equivalent of filling 12 Olympic-sized pools.
- Kautex Detroit (KDT) LED lighting upgrade throughout 95% of the facility resulting in an estimated yearly reduction of 1,746,459 kWh or the equivalent of powering 147 residential homes for the entire year (EPA).
In 2023, there are additional projects planned to include, Kautex Guangzhou (KGZ) innovative dust pelletizing of fines for reuse, Kautex Bonn (KBN/KHQ) to improve their heating supply, Kautex Unipart Ltd. (KUL) to implement solar panels, KGZ to strengthen the management of air conditioning, and several other projects from many more plants. We are grateful for the continued support from the EHS team for all their efforts to support our goal of reducing 80% of carbon emissions in scope 1 and 2 by 2030.
