Colombia. Schneider Electric announced that its plants in Dexson, located in the city of Bogotá, and that of the municipality of Funza (photo) managed to reach the Zero CO2 standard, which certifies the significant reduction of carbon emissions throughout the value chain.
"Being able to evolve towards a sustainable production model is one of Schneider Electric's main objectives to become a carbon neutral organization by 2025. The implementation of sustainable practices in these production centers makes us a benchmark in the country and the region. These are elements that have allowed us to reduce the emission of CO2 gases by about 1600 tons and responsibly use raw materials such as plastic resins" Saulo Spaolanse, president for the Andean Cluster at Schneider Electric.
This is one more of the contributions made by the company to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. A project that is aligned with the Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI) 2021-2025, a document in which they have set commitments for the responsible and sustainable management of the operation and the supply chain.
What is the process of adapting to a Net Zero model of an industrial plant?
The Dexson plant, specialized in the manufacture of gutters and accessories for electrical installations in residential, commercial and industrial sectors, and the Funza plant, where solutions for medium voltage are developed, are consolidated as strategic points for Schneider Electric in the region. Even more so when it had been established that Dexson was one of the most energy-consuming production plants in the region. This is why it was necessary to establish measures to achieve positive energy efficiency indicators.
Taking into account the above and in line with the DNA of the organization, it was decided to advance in a Zero CO2 certification process, which guarantees that its production processes have characteristics to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Faced with this purpose, the operation of the plants was the subject of an evaluation process with which it was possible to verify that the energy supply comes from renewable sources. The other variable that was taken into account is that the plants had digital systems that allow efficient and reliable control of energy consumption and supply.
"In the process of evaluating and consolidating the information, it was possible to demonstrate that our plants already had systems such as EcoStruxure Power Monitoring Expert developed by ourselves. Which, through the analysis of the information, automatically generates reports of the quality indicators of the energy distribution, guaranteeing that 100% of the distribution of the electrical energy of the plants are being controlled by digital solutions" says Luis Cruz, new director of the Funza plant.
This validation process has already been previously defined in the organization's Sustainability Report, which includes the sustainability roadmap. There, a series of criteria and objectives have been established with which the organization must direct its operation to reduce its environmental footprint and that of its supply chain.
To achieve this certification, the Dexson Plant has implemented practices of responsible use of raw materials. These are factors with which they have been able to drastically reduce the use of single-use plastics and wooden huacales. To date, about 4134 pallets, equivalent to 1378 trees, have been discontinued.
Likewise, improvements have been incorporated in the design of products and in the manufacturing process, which have allowed to mitigate the processing rates of plastic resins in 21 tons. Additionally, the plants are able to take advantage of 97% of the waste produced in the operation, allowing to recycle about 255 tons of discarded materials.
"Zero CO2 certification is a great milestone for our factory. It ratifies the effort we have made to become a production center with high indicators of energy efficiency, which responds to an increasingly demanding business dynamic in terms of sustainability," says Ricardo Moura, manager of the Dexson plant.
Last year the Cajamar plant in Brazil would have been the first in the list of organizations in the world that already have the Zero CO2 seal. By 2025, Schneider Electric expects to increase the number of certified production sites to 150 production subsidiaries.
