Sustainability sounds great. But what does it actually look like?

Waste Management

I believe that more efficient energy, water, and waste processes are achievable through end-to-end product data – providing insights into the highest impact areas of improvement. And by having the right people, processes, and technologies in place, a more sustainable supply chain and partner network ecosystem can be developed, something that really matters when it comes to waste management. 

With this goal in mind, we worked with Valtalia, a company based in Spain that operates a group of waste processing plants. While they had clear ambitions to operate in a more sustainable way, they had encountered challenges in translating their ideas into real-world strategies and outcomes. Here we helped by providing an integrated control system that lowered the maintenance costs, doubled the volume of recycled waste, and quadrupled the amount of material transferred to other recycling facilities.

Circular Economy

Another focus for our company is developing solutions to automate emerging industry-specific processes that can enable the circular economy to become the industry standard. Governments are now giving us more specific direction on sustainability targets, such as the Paris Agreement, which has set a clear framework for reaching net-zero by 2050.

However, this is going to be challenging in heavy industries and across manufacturing. Especially as the sector is responsible for 22% of global CO2 emissions. And this is not easy to solve, as often unavoidable byproducts from the conventional means of production lead to emissions. But difficult problems require innovative solutions, and our collaborative effort with ArcelorMittal and LanzaTech prove this is possible.

Together, we have taken significant steps towards setting the industry standard for sustainability by embracing the circular economy and recycling otherwise harmful byproducts into new business opportunities. In their plants, we helped reduce waste by turning potentially harmful carbon byproducts into a new set of chemical products with a high market demand.

Supporting sustainability: Government funding and initiatives

There is a push for sustainability, and it is also supported by many government initiatives. After COVID, a number of relief packages were distributed across the European union with an agenda that is tied to improving digitalization, expanding infrastructure, and operating in a more sustainable way. 

Some of these include: 

• InvestEU, which encourages investments in sustainable infrastructure 
• Digital Europe, which supports the strengthening of Europe’s digital capacities
• The Cohesion Fund, which focuses on capital-intensive environmental and transport investments

These recovery and stimulus plans amount to a €1.8trn injection for the EU economy. And this might just be another push in the right direction, to incentivize more companies to move ahead with new and more projects. 

Governments themselves are also investing in sustainable processes. A clear example this year is our announcement with The Royal Mint to recover precious metals from electronics that will be transform into coins. 

Acting Together More Sustainably

Our capabilities sit at the intersection of enabling more sustainable manufacturing processes and developing digital technologies that support energy efficiency.

A priority area for me now is how we harness our technology, services, and partnerships to help industry achieve sustainability ambitions. I hope these examples have sparked some thought on how you can leverage our expertise and technology. If you’d like to learn more about the various ways we can help you to become a more sustainable organization, please see the many resources on our web site.