Sustainability - QUO VADIS?
Of course, we at MOZART have also decided to prioritize the pursuit of sustainable production and administration piece by piece.Sustainability and thus the care of our environment is an endeavor that concerns us all and is not only promoted by politics.
Every day at the breakfast table we are reminded of this topic. We sit at the table together with our children, who would like to experience some more beautiful decades on our earth. My children are still too young to expect sustainable behavior from me. That doesn't mean they don't deserve me to be appreciative of resources.
Particularly in energy-intensive manufacturing like that of MOZART AG, there is still to a certain extent an emission necessity, without which we cannot manufacture the quality products that our markets expect from us. We heat our high-alloy steels, which have already been elaborately produced by our supplier, up to 1000°C. This is an enormous energy requirement. Of course, the viewpoint that our long-life products can save emissions and resources in their respective applications also has its justification. However, we save this consideration for our project and look at MOZART what we ourselves can improve in the direction of our sustainability. Since the end of 2019, we have been increasingly concerned with the topic of sustainability, i.e. beyond the normal improvement. In different circles such as our tool association in Remscheid, the energy efficiency agency in Wuppertal as well as the business development in Solingen, we are continuously working out new starting points, These enable us to make targeted investments and deploy our manpower. A good and functioning network plays a decisive role as support. The issue of sustainability must, of course, be supported by the entire organization. However, if we are honest with ourselves, the responsibility has not yet rested with the entire workforce.
Why is that? Let's return to the headline.
Unfortunately, in the day-to-day management of a company, there are always distractions in the pursuit of goals. For example, the Corona pandemic caused a complete shift in focus at short notice. We suddenly had to deal with maintaining production and hygiene concepts, and we had to generate more waste than ever before through antigen tests, etc. In this phase, the most important asset we have as a company, the employees, was severely unsettled. Not the most appropriate time, in my opinion, to fully transport the issue of sustainability into the workforce. In such situations of uncertainty, surely we don't need to try to put the issue of sustainability in the place that should actually be prioritized, position 1. Sustainability unfortunately had to give way to the issue of the company's profitability, the perceived need for security of the employees of the company itself.
Nonetheless, we in the management committee have tried to continue working on the topic in small steps. The year 2030 is getting closer and closer, and we want to know promptly how and with what options we will achieve our improvements. Primarily, however, the focus during this time has been on small adjusting screws such as product design, packaging conversion, logistics and, as usual, continuous improvement in moderate steps.
But now, all of a sudden, comes the current challenge of inflation and the energy crisis. What used to feel like an inexhaustible reserve of electricity and gas has become a scarce and expensive commodity. This is again very challenging economically for an energy-intensive company like us.
The crisis as an opportunity:
On the topic of sustainability, we believe this crisis also presents an opportunity that we at MOZART want to seize and shape positively. The adjusting screws to be operated now have to be larger, they will penetrate deeper into the organization and thus have great leverage on profitability. And above all, they will now be linked to sustainability as never before.
Projects that have been planned for some time will be accelerated here at MOZART as a result of this new crisis, and investment decisions will be made more quickly. We can find good examples in the installation of our PV system, in the in-depth analysis and optimization of our high electricity demand, and in the questioning of our processes with regard to the customer benefits linked to them. In addition, as a company, we are on the verge of reducing our natural gas consumption in the manufacturing process to zero through an internal R&D project.
As you can see, there are coming up new opportunities, new priorities, and new ways of deciding. Hopefully on an as broad basis as possible, for the benefit of sustainability
We'll keep at it for our employees, for our customers and for all our children.
With this in mind, best regards and see you soon,
Sebastian Schlipköter |
