REMake Case Studies
REMake Good Practice Awards
High-quality tiles from building waste: Nexiform
Electroplating enterprise makes impressive savings: Ruhl & Co.
Resource-efficient design of refrigeration trucks: Aubineau Constructeur
Further Case Studies
Germany: Innovation management tool to optimize the value chain
A German start-up looking to enter the dental market wants to ensure high uptake by presenting a green and sustainable image to potential customers. By examining their transport operation, packaging system and focussing on reducing material input, the company aim to minimize costs while reducing their environmental impact. With the help of i.con innovation and the Symple team management methodology, two one day workshops were organised with key individuals from the company; suppliers and potential users were also involved to identify the strategic solutions. The consultations were able to identify a number of improvements. A reduction of transport costs was possible by choosing an in-house stock holding option. A reduction of 50% was identified in materials used to produce one part of the product with the supplier’s cooperation. A more efficient and less costly greener packaging solution using fewer resources allowed a reduction in waste and delivery costs.
For further information please contact: Udo Sievers, i.con innovation, remake@icon-innovation.de
UK: Demonstrating the benefits of carbon footprinting
Trak-Rap, the UK-based developer of innovative packaging solutions, came together with C-Tech Innovation to test the potential of a new tool for calculating carbon footprints, CCaLC. Trak-Rap’s innovative ‘cold film’ packaging system was developed as an alternative to traditional packaging solutions with the intention of reducing energy intensity, material use and increasing recyclability. This in turn reduces the carbon footprint of the materials in order to meet demands from supermarkets for sustainable and functional packaging.
One challenge Trak-Rap faced was accurately calculating environmental and economic impacts at all stages of the supply chain to demonstrate the environmental and economic savings to their clients. Here, the CCaLC tool stepped in to analyse and simplify the complex data.
The results have brought benefits on all sides. CCaLC not only demonstrated its suitability for SMEs wishing to calculate their carbon footprint, but Trak-Rap was also able to verify the significant environmental benefits of its technology, demonstrating GHG reduction opportunities alongside cost savings. So far Trak-Rap has been able to save 175 tonnes of CO2 alongside a retail client and are looking to deliver a further 1.5m tonnes reduction in CO2 per year with additional clients in the future.
For further information please contact: Haley Kendrick, haley.kendrick@ctechinnovation.com
France: Cooking up excellent results
A Savoy-based oven manufacturer, Bourgeois, has been working with the French Technical Centre for the Mechanical Industry (CETIM) in the design of its latest product. By employing the Maieco eco-design methodology, (now standardised under NF E 01005 French standard), the environmental impact at every stage of the oven’s life-cycle was assessed. This revealed room for improvement in a number of areas, and allowed the SME to identify the most important priorities for action. The result was an oven that uses 35% less energy than its predecessor, weighs 10% less, and has an impressive recycling rate of 90%. Not only that, the new model is three times less noisy and will comply with future European standards on energy efficiency.
For further information please contact: Gérard Colin, CETIM, gerard.colin@cetim.fr
France: Eco-design means business
A small manufacturer of metallic components for building sites produces a novel system that improves both the construction process and worker safety. Together with the French Technical Centre for the Mechanical Industry (CETIM), it has employed the eco-design methodology Maieco to create an environmental profile of the product. Using this life-cycle assessment, the company understood where the greatest impact was made and defined clear priorities for improvement. As a result, the environmental performance of the product was increased, including a 10% reduction in raw material, a 10% reduction in CO2 emitted during transport, and a 30% gain with respect to its reusability. In addition to cost reduction, for the SME it had the added-value of a greener product to present to clients without any further cost.
For further information please contact: Gérard Colin, CETIM, gerard.colin@cetim.fr
Spain: Investing in environmental alternatives
A Spanish plastic manufacturing SME wanted to reduce energy consumption, material losses, and associated costs in its production process. This required investment in new equipment, and with the help of Zabala Innovation Consulting the EAMA tool was used to evaluate the alternative technology against current practices. After an initial meeting, data was collected from the SME (energy consumption, raw materials, labour costs, etc.), and face-to-face meetings held to fine-tune the productive flow of the current and alternative processes. After analysis by the EAMA tool, it was shown that investing in the new technology would quickly pay off for the SME. Savings included: 5% in raw materials, 500 man-hours of labour and 16% in energy consumption.
For further information please contact: Beatriz Mendivil, Zabala, BMendivil@zabala.es
Spain: Investigating alternative production processes
A textile manufacturer in Spain is seeking to improve its environmental performance. By using a new technology in its de-sizing process it hopes to reduce its water consumption and eliminate waste water generation, in turn reducing its use of chemicals and energy consumption. Alongside Zabala Innovation Consulting, they employed the EAMA tool to test the financial feasibility of the project. This analyses the inputs and outputs at each stage of the production process and calculates costs to deliver a report on economic parameters. Information and data was gathered on the proposed alternative, including cost savings, and several possible scenarios were assessed. The results showed that an initial investment of 1m € would be returned in under 5 years based on the following savings: 90% reduction in water consumption of de-sizing process, 100% reduction in waste water produced and an 8% reduction in energy consumption.
For further information please contact: Beatriz Mendivil, Zabala, BMendivil@zabala.es
Spain: Evaluating innovation capacity
A Spanish manufacturer of cables is seeking to optimise its processes, particularly with regard to the amount of raw materials used which makes up most of the company’s production costs. By renewing its equipment it has been able to reduce material and energy consumption, and it wants to keep on introducing innovative solutions. Here, along with Zabala Innovation Consulting, it employed the Quic tool to assess the company’s innovation management and its innovative capacity. This involved a series of meetings and questionnaires which were very quickly able to identify areas (e.g. the capacity to take risks or the capacity to take collective decisions) where the company could improve. It found the assessment of non-technological areas (e.g. human resources or internal communications) that are not usually considered in traditional eco-innovation thinking particularly useful, and has used this to reflect on certain aspects of its management.
For further information please contact: Beatriz Mendivil, Zabala, BMendivil@zabala.es
LCA check leads to high performance of Italian precision mechanics
SICMAT, a Turin-based developer and manufacturer of precision mechanics for the automotive sector, tested two new eco-design tools with the support of Active Innovation Management. The company wanted to redesign a cogwheel device: a complex and costly tooling machine composed of more than 5000 metallic parts. Two LCA tools were used together to integrate the environmental aspects into the product design while exploring cost savings. MAPECO, a quick and integrated questionnaire, first identified the main environmental impacts of the product: energy consumption, materials use and hazardous substances. From these results ECO TRIZ provided a structured database of possible improvements that was used as the basis for an action plan. The potential benefits and cost savings of the redesigned machine are impressive: a 20% reduction in mass and energy and a 50% reduction in materials and chemicals use. This substantial reduction of resources also leads to major cost savings for the company.
For further information please contact: Giacomo Bersano, Innovation Active Management, g.bersano@aim-innovation.com
Germany: Getting the packaging process right
In North-Rhine Westphalia, a manufacturer of packaging for paints and varnishes has faced considerable inventory loss due to damages occurring in the storing and transportation phases. An in-depth assessment revealed that inappropriate protection, handling and transport as well as error-prone packaging schemes were at the source of these losses. In order to reduce damages, the handling and logistics processes have been optimised. Major improvements were achieved with two key measures: safer and optimised loading of the pallets and improved staff training. The implementation of these simple measures allowed the packaging manufacturer to considerably reduce damaged products, resulting in savings of €100/t and a 15% increase in revenue.
Case study by the German Material Efficiency Agency, DEMEA
UK: Closed-loop recycling
The household appliance manufacturer Indesit has successfully incorporated recycled plastic from the UK waste stream within two premium washing machines. The company has worked with its subcontract plastic moulding company to produce a new access panel. The panel is manufactured using 100% recycled plastic recovered from domestic fridges offering similar characteristics to the previously manufactured part that was made from virgin material. Indesit Company has achieved the same production cost for the recycled plates by maintaining the same cycle time in the moulding process. This, combined with 5% saving in raw material costs delivers a significant saving in CO2 emissions, cumulative cost and raw materials over the 500,000 parts produced each year.
Case study by the UK Waste & Resources Action Programme, WRAP