Developing products that add value for our customers and protect our common future
- 2023 Climate Action and Results
- Responsible products and the circular economy
- Responsible products and a low-carbon footprint
- We can only reach our goals by working with others
2023 Climate Action and Results
Developing products that add value for our customers and protect our common future
With more than 100 years of innovation experience, Aasted has learned a lot about developing process equipment that adds value for our customers in the chocolate, bakery, and confection industries. However, as we continue to innovate, we need to learn even more about making our products as carbon neutral as possible and working with stakeholders across the value chain to transition to greater circularity – all while reducing our products’ total cost of ownership.
Our products are a central part of Responsibility5, Aasted’s framework for operationalizing our strategic intent to become a more sustainable business. The equipment we produce plays a key role in our customers’ value chains – usually for decades – so its carbon footprint and circularity matter both today and tomorrow.
When one begins to examine the sustainability of our products – and indeed any product – it soon becomes apparent how interdependent we all are if we are to achieve a greener future. The raw materials and other inputs we rely on come with their own carbon costs and impact on circularity. How we design and manufacture products depends both on our customers’ needs and our operational efficiency requirements. Finally, the different ways our customers use our products have their own impact on energy consumption and the environment, too, so it is important that we work with them to provide insights and best practices that optimize energy efficiency throughout our products’ operational lifetimes.
We’re all in this together.
Responsible products and the circular economy
Along with many of our industry partners, Aasted is transitioning from linear to circular thinking.
In a linear economy, we transform raw materials into products that are eventually discarded as waste: take-make-dispose. In a circular economy, we design products that maintain their added value for as long as possible and eliminate as much waste as possible: reduce-reuse-recycle.
You can see a brief description of Aasted’s product lifecycle from a circular economy perspective below this article.
A critical step on the path to a more circular economy involves taking a hard look at each of the six lifecycle phases outlined above across our entire product portfolio. Where are we doing well? Where do we need to improve? By analyzing specific fits and gaps, we get a much more precise understanding of our circularity progress so far and where we need to focus even more.
The nature of our product portfolio ensures a degree of inherent circularity fit. High-value, recyclable stainless steel is our biggest material input. Long product lifetime – up to 60 years in some cases – and the ability to upgrade our machines to meet future needs also play a positive role.
Importantly, however, gap analysis enables the definition of concrete goals to improve our circularity. These are actionable tasks at every lifecycle phase that will bring our products closer to true circularity. Some of the initiatives we have identified so far include:
- Better integration of lifecycle management into R&D product management processes
- Working with suppliers to improve our supply chain sustainability
- Working with customers to help them improve the energy efficiency of their lifetime use of our products – which also reduces their total cost of ownership
- Developing better service packages that further extend product life
- Exploring take-back and re-sell programs that reduce waste
Together with industry partners and other stakeholders – not least Aasted’s many suppliers and customers – we continue to work on reducing and eventually closing our circularity gaps.
Responsible products and a low-carbon footprint
Better circularity is only one aspect of making Aasted products more sustainable. Thus, in addition to improved circularity, it is also imperative that we reduce our products’ contribution to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions.
Accordingly, we have set ourselves a very ambitious goal: We intend to reduce the operational carbon footprint of Aasted products by 50% by 2030.
This goal stretches well beyond our products’ embodied carbon footprint, the amount of carbon emitted in raw material extraction, manufacture, transportation, and end of life disposal or recycling. The operational carbon footprint of our products refers to the amount of carbon emitted during their entire lifetime, including their use, maintenance, and management.
Reaching this goal will require both significant innovation in lowering our equipment’s energy consumption and sourcing lower-carbon inputs. Clearly, such an ambitious reduction of operational carbon is only possible through close cooperation with our customers and suppliers.
We can only reach our goals by working with others
Reaching our goals for lower-carbon, more circular products will take time, innovation, and, not least, collaboration.
There are many interdependencies inherent in making our entire product portfolio more sustainable. Everything from input sourcing to product design, manufacture, operation, and disposal plays a role.
As we progress toward our sustainability goals, Aasted looks forward to continuing to work closely with our customers and suppliers. We invite them and others who care about our shared future to collaborate in these ongoing efforts.
– Piet H. Tæstensen, CEO
