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Ecological Responsibility Also Brings Profit
Environmental protection brings profit by cutting costs: Uwe Schneckener alongside
one of the five compressors from whose oil heat is recovered for reuse.
The Environmental Guidelines endorsed by the general management and Environmental Manager Uwe Schneckener are much
more than just a sheet of paper to IMI Norgren Buschjost GmbH + Co. "Quite some time ago management declared
environmental protection to be a very important corporate objective binding on the entire workforce", explains
Uwe Schneckener. He also says it is not just a matter of chance that the company based in Bad Oeynhausen-Lohe
therefore received the 2005 Ecological Project for Integrated Environmental Technology (Ökoprofit) Award from
Minden-Lübbecke District Administrator Wilhelm Krömer: "We pursue environmental protection on two fronts",
explains Uwe Schneckener: "We basically try to devise environmentally ideal solutions with our products, and all
our internal decisions are always made with the environmental aspects in mind".
Schneckener makes no attempt to conceal the fact that rather than being just an attractive document the certificate
awarded by the District Administrator has brought the 285-strong company tangible benefits: "Our efforts to win the
Ökoprofit Award were excellent preparation for certification to ISO 14001“.
According to Schneckener, environmental protection was introduced at Buschjost before the concept even took off
in Germany. He adds that, for example, heat recovery systems were installed in the production shops as far back
as the mid-70s. And the Environmental Guidelines in 2005 effectively rekindled employee awareness and already
contained very good suggestions for avoiding waste and saving energy. "Environmental protection brings profit",
underlines Uwe Schneckener, giving a current example: "Our production and test facilities include five compressors
we recently converted so the heat from the oil of the screw compressor is transferred via heat exchangers to the
heating circuit". A five-figure investment that will have paid for itself within two years, and, given the
ever-increasing cost of energy, will cut Buschjost's ongoing costs.
"All of the Buschjost valves and system solutions are of course designed paying particular attention to the
environmental aspects", emphasises Mike Weide, Head of Key Market Management, giving the sample of systems for
cleaning dust from industrial exhaust: "Fine dusts assumed to be carcinogenic arise in power stations and waste
incinerators". To avoid these microparticles involved getting into the exhaust, they are removed with fabric filters
using compressed air. Mike Weide: "It’s a matter of blowing as much air as possible through the fabric at the highest
possible pressure and in the shortest possible time, which requires valves that open particularly quickly". A
technology in which Buschjost is described as having been a world leader for more than a quarter of a century.
Since 2002 the Bad Oeynhausen company has been involved at a similarly high technical level with its valve solutions
in the renewable energies sector. "Vegetable oil as a fuel, biogases and fuel cells", cites Renewable Energies
Manager Frank Bornemann, three keywords for future markets offering Buschjost enormous opportunities for growth.
"Lightness, cost-effectiveness and corrosion resistance" are just some of the company's requirements for developing
valves governing the changeover from conventional diesel to rapeseed oil. The fact that they did not pose any
problems in Bad Oeynhausen was also due to the long-established high level of vertical integration at Buschjost.
Frank Bornemann: "Automotive suppliers choose us as development partners time and again because they value the
high level of expertise of our developers and the extensive experience of materials embodied in our production".
Buschjost also has great expectations for fuel cells, in which the company's valves already control pressures of
up to 700 bar in vehicles, and for the outcome of current trials of stationary systems for supplying buildings with
power and hot water. Frank Bornemann: "Given the rising gas and oil prices, under whose effects the major consumers,
China and the USA, are also now suffering, this is a gigantic world market just waiting to happen, which our good
connections with our parent IMI Norgren Group will of course also enable us to develop".
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25.05.2007 |
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