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Our Sustainability Story goes on

The Footprint

Sustainability Company

We are stepping up to a global challenge. With the world population projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, resource efficiency and environmental protection become more and more important. In order to sustain growing populations, protect limited resources and put a halt on irreversible damage to our earth, we must change the way we do business.

Because of this, we are on a mission to reduce our carbon footprint through process improvements and resource efficiency. We are doing so by focusing on five key areas: Materials, Waste, Energy, Emissions and Water. Through this approach we can minimize the environmental impact from our manufacturing processes.
As part of the Freudenberg Group, key performance indicators have been introduced for three critical areas: emissions, waste and energy usage. These KPIs allow us to track our progress transparently and support the advancement of sustainability at Freudenberg.

John McNabb

John McNabb about Sustainability at Freudenberg Performance Materials

REDUCING OUR FOOTPRINT ACROSS THE GLOBE

With 33 production sites in 14 countries, the opportunities to reduce our footprint are vast. Each year new projects are implemented to reduce energy consumption as well as replace virgin raw materials with recycled, biodegradable and other sustainable raw materials. Take a journey across the world of Freudenberg Performance Materials and learn about the different measures we implemented in five key areas for more sustainable manufacturing.

Raw Materials

Material efficiency; Recycled, renewable, and substitute materials; End-of-life handling of products

MATERIALS

Tayuan Tao-Yuan, Taiwan – 

A new take-back program was launched with one of our major customers to solve an issue many companies face: what do we do with scrap materials that can’t be used in production? In this case, the answer was to recycle it with the supplier (Freudenberg). Because our products for shoe components are made without chemical binders and from 100% polyester, we were able to work with the customer to create a closed-loop scrap recycling program that ensures raw materials are being used as efficiently as possible and further reduces the need for virgin raw materials.

Waste back to chips
Waste

Waste handling

WASTE

DURHAM, NC, USA -

In 2008, we invested in a recycling line for our Durham, North Carolina site that manufactures spunbond nonwovens for automotive interiors, geotextiles and interior carpet backings. Similar lines were installed at our sites in Kaiserslautern, Germany and Tayuan Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, which allows us to take waste, scrap material and other unusable product and turn it back into polyester chip. This raw material is then able to be used again in the production process. At our site in NC alone, we have been able to save 33,000 tons of materials since installation of the recycling line.  

Energy

Energy efficiency; Renewable energy

ENERGY

KAISERSLAUTERN, GERMANY

TACs are used to bring filaments of the PET to their target diameter, strength etc. They do this by acceleration filaments with high speed air. For decades, we needed around 1.2 MW for lines like PA2, PA3 for this job alone. Development and implementation of EcoTACs reduced this by 0.2 MW, without any loss of performance of filaments or nonwoven. These EcoTACs are in place on 6 lines (permanently), the total saving per year is close to 10 Million kWh, at the US rate of CO2 emission per kWh electricity (2019: 0,4 kg/kWh) the annual saving in CO2 is about 4000 to. My department is working on the second generation of EcoTACs, that is designed to save a similar amount of energy.

Emission

Air pollution and emissions

 

EMISSION

 

 

 

25 PERCENT LESS CO2 BY 2025

Water recycling steps
Water

Water pollution; water withdrawal

WATER

Chennai, India -

All the wastewater from production is now treated and reused. The Freudenberg team for Health, Environmental Protection & Workplace Safety collaborated with the Center for Scientific Industrial Research Institute and the Industrial Waste Management Association in Chennai to develop a suitable and effective filtration process. After months of analysis and lab tests, a multi-stage filter technology was commissioned in mid-2016 that uses a variety of components and is perfectly suited to conditions in Chennai. 
Not only is 100 percent of the wastewater recyclable, but the quality of the filtered water is much better and overall water consumption also fell significantly from 4.4 liters of water to produce a kilogram of textiles to only 2.6 liters. Another bonus: The solid particulate matter generated during the filtration process is then sold to the cement industry, where it is used as fuel.

 

The Sites of Freudenberg Performance Materials