KHS highlights carbon and plastic-cutting machinery advancements in biennial sustainability report

02 Jul 2021 --- KHS has released its fourth sustainability report, presenting both its activities and results for 2019 and 2020 regarding strategy and product responsibility, corporate environmental protection and social issues. A number of strategies, including machinery developments that slash carbon emissions and reduce plastics output, are listed in the report.

The report details how the company’s overall strategy enabled it to save 10,868 metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2019 and 2020.

Published under the title “Global responsibility – acting reliably and with foresight,” the report also outlines KHS’ position on future challenges and measures in the context of climate protection, digitalization and demographic change.

Kai Acker, KHS’ CEO, says the report is driven by customer demand.

“We explore all possible ways and means of cutting emissions and saving on resources in the course of our own and our customers’ value creation process.”

The Germany-based machinery company has published a sustainability report voluntarily every two years since 2015. The content is structured based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and legal reporting obligations under CSR-RUG2.

KHS reports it saved over 10,000 metric tons of carbon emissions between 2019 2020.KHS driving climate goals
The report contains four chapters: Strategy and governance, Product responsibility, Operational ecology and Social activities. The company’s economic, social and ecological approaches to management are also presented.

One of the questions addressed is how the beverage industry can be given more specific support in implementing its respective climate goals in the future.

“Our lines and packaging systems are a major component in the customer’s value chain,” Acker emphasizes.

One example of this is the InnoPET Blomax Series V stretch blow molder, cutting energy consumption by up to 40 percent and making effective use of materials by saving up to 10 percent in PET.

Modernization measures and design advances
Aspects such as ergonomics, product safety and durability are highlighted in the report, along with KHS’ spectrum of expansion and modernization measures.

“The aim is to create products that are extremely flexible and thus future-proof. In this respect, digital services, in particular, are of increasing importance,” KHS says.

In the field of packaging design, the company also illustrates its many successes in relation to consumer protection, health and environmental friendliness. Together with the Alpla Group, for example, KHS manufactured a returnable 1 LPET bottle with a weight of 55 g and recyclate content of up to 35 percent. This system is primarily aimed at mineral water bottling plants but is equally suitable for every other beverage segment.

PackagingInsights recently spoke with KHS’ Ernst van Wickeren about anti-plastic legislation and how the company is helping industry prepare for the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive.

Saving resources, saving energy
KHS production sites in Germany have been using certified “green electricity” from renewable sources since 2016.

“We aim to continue our efforts in this respect. As a global company, we focus on these issues, for example, in Brazil and the US,” Acker explains.

For the first time, the sustainability report contains a section dedicated to the company’s production sites outside Germany. KHS India, for example, already runs a number of extensive sustainability programs.

These include initiatives that help make the company more sustainable above and beyond recycling, conserving energy and the circular economy.

Last year, South Africa-based Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages announced it was saving massive amounts of water in its production process with the help of KHS’ machinery.

Edited

By Louis Gore-Langton

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