Resource use

Resource efficiency, with its monetary and ecological aspects, is a material sustainability topic for HUBER+SUHNER. At the same time, resource efficiency is gaining increasing relevance as we see a growing number of supply chain disruptions, rising material and energy prices, and volatility in global demand, in particular for some of the metals used in our products. As stated in our environmental policy, we strive to continuously improve our environmental performance and make the most efficient use possible of raw and auxiliary materials, energy, and water.

Approach

As part of the company's environmental management, the production sites have targets to improve their resource efficiency. Based on these targets we continuously monitor:

• The intensity of energy consumption
• The intensity of waste not sent to recycling
• The intensity of water withdrawal
• Material consumption

Objectives

As of 2022, we introduced three new global reduction targets to monitor resource efficiency as part of our environmental management. These targets include the intensity of total energy consumption; the intensity of waste sent to landfill or incineration; and the total water withdrawal. In 2023, HUBER+SUHNER’s added value reached CHF 386.7 million. This value, calculated from profit before tax and depreciation plus personnel costs, minus other financial results, serves as the denominator for intensity.

Progress

As shown below, in 2023, our focus on resource efficiency yielded results, showing reductions in the intensity of our water consumption. We were also able to maintain a stable energy consumption, despite the ramp-up of new energy-intensive production.

Table 2: Resource use performance 2023

Energy: Despite our efforts to reduce energy consumption, as shown below, the intensity of our energy usage remained stable despite implementing several energy-saving initiatives. The main reason behind this is our continuous ramp-up of our production capacity for radar antennas to be used in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Contributors to the reduction in energy intensity, despite the growing demand from the antenna production, were:

• Reduction in heat loss through a roof replacement at the production site in Tczew, Poland
• Reduction in energy consumption by using heat recovery
• Optimised energy use and continue building on advanced analytics to better monitor energy saving measures

Waste: Our goal to decrease the intensity of non-recyclable waste faced challenges due to the relocation within Pfäffikon, Switzerland, resulting in increased construction waste. We are confident that our efforts to continuously integrate the five Rs of waste management (refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle) into our waste management will put us back on track with our targets. In parallel, we are working towards consuming fewer resources in our production processes to reduce both recyclable and non-recyclable waste.

Hazardous waste is another focus area. The goal here is to generate as little as possible. Compared to the previous year, the amount of hazardous waste was reduced by 2 %. HUBER+SUHNER works exclusively with licensed waste handlers to ensure that hazardous waste is treated with state-of-the-art technology and that recyclable material is directed into the right channels.

Water: The year 2023 saw an encouraging 21 % reduction in water withdrawal intensity (y-o-y). An important driver behind the reduction was our relocation within Pfäffikon, which facilitated a more efficient use of cooling water. Additionally, we reduced our consumption through advanced monitoring and the installation of tap water proximity sensors.

Material consumption: Copper consumption decreased by 9 % compared to the previous year. Plastic consumption has decreased by 22 % in the same period. At the same time, we continued to reduce plastics from our packaging. While changes in our business mix, with a growing focus on the procurement of commercial goods, play a role in this, additional contributors to the reduction in material consumption were:

• Reduction of the reject rate for plastic material consumption through two green belt projects
• Initiating the replacement of protective plastic foils (evaFlex) for spools from plastic to cardboard

See detailed data on energy, water, materials consumption and waste in the environmental performance indicators table.

Planned actions

To further increase our resource efficiency, we are constantly exploring ways to reduce our energy, material, and waste consumption. In this context, promoting the use of renewable materials is becoming increasingly important. Key actions for the year 2024 will include:

• Further minimising the use of single plastics and maximising the recyclable content in our primary and secondary packaging whenever we identify high-performing alternatives
• Further reducing operational scrap by continuing to improve our business intelligence around scrap production, including new metrics and objectives
• Reducing the use of colour granulate by switching to micro granulate
• Continuing to create a sustainable value proposition by taking into consideration the environmental impact of our products throughout their life cycles

Story from Switzerland

Separating and recycling metals in our antenna production

Not only do rising global demand and supply chain disruptions affect the prices of the metals we purchase, but the large part of our environmental footprint comes from the metals in our production. Among other things, this impact is significant in our antenna production for ADAS.

Together with a German recycling company, we have explored different ways of separating and recycling these metals in an effort to reduce our material consumption. We were able to successfully separate and recycle different metals from the deflector plates that were used in production and to recycle leftover pure metals from the coating process. Separating and recycling these pure metals is economical and reduces our environmental and carbon impact.