Beside the ethical obligation to hand over our planet to future generations, we also think that sustainability will become a condition to run a profitable company in the future. For this reason, SKAKO drives its green initiatives concurrently with the company’s general development and financial ability without trying to save the world at the cost of a reasonable and future business operation and management.
Sustainability is an important theme within the building industry, and we are fully aware of our responsibility as a significant player within an industry where production of cement is regarded as one of the largest CO2 emitters. As a realistic replacement to concrete is unlikely to show up within the next many decades, all links in the value chain involving cement must do an effort.
Authorities all over the world will make requirements to the CO2 emission – also from cement and the rest of the building industry – and at SKAKO we will be at the leading edge and be able to supply the solutions that our customers need. Both to meet the authorities’ requirements and to meet requirements from customers and investors who also request more green solutions.
For this reason, SKAKO’s environmental contribution is divided into two parts: We want continuously to measure and monitor our own CO2 emission on central and environmentally damaging areas and at the same time – as the most essential contribution to the environment – develop products and solutions enabling our customers to produce in a more environmentally friendly way. This is the essence of our most significant climate ambition so far – to make the world’s concrete production plants more green: Green Plant Vision
Big enough to cope ...
When we contribute to reducing the need for cement without compromising the strength or quality of the concrete, we will make the biggest difference. Not only to our customers – but also to the entire world. We know that our mixers will not be doing the job on their own – but on the other hand we take care that the mixers never become an obstacle on the road to reduce the quantity of cement in the concrete.
At the same time, some of the new and more sustainable kinds of concrete require a completely different mixing technique in relation to what we have seen so far – and we can deliver this. If the industry manages to reduce the CO2 emission from cement by only 1%, this will correspond to approx. three times the total CO2 emission from Denmark. Seen in a global perspective, this has undreamt potentials for the world’s CO2 emission for the part related to the cement production. And if we at SKAKO can contribute with only 0.1%, then it will be worth for us to pursue and be proud of. Despite our modest size – we are big enough to contribute significantly.
In relation to the value chain in which our products are included, SKAKO’s total footprint is very small. Nevertheless, we carry through a number of initiatives to make ourselves more sustainable in our everyday life such as:
Two of the focus areas in our sustainability strategy point at improving our own effort: One focus area is about optimizing our own production and another focus area is about creating a work culture where it becomes usual practice to think sustainability in everything we do.
Sustainability has now been verbalized as a natural part of our everyday life, and we have established sustainability groups resulting in thoughts with our employees, and generally we focus on optimizing and improving where potentials are identified.
SKAKO’s actual targets for our own environmental impact are listed below:
Products
We aim at the lowest CO2 impacting production of the industry: 70% CO2 reduction before 2030 (index 1990)
Cement
We want to produce concrete with the lowest possible cement content – without compromising with the strength in the concrete: 10% cement reduction before 2025 (index 2010)
Water
We will minimize the water consumption in concrete mixing: Reuse of water = 100% before 2025
Circular
Our products must be reusable: Reuse > 95% before 2030
Our contribution
Through the cooperation with our customers, we develop solutions that will make their production more sustainable without risking their general ability to do business.
Among our services and solutions are e.g.:
In collaboration with Dansk Industri og Industriens Fond, SKAKO has completed the project “Climate-ready production company” and thereby created a reasonable basis for ongoing monitoring and measurement of the company’s general environmental impact and total CO2 emissions. The result has become a valuable tool in SKAKO’s overall environmental efforts in a number of relevant areas, including waste, recycling, energy and processes – but especially the purchase of steel, iron and metal and transport. The last mentioned areas make up the vast majority of SKAKO’s total environmental impact, which is why SKAKO’s environmental efforts are primarily aimed at GHGP (Greenhouse Gas Protocol) scope 3 and the collaboration with our partners and the improvement opportunities that lie in e.g. efficient logistics and optimized transport, circular economy, climate-efficient materials, alternative, climate-friendly fuels, green energy in electricity-heavy processes, etc. It is through the solid collaboration with subcontractors and partners that SKAKO is able to make by far the biggest positive difference in the overall, global environmental accounts.
Presentation of SKAKOMAT automation system
Presentation of SKAKO Concrete
We will join partnerships because we make the biggest difference in the consumption situation of our equipment. It will be pointless if we invent a mixer reducing the energy consumption by 80% if it does not match the consumption situation and our customers’ actual needs. And it will be pointless if we only look at huge mixers if it would be more sustainable for our customers to produce with minor plants. At the same time, we want to measure the output of our equipment in practical application, and this requires a continuous and close dialogue with our customers. The close cooperation is ideally optimized by our access to measurements of our equipment and a continuous and open dialogue about challenges and possibilities. We do not expect exclusivity. However, in case we develop special products based on a partner’s specific needs, we expect to enter into prior agreement guaranteeing purchase. In return, we will ensure that we can develop a solution jointly, which as minimum meets the customer’s needs, which might even be innovative and move market shares within our segment, – and which both parties definitely can be proud of.
We think green in all parts of our processes and developments and we want to enter into cooperation with partners, institutions and people who share our view of sustainability as a common responsibility and reasonable business matter.
