Is there a green option too?
Endress+Hauser is stepping up its focus on purchasing components and materials made from secondary sources. This not only creates more sustainable products but also brings all parties in the supply chain closer together.
In a circular economy, the objective is to conserve natural resources. “Procurement provides a lot of leverage to achieve precisely this,” says Markus Mornhinweg, head of purchasing at Endress+Hauser Temperature+System Products. He and his team aim to increase the recycling content in intermediate products, components and packaging. “Manufacturing from secondary raw materials prevents waste and uses a lot less energy than is the case with primary raw materials. This avoids a huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions,” he explains.
The greatest potential here lies in components made from steel. This material can be recycled indefinitely with next to no loss of quality. “This was why, when we were looking for someone to make the housing for a new product, we sought a manufacturer that uses stainless steel with a particularly high recycled content,” says Markus Mornhinweg. Indeed, more than 90 percent is recycled metal. What’s more, around 80 percent of the energy used by the supplier comes from renewables. Thus the housing has a very small carbon footprint.
Switching from primary to secondary plastics, though, is not so easy. “Plastics are composed of long-chain molecules, which get chopped and changed by the mechanical recycling process commonly used today. That affects the material’s properties, which results in quality fluctuations,” Markus Mornhinweg explains. So to ensure that the product and hence process reliability are up to the standard required for measurement technology, primary plastic will stay in use until fresh solutions arrive. Chemical recycling in particular could present new options in the future.
Chiffres clés
35%
reduction in value chain emissions by 2034
In keeping with the Science Based Targets initiative, Endress+Hauser has committed to reduce emissions in upstream and downstream value chains by 35 percent (relative to 2023) no later than 2034. Procurement provides high leverage for achieving the objective – for example through intermediate products and materials with higher recycled content.
Returning waste to production
“However, we have managed to establish an internal recycling process in the production of our head transmitters,” says Markus Mornhinweg. Injection molding of the plastic components produces sprue that is no longer disposed of as waste but instead recycled directly on site: Now it is the sprue, rather than primary plastic, that goes into making funnels that are used in casting the transmitters. “That adds up, considering that we manufacture hundreds of thousands of head transmitters every year. One of these, the iTEMP TMT82, is Endress+Hauser’s top product in terms of manufacturing volume,” says the procurement head.
In packaging too, success stories are starting to come in. “We are currently switching the mailing tubes for compact thermometers to recycled material,” Alexander Albrecht, head of logistics, reports. And bubble wrap is set to become redundant through the development of corrugated cardboard membrane packaging for field transmitters and housings. Yet this successor material requires cutting to size specifically for each product, in a way that provides complete protection as well as easy handling. “That is why development takes up to a year and needs close collaboration with our suppliers in order to succeed,” says Alexander Albrecht. The first membrane packaging will soon be used for a new control unit.
“Our suppliers are very interested in working with us to find and implement innovative solutions,” Markus Mornhinweg emphasizes. The ongoing transition to a circular economy will further intensify partnerships along the supply chain, of that he is convinced: “Making products as sustainable, durable, reusable and recyclable as possible needs more knowledge transfer than ever, especially at the start of every new or next-stage development.”
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