6. Resource and material efficiency 6. Resource and material efficiency 6.1 Packaging Packaging is necessary to protect high-value products during their storage and transport. Finding the balance between sufficient protection, limiting packaging costs and the environmental compatibility of the packaging concept is no easy task. The continuous development and optimisation of our packaging concept is a challenge for the areas concerned at Festo. Festo strives to achieve the highest possible proportion of packaging made from renewable materials. These include materials made of wood, paper, cardboard and corrugated cardboard. In 2021, this was just under 97 per cent for our largest distribution centre. In addition, we aim to limit the proportion of packaging in our shipping volume. This amounted to a good 19 per cent – also for Germany – in 2021. The values are likely to be in this order of magnitude internationally as well. Customer complaints received in individual cases about too much packaging material are unfortunately justified. Therefore, we try to find sustainable solutions whenever possible. The complaints are mostly due to an automatic packaging installation with limited standard sizes. Internally, our goal is to reuse packaging that has been received. We can measure this percentage in our plants in China – the reuse rate there is more than 80 per cent. 6.2 Use of aluminium The environmental impact of primary aluminium is significantly higher than that of remelted secondary aluminium. Since 2019, we have been recording the proportion of secondary aluminium in our internationally procured aluminium volume in order to be able to identify positive or negative developments. In 2021, the balance sheet was completed by two aluminium fractions (plus 1,663 tonnes), which have a high proportion of secondary aluminium. Overall, a welcome increase to 78 per cent was observed in the secondary share (2020: 72 per cent). Due to significantly higher purchasing volumes (from 10,155 tonnes in 2020 to 18,275 tonnes in 2021), the carbon footprint still increased to approximately 69,300 tonnes (2020: 44,800 tonnes). As aluminium is our most important raw material, we are working to keep this raw material in circulation. Possibilities for recycling aluminium briquettes in our Hungarian plant as well as the procurement of aluminium produced using renewable energy are currently being examined. 6.3 Scrap reduction in the plant The reduction of rejects in our manufacturing processes is an important quality management project. This also contributes directly to improving resource efficiency and reducing waste. Unfortunately, the positive trend of a decreasing number of parts to be scrapped could not be continued in 2021. Worldwide, 20 per cent more parts had to be removed from the value creation process. However, this increase is lower than the 26-per-cent higher production output, so that a positive decoupling of the development can be seen. Compared to the base year of 2019, the number of scrapped parts was still reduced by a good 3 per cent. 6.4 Consideration of applicable guidelines and laws The processes involved in product approvals are described in internal guidelines. Festo must comply with applicable law so that the products are considered safe. There are different regulations and laws on product safety around the world to allow products to be placed on the market. This requires the respective certifications in the various regions. GRI 102-11, GRI 416-1 Statutory regulations that must be complied with are, for example, EU Directive 2011/65/EU (RoHS 2), EC Regulation 1907/2006 (REACH Regulation), the corresponding mandatory entries in the SCIP database, the requirements of the EC Packaging Directive 94/62/EC and the requirements of the EC Battery Directive 2006/66/EC. All regulations and directives aim to prevent prohibited ingredients being contained in a material at a concentration above the permitted limit. The limit values for the regulated ingredients vary from one regulation to another and are embedded in Festo’s internal guidelines. Festo’s products are labelled in accordance with legal requirements with regard to their origin, composition and use. The corresponding label describes, for example, when a product was manufactured and in which factory so that traceability is guaranteed. 58 59 Festo SE & Co. KG Sustainability Report 2021 Festo SE & Co. KG Sustainability Report 2021
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