CO2 Reduction through Energy Management - Best Practices of enretec

Interview partner: Michael Blöcher is Head of Quality and Environmental Management & Regulatory Affairs at enretec, the ecological specialist disposal company for medical waste. The company has already been able to achieve several steps on its Climate Transformation journey.

Together with THE CLIMATE CHOICE, enretec has conducted the Climate Performance Assessment and is now part of the Climate Intelligence Platform, which enables companies to collect climate-focused data from their suppliers and to improve collaboration along the supply chain for successful decarbonization. In an interview with THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Michael Blöcher talks about which Best Practices for Climate Transformation. The company shares insights about the steps they anticipate to inspire other companies as climate pioneers in the industry.

We are happy to be working with enretec to drive forward climate transformation. Can you briefly introduce yourselves to our CLIMATE community?

Our company was spun off from a predecessor company in 2000. Since then we aimed to position ourselves as specialist in the disposal of residual materials from medical practices. From the beginning on, enretec was able to draw on experience that had been continuously built up. Today, enretec GmbH sees itself as trustworthy partner for its customers in an increasingly complex environment. We operate one of the most modern facilities for the storage, treatment and recycling of medical residues and waste in Brandenburg. As waste management company since 2002, we are certified according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2015 (quality management) and DIN EN ISO 14001:2015 (environmental management). Since 2005, we are registered as an EMAS-certified company in the EMAS register of the Potsdam Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Our more than 30 employees serve our customers all over Germany and the neighboring countries.

Our enretec mission: We, enretec GmbH, as a leading German waste management company in the dental, human and veterinary sectors, want to set standards together with our customers in the customer-friendly and ecological disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste.

What are the biggest climate-related challenges you face on a day-to-day basis?

Driven by the continuous improvement process within the scope of our certifications, we were able to realize considerable savings. Through various measures along all ecological parameters, we already achieved several steps of climate transformation in recent years. For example, in 2020 the absolute CO2 emissions from gas, electricity and diesel consumption of enretec GmbH were approximately 53% below the comparative value of 2015. Also, it marked the absolute lowest value since the introduction of the EMAS certification of our company in 2005. For 2020, we prepared a verified and certified greenhouse gas report for the entire company according to DIN EN ISO 14064 for the first time. We compensated the greenhouse gas emissions by retiring emission reduction certificates, and we will do this annually in the future.

This is where the biggest climate-related challenges for our company already become apparent. How can we become even more climate-friendly in our work, directly on site and without offsetting? For example, how can we modernize our vehicle fleet in the upcoming years, so that we can significantly reduce emissions from fuel? And how can we support our employees in minimizing greenhouse gas emissions during their regular ways to work? How can we help our employees to become even more climate-friendly?

Together we conducted the CLIMATE Performance Assessment. What was your motivation?

Even though we have already achieved quite something, we are sure we can do even more! There are so many exciting developments in the complex topic of climate neutrality. And there will also be some very good approaches for our company. But where exactly do we stand, what are the Best Practice examples and how should we prioritize them? In day-to-day business, an SME lacks the resources to familiarize itself comprehensively with these issues. Here, the Climate Performance Assessment has efficiently given us a very good orientation. We definitely will incorporate the insights into our further work.

What were the most important lessons you learned?

Two key lessons: Even with great successes in the past, there is still a very large number of different opportunities. And as we move forward: We will increasingly use the potential that lies within the area of employee engagement.

What are Best Practices that you would like to share with other organizations?

What really every company can do is to implement energy management, whether certified or not. For example, there are still large commercial electricity consumers in Germany that have only one meter in the company. This is often located somewhere at the entrance to the site at the transfer point to the public grid. How is climate protection by reducing electricity consumption supposed to work under these circumstances?

Otherwise, we are only at the beginning of evaluating the various role models, so we do not yet want to make a recommendation for one or the other. But what is Best Practice in any case: We have talked enough about climate protection, let's get started!

Do you also want to get a better overview of your company's climate-related opportunities and risks? Then sign up with us and request information on the Climate Performance Assessment.

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