summary:
This article analyzes the measures adopted by major international machinery and equipment manufacturers to respond to environmental sustainability issues such as carbon reduction and net-zero emissions. It also investigates the measures adopted by small and medium-sized enterprises in the international machinery industry to implement corporate carbon reduction and respond to the concerns of stakeholders. It is expected to serve as a reference for the development of carbon reduction strategies and measures in the machinery industry.
Referring to the experience of international major manufacturers and small and medium-sized enterprises, this article recommends that small and medium-sized enterprises in China's machinery industry can promote the development of machinery through three major strategies: (1) sustainable product design, (2) process optimization and upgrading, and (3) waste recycling and reuse. Carbon reduction work responds to environmental sustainability issues.
1. Overview of my country’s machinery product exports:
The machinery industry has officially become one of the important industries with my country's product exports exceeding one trillion yuan in 2022. In fact, the export performance of the machinery industry has shown an upward trend in the past three years, showing that Taiwan's machinery products are widely favored by the international market. Statistics show that the total export value of the machinery industry in 2020 was US$26.08 billion. In 2021, it exceeded US$30 billion for the first time and reached US$33.138 billion. The total export value in 2022 was US$34.813 billion, which is approximately NT$1.03 trillion. The export value from January to May 2023 was US$11.989 billion. Taking exports in 2022 as an example, the top three export products in the machinery industry are electronic machinery and equipment (US$5.084 billion, accounting for 1.46%), inspection and measurement machinery and equipment (US$4.919 billion, accounting for 14.1%), and machine tools ( 3.023 billion US dollars, accounting for 8.7%).
It is worth mentioning that the export pattern of machinery and equipment seems to be undergoing structural changes. Taking statistics from more than three years from 2020 to 2023 as an example, my country's top three exporters of machinery and equipment have transformed from mainland China, the United States, and Japan to the United States, mainland China, and Japan. The United States seems to be gradually replacing mainland China as the largest export target of my country's machinery and equipment industry.
In 2022, my country's machinery and equipment exports to the United States will be US$8.904 billion, only US$96 million behind mainland China. Statistics from January to May 2023 show that the United States has become my country's largest exporter of machinery and equipment in 2023, with an export value of US$2.962 billion, accounting for 24.7% of my country's machinery and equipment exports.
2. Carbon reduction trends in the machinery industry:
In order to understand the trend of carbon reduction in the machinery industry, we examined the carbon reduction measures of global leaders in the machinery industry such as Caterpillar Inc., Deere Co., and Yamazaki Mazak Co., and found that, In addition to improving internal resource utilization efficiency, wastewater recycling, waste management and other measures to reduce carbon emissions in their own operations (Scope 1 and 2), machinery manufacturers generally also improve product energy efficiency through sustainable product design and product energy efficiency. , integrating AI and digital technology and other strategies to actively reduce the scope 3 carbon emissions generated by customers' use of products.
1. Caterpillar Inc.
In terms of revenue, Kaituo Heavy Industry is one of the largest machinery and equipment brand factories in the world. Like many leading brands, Kaituo Heavy Industry also responds to the Paris Agreement and strives to provide customers with lower-carbon products and services by introducing alternative fuels, digitization, electrification and other carbon reduction measures to complete the tasks of housing, drinking water, transportation and so on. , energy and other aspects of infrastructure construction.
With 2030 as the target year (base year 2018), Kaituo Heavy Industry has formulated a plan that includes: reducing absolute greenhouse gas emissions of Scope 1 and Scope 2 by 30% (base year 2018), introducing water management measures at all operating sites, and reducing 50% Carbon reduction goals include reducing waste intensity, increasing sales of remade products 25%, and, very importantly, producing a new generation of products that are more sustainable (more energy efficient and less carbon emission intensive).
Providing customers with more sustainable products is a goal that Kaoru Heavy Industry attaches great importance to, because only by implementing this goal can we reduce the scope 3 carbon emissions generated by customers' use of products. According to Kaoru Heavy Industry's estimates, the scope 3 carbon emissions generated by customers' use of products are estimated to account for 95% of the company's operating carbon emissions.
2. Deere Co.
John Deer Company is a world-renowned agricultural machinery manufacturer from the United States, with an annual turnover of US$52.5 billion (equivalent to NT$1.64 trillion). Its main products include tractors, various agricultural product harvesters, harvesters, seeders, sprayers and other agricultural machinery. equipment and sold all over the world.
John Deer follows the Science-based Carbon Reduction Target (SBTi) and has set an absolute reduction of Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions by 50% in 2030 (base year 2021) and Scope 3 carbon emissions by 30%, and through product energy efficiency improvements, permanent Continue the three major strategies of product design and operation carbon reduction to promote corporate carbon reduction.
First of all, in order to improve product energy efficiency, John Deer is integrating various machines and cloud platforms, and using AI to analyze machine travel routes, fertilizer usage, farming range and other data to help users use machines more efficiently and reduce product usage. of carbon emissions. Secondly, John Deer is also committed to developing various types of machinery that can use clean energy, such as hybrid and electrified farming machinery, and even farming machinery driven by alternative energy sources such as hydrogen and biomass fuel to improve the carbon emissions of their operation. , while also introducing the concepts of recycled materials and product recycling into product design, reducing the carbon emissions generated by the use of new materials and product scrapping. Third, promote low-carbon procurement and at the same time strengthen measures such as increasing the waste recycling ratio from 84% to 87%.
3. Yamazaki Mazak Co.
Japan's Mejiko is the world's leading machine tool brand, with revenue last year of approximately US$1.8 billion (equivalent to NT$56.4 billion). Its main products include multi-tasking machines, CNC lathes, laser processing machines, automation systems, etc. , and sold to all over the world.
After checking the carbon footprint of the product life cycle and understanding that the product carbon footprint mainly comes from the customer's use stage, Mazak actively promotes "Mazak Go GREEN" through energy-saving technology, AI and digital technology, The four major strategies, including process integration, conservation and waste reduction, aim to reduce carbon emissions by 50% in 2030 (base year 2010).
First of all, Mejeko starts with product design and uses innovative technologies to create highly energy-efficient machine tools to reduce carbon emissions generated during machine operation. Secondly, Mejeko also integrates mechanical equipment through AI and digital technology to help customers monitor and analyze machine operation processes as a basis for adjusting various parameters to reduce machine energy consumption. Third, Mejeko also designs new generation machine tools with a sustainable concept, including improving the recyclability of the machine after use and using recycled materials to reduce the procurement needs at the source of product production and the amount of waste after product use.
Participate in the carbon reduction cases of small and medium-sized enterprises in the international machinery industry
There are many small and medium-sized enterprises in the machinery industry supply chain that belong to foundries that provide components to various machinery and equipment manufacturers or brand factories. As we all know, metal casting is highly energy-consuming. Therefore, many small and medium-sized enterprises in many fields are thinking hard about how to promote carbon reduction under existing product manufacturing processes in order to meet the requirements of customers from the manufacturing end or the brand end. Below we will introduce how a long-established foundry in Denmark, a family foundry in the United States, and a medium-sized export-oriented machine tool manufacturer in Spain use strategies such as greenhouse gas inventory, equipment replacement, process upgrades, waste recycling, and sustainable product design. , implement corporate carbon reduction.
1. TASSO, Denmark
TASSO, a long-established foundry founded in Odense, Denmark in 1865, specializes in the production of various cast iron bars, with an annual production capacity of 19,000 tons of cast iron. It currently has 63 employees and customers all over the world. In recent years, TASSO has also actively responded to ESG measures, including participating in programs such as "Climate-ready SME" and "From Philanthropy to Business". The CEO of TASSO is also a member of the Energy and Utilities Committee of the Confederation of Danish Industry.
Currently, TASSO regards circular economy as the core concept of the company's operations, and is committed to increasing the recycling rate of products and using recycled materials to refine new cast iron bars, reducing the need for mining new raw materials, and starting from the source to contribute to environmental sustainability. Even though no carbon neutrality goal has been announced so far, according to TASSO's latest ESG report, the company has completed the greenhouse gas emissions inventory of scope 1 and 2, and is promoting the greenhouse gas inventory of scope 3, with the goal of In 2024, long-term carbon reduction goals and strategies can be announced to all walks of life.
The main carbon reduction strategies currently adopted by TASSO include energy efficiency optimization and recycling of waste cast iron. First of all, in terms of energy efficiency optimization, TASSO has replaced traditional oil-fired boilers with natural gas boilers, thereby reducing the carbon emissions of the product manufacturing process and improving the factory working environment. In addition, TASSO also replaced the factory's lamps with LED lamps. Since 2012, the replacement of lamps has helped TASSO reduce more than 300 tons of carbon emissions.
Secondly, TASSO also actively recycles discarded iron castings and resmelts them into raw materials for new products. At present, iron castings can almost be made using 100% recycled raw materials, which means that one ton of scrap iron castings can replace one ton of new steel. Therefore, TASSO cooperates with scrap steel recyclers from various places to purchase discarded iron castings, increase the source of recycled raw materials, reduce the carbon emissions generated in the process of mining new raw materials and refining new steel, and further enhance the company's contribution to environmental sustainability.
Figure 1 Dissolution process of waste castings in TASSO factory
2. American Palmer Foundry
Palmer Foundry, a professional aluminum foundry founded in 1951 by the Jensen family in Massachusetts, is currently run by Mr. Robert Logan, the second generation of the Logan family who purchased the aluminum foundry from the Jensen family in 2000. Since its establishment, Palmer Foundry has grown into a small and medium-sized enterprise with 95 employees, and continues to provide high-quality aluminum castings to customers in aerospace, semiconductor, defense, industrial, medical, transportation and other industries. In recent years, Palmer Foundry has also actively responded to environmental sustainability issues through various carbon reduction measures.
First, Palmer Foundry reduces the carbon emissions generated during the company's operations through process improvements. The focus of this work project is "immersion heating technology". Palmer Foundy collaborated with its German partner Drache to build an immersion heating boiler. Instead of heating the aluminum from the outside, the new technology heats the metal internally, which not only improves the heating speed and uniformity, but also saves energy consumption in the aluminum heating process. 80%.
Secondly, in view of the high energy consumption characteristics of aluminum parts casting, in order to reduce the energy consumption of the manufacturing process, Palmer Foundry has installed solar power panels around the factory since 2014. Through self-generated green power, on the one hand, it can reduce the energy consumption of the product manufacturing process. On the other hand, it also reduces energy expenditure and achieves the goal of energy conservation and carbon reduction. At present, the solar photovoltaic system can supply 18% of electricity to Palmer Foundry.
Figure 2 Palmer Foundry’s immersion heating technology
Third, Palmer Foundry has also installed a sand recycling system to recycle sand produced during the aluminum casting process, reducing the use of raw sand and reducing procurement costs. Since installing the sand recycling system in 2003, Palmer Foundry has recycled more than 20 million pounds of sand, improving manufacturing processes and operating costs while making a positive contribution to the environment.
3. Spanish ZAYER
ZAYER is located in Vitoria-Gasteiz, a city in north-central Spain. The company was established in 1957 and launched its first milling machine product. So far, ZAYER has 150 employees, specializing in the production of various machine tools, helping companies manufacture high-standard products in aviation, wind power, railways, hydraulics, automobiles and other fields. In addition to Spain, ZAYER has factories or offices in Italy, Brazil, mainland China and other places. Its products are sold to more than 40 countries around the world. It is a typical medium-sized machine tool manufacturer and exporter.
ZAYER’s main carbon reduction measures focus on sustainable product design, especially sustainable design for medium-sized machines that are more popular with customers, including designing lightweight and energy-saving machines, and developing smart manufacturing by combining machine tools with AIoT equipment. production line, reducing the carbon emissions caused by machine tools throughout the product life cycle, especially reducing the energy consumption of customers when using the machines. ZAYER won the Victoria's Most Sustainable Enterprise Award at the end of 2021.
4. Findings and Suggestions:
(1) Major machinery industry manufacturers promote multiple strategies to reduce product carbon emissions and respond to environmental sustainability issues
After conducting carbon inventories, leading machinery and equipment manufacturers have realized that the Scope 3 carbon emissions generated by customers' use of machines are a very high proportion of carbon emissions in their corporate operations and cannot be ignored. Therefore, leading manufacturers have reduced the carbon emissions of their products during the life cycle through strategies such as sustainable design, digitalization, energy efficiency improvement, recycling and reuse, in order to respond to environmental sustainability issues such as carbon reduction and net-zero emissions. .
(2) International experience shows that small and medium-sized enterprises can also respond to the carbon reduction trend through multiple carbon reduction measures.
Small and medium-sized machine tool manufacturers, like large enterprises, have introduced the concept of sustainable design into their products and responded to environmental sustainability issues and customer needs by optimizing the energy consumption of their products. In addition to continuing to promote greenhouse gas emission inventories in categories 1, 2, and 3, high-energy-consuming foundries also adopt strategies such as process upgrades, replacement of high-energy-consuming equipment, self-generated renewable energy, and waste recycling and reuse. Reduce the carbon emissions of the company's operations. These experiences show that even if the industry is a high-energy-consuming industry, effective measures can still be promoted to implement corporate carbon reduction when the industrial operation model undergoes substantial changes.
Source:
1. Taiwan currently has three trillion-dollar industries, namely wafer foundry, display manufacturing and production, and machinery manufacturing and production. Regarding Taiwan's machinery industry export data, it is taken from the Taiwan Machinery Industry Association (2023, 2022, 2021), Taiwan's machinery and equipment import and export statistics flash report from January to May 2023, Taiwan's machinery and equipment import and export statistics flash report from January to December 2022 , Taiwan's machinery and equipment import and export statistics flash report from January to December 2021, Taiwan's machinery and equipment import and export statistics flash report from January to December 2020.
2.https://www.caterpillar.com/en/company/sustainability/sustainability-report/goals-progress.html
3.https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/content/Caterpillar/CM20230428-04e09-9679c
4.https://www.deere.com/en/news/all-news/john-deere-receives-sbti-validation-of-greenhouse-gas emission-reduction-targets/
5.https://www.deere.com/assets/pdfs/common/our-company/sustainability/sustainability-report 2022.pdf
6.https://english.mazak.jp/environmental-activities/
7.https://www.tasso-bar.com/sustainability/
8.https://palmerfoundry.com/
9.https://palmerfoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Drache.pdf
10.https://www.zayer.com/actualidad/en/most-sustainable-company-award/
Sponsor: Ministry of Economic Affairs, Small, Medium and New Enterprises Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs
Execution unit: Plastic Industry Technology Development Center
