On April 22, World Earth Day was celebrated, an occasion that Porsche found perfect to reveal how resources are managed in its plant located in Leipzig, Germany, through the efficiency program as a fundamental part to reduce the impact on the environment, maximize efficiency and save millions of dollars.
Encourage its employees to participate in the protection of the environment, who are a vital part of the brand’s functions and development. In addition, conducting training and inspection workshops on energy use is part of the process of inspecting the activities that are carried out on a daily basis to be in constant control and evolution.
The resource efficiency program was established in 2014 and is based on five vital points for its correct operation: energy consumption, CO2 emissions, waste generation, water consumption and solvent emissions. These steps have been able to save more than $4 million per year.
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An example of one of the practices has been the environmentally friendly way in which the welding robots turn off the guns, as they do so after 60 seconds of inactivity to save compressed air in the moments when they are not working on a body part. Also, 400 frequency converters automatically turn off the power sources when not in use.
These small adjustments have made the difference in saving $4.3 million (4 million euros), with the goal of extending the program to as many aspects of work as possible. “The plant’s internal ‘reduction of environmental impact in production’ indicator has also been continuously improved since 2014, to encompass the overall development of the five key points. Last year, this indicator stood at 62.4 percent,” said Gerd Rupp, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche Leipzig GmbH.
In addition, other contributions outside of vehicle production also contribute to a greener environment. Three million honey bees inhabit the ecosystem of the Leipzig plant, as well as other wildlife species.
Porsche’s goal is to become carbon neutral across its entire value chain by 2030. “The proportion of all new vehicles with all-electric drive systems will be more than 80 percent from that same year. We are pioneers in sustainable mobility and take a comprehensive approach to electric mobility,” concluded Albrecht Reimold, member of the Executive Board of Porsche AG responsible for production and logistics.
Written by | Ronald Ortega
