Minimising our impact on the environment

Environmental health is a key concern in our day-to-day operations. Before embarking on a cleaning assignment, we want to know exactly if we can, want and are allowed to remove the contamination tendered to us. We do not take any risks when it comes to environmental health.

The substances to be removed should not pose a hazard either to the environment as such, our employees, or our installations. To make sure this is the case, we use the MSDS fact sheets of the contaminants. If no such fact sheets are available, a laboratory analysis is performed.

Minimising the environmental impact of cleaning methods

We are constantly endeavouring to minimise the impact of our cleaning methods on the environment. This first and foremost relates to the carbon dioxide emissions of our installations or the chemicals we use as part of the chemical cleaning processes. Minimising our energy consumption as well as driving down our waste flows are a key challenge.

Some examples:

• We recover the heat of our installations to heat our production facilities or our chemical baths. To a large degree we generate our own electrical power using solar panels.
• By linking different oven chambers, certain pyrolysis ovens require just one after-burner. This new technology makes a huge difference in our gas consumption, and therefore in the emission of carbon dioxide.
• We have replaced the conventional water cooling of our ovens by air cooling. This system does not cool down the after-burner, which means the latter uses up to 40% less natural gas.

Our Carbon Strategy

Reducing our carbon footprint is an important part of our commitment to minimising our environmental impact. Since mid-2021, Thermo-Clean has been working with Encon to develop and implement a credible and ambitious carbon strategy.

Our objective is to set science-based targets aligned with the 1.5°C climate goal, providing a clear direction for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions over the coming years.

Our carbon strategy focuses on reducing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, which include direct emissions from our operations and indirect emissions from the energy we purchase. Our target is to achieve an absolute reduction of 50% in these emissions by 2030, compared with our 2018 baseline.

To support this ambition, we calculate our carbon footprint in accordance with the GHG Protocol, identify reduction opportunities across our operations and develop targeted measures to reduce our emissions. We also monitor our progress annually to assess the impact of our efforts and guide further improvements.