Earth Day is Every Day at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies is dedicated to sustainability as an essential corporate initiative. The company pursues projects within its global facilities that reduce carbon emissions, lower energy consumption, eliminate waste, promote recycling and support customers in their quest to produce more sustainable products. The company is proud of its growing record of green achievements. Here are seven examples of the many plant, process and product programs that are giving back to planet Earth every day.

GREEN PLANTS

• In Reichelsheim, Germany and Kufstein, Austria, millions of “employees” are helping Freudenberg Sealing Technologies eliminate harmful vapors from the atmosphere. The company has installed bio-exhaust cleaning systems at its plants in those cities that neutralize and eliminate solvent vapors through the use of bark mulch microbes. The sites capture the vapors, which are produced during metal cleaning operations, mix them with water and spray the mixture over beds filled with the mulch bark microbes. The microbes digest this industrial cocktail for energy and emit harmless byproducts. The bio-exhaust systems use minimal energy, cost very little to operate and facilitate Freudenberg’s ability to meet strict European emission standards naturally.
  
  
• Winters are cold in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. But the liquefied natural gas heating system recently installed at Freudenberg’s Bristol manufacturing plant not only keeps employees warmer but has also eliminated production of more than 4,000 tons of CO₂ emissions annually – a 50 percent reduction for the 6.5-acre site. The old system, which had employed obsolete high-pressure steam boilers and fuel oil, was scrapped in favor of efficient, leading-edge liquefied natural gas (LNG) technology, initially phased in by employing propane as a bridge fuel. Because the LNG equipment is installed on the roof, the new system has opened up more than 350 square meters of production space formerly devoted to oil tanks and steam boilers. The LNG system saves operating and electrical costs and has become an important part of an overall plant effort to adopt other sustainability and recycling initiatives.
  
  
• Out of sight, out of mind? When it comes to waste, that approach wasn’t acceptable for Freudenberg Sealing Technologies’ Cuautla, Mexico facility. The plant has implemented an ambitious program that eliminates 99 percent of the 148 tons of waste it produces annually through recycling, reuse and a reduction in processes that produce it. Employees recycle rubber, metal, wood, cardboard, plastic and garbage. They use physical and chemical testing to separate inorganic and organic waste and compost organic waste before adding it back into the soil around the site. The project saves money every year but the real value has come from turning Cuautla’s workers into dedicated environmental ambassadors. Recently they helped the plant extend its environmental record by introducing a rainwater recycling system that captures and treats rainwater for reuse in operations. In Mexico’s semi-desert climate, the effort is good as gold.