SWITZERLAND –  Producer of dairy and farming machinery DeLaval is adopting a new strategy to ensure all its future new product development project result in a product with a higher sustainability profile.  

The company has established a Product Management & Development (PMD) and Digital Services Sustainability Group to integrate sustainability into everything it does.  

 “We’re a tactical forum,” says Anna Lindquist, Director Strategic Program Office. “We are initiating what we call ‘enabler projects’ that make it easier for the organisation to work with sustainability.” 

 Lindquist explains that the company is planning to include sustainability requirements in the product development process with the broader goal of making it simpler for the organisation to do the right thing.  

She further revealed that the company is also looking at how it can use an LCA (life-cycle analysis) tool to help in its decision-making eventually impacting how product development teams work at DeLaval and how they innovate.  

For example, it will assist the teams decide if it’s better to choose a metal or plastic component for a product and also help them understand if energy usage is the biggest emissions factor when a product is in use, or if it’s something else. 

“Armed with the right information, they can make better and more sustainable choices,” said Lindquist. 

 The sustainability group is also about to embark on assessing the company’s Scope 3 downstream emissions which are emissions that occur after a sold product has left the factory.  

So far, DeLaval has measured scope 1 and 2 emissions and scope 3 upstream emissions. The last piece of the puzzle is the downstream emissions and completing this measurement could affect how future products are developed. 

 “The downstream footprint could really help us,” says Lindquist. “By creating a baseline, we will have something to measure and can then monitor progress over time in a much better way.” 

Reduce food loss in production 

Meanwhile, Delaval’s sister company Tetra Pak is expanding its services to boost efficiency for food and beverage producers with the aim of reducing loss in food production, from raw material to water usage and waste disposal.  

Roberto Franchitti, Executive VP, Services at Tetra Pak, says: “We are stepping up our efforts to help tackle loss in food manufacturing, for instance improving performance of machines, minimising failures that could result in production stopping and a consequent loss of food, focusing on refurbishing existing equipment, upgrading, and reselling used machines to ensure that nothing goes to waste.” 

Tetra Pak’s suite of waste reduction solutions includes consumables, plant components, and upgrades, such as water filtration solutions and consumables for wastewater reduction at various areas in a customer plant.  

Meanwhile, its asset management solutions for equipment incorporate Customised Outcome-based Solutions, Maintenance Units and Remote Support. Ultimately, this increases the uptime of the equipment, reduces response time alongside repairs and reuse to prolong the equipment lifetime. 

The decision to expand focus on reducing food loss comes as the company has been recognised by Kepner Tregoe with an award for Excellence for implementing problem solving methods in food packaging manufacturing. 

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