ALUnited takes great importance in reducing pollution and greenhouse gas, by implementing environmental responsibility initiatives. As a recently established concern, our future green ambitions are to create successful solutions with eminent social responsibility. The company has included several initiatives to minimize the climate footprint from the production of aluminium components and will continuously consider the need for further improvements.
According to ALUnited´s position in an energy-intensive industry, we seek to enforce sustainable use of energy from the wind turbine industry. Previously the company used unsustainable energy sources and has managed to reduce pollution from production by 91%, since the replacement to sustainable wind energy. In Tønder we produce aluminium parts 365 days/year and use an extensive amount of energy every single day. Wind power is one of the energy sources that produce the smallest climate footprint, and ALUnited Tønder are therefore proud to reduce greenhouse gas emission by using wind as the firm’s primary energy source. The following ambitions for the project, is to reduce ALUnited Tønder´s climate footprint further by recovering the heat from the hydraulic oil from our presses, and to phase out the natural gas, which covers the last 9% of the factory's CO2 emissions. The process will be performed with either biogas, or a replacement of our present gas boilers to heat pumps.
In the same way, for our Louviers site, studies have been carried out to recover the heat from compressor oils in order to reduce gas consumption for heating buildings. The heat thus recovered through this project would make it possible to completely heat a production workshop of 2315 m2.
The task is slowly progressing towards a 100% green company, but the necessary energy-efficient replacements are still ongoing.
Road transportation is the largest contributor to global warming in the entire transportation sector, because of the substantial emission of carbon dioxide. This is why in Louviers and Tonder we use local suppliers as much as possible.
For example, roughly 90% of ALUnited incoming components in Tønder, is transported from the local supplier Hydro Extrusion Denmark. Because of the approximately 1 km distance between the two cooperative companies, pollution from transportation is reduced exceedingly.
Also on our site in Louviers we use a neighbouring carrier : Hirsh Transport . Apart from the fact that it is local , this company has been awarded the "Objectif CO2" label, a programme that promotes results in terms of environmental performance. Transporters are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and limiting atmospheric pollutants. Their voluntary and proactive approach contributes every day to improving our environment and air quality.
Aluminium is the only metal ALUnited operates with, and is also a lightweight product, that weighs only 1/3 of steel. This contributes to reduced energy consumption during transportation, also making it economically sustainable.
In 2017 ALUnited Tønder implemented a solution to reuse the generated wastewater from the rinsing process, that cannot be discharged into the public sewage system. The installation operates as a water evaporator, where a filtering and heating process is important in the approach. Secondly the water vapor condenses and only oil residues (oil sludge) remain. The oil sludge is collected into tanks, and the remaining clean water is discharged into the sewer system. An installation which results in up to 95% reusable water, and less than 5% wastewater.
In the process of creating automotive components in aluminium, fraction waste in all sizes and conditions will occur. Aluminium is 100% reusable; therefore, it is ALUnited´s environmental responsibility to recycle all waste from production. In our 2 plants of Louviers and Tønder these fractions are sorted carefully, in the matter of size, condition and oil damage. The containers are collected by an external corporation, who develops the fractions into new Aluminium components. This procedure assures minimal waste of aluminium in the production of ALUnited´s automotive parts.
