Making a sustainable business of sustainability

Pump manufacturer Grundfos has faced up to its role in industrial energy overconsumption and the CO2 emissions that produces. The company’s response has been to rehabilitate its products from being energy offenders to becomming a genuine part of the solution. In the spirit of the Global Compact, Grundfos has also taken an active role in advocating the role of business in promoting greater environmental responsibility and developing environmentally friendly technologies.

From humble beginnings in rural Denmark, the Grundfos Group has grown to become the world’s largest pump technology manufacturer with a presence in 55 countries. More than 16 million pump units roll off its production lines each year. In fact, it is fair to say that wherever you are in the world, you are never too far from a Grundfos pump or related product.

Grundfos has always been progressive in terms of corporate sustainability and responsibility. It has an established set of business principles, a clearly communicated set of policies and strategies, and an organisation dedicated to executing these strategies globally.

When it comes to the practical application of these strategies, Grundfos naturally focuses on its key product, pumps. With good reason: Pumps actually represent one of the best opportunities to immediately curb global energy expenditures and carbon emissions.

This is because pumps are working behind the scenes everywhere in our daily lives: from supplying water to domestic shower and kitchen facilities to moving any kind of liquids in industrial complexes and processes. But even many Grundfos employees were surprised by the findings of a series of recent studies. These weighed up exactly how much of an impact pumps have on global energy resources and, implicitly, carbon emissions. And this is what they found: Pumps account for 10 per cent of the world’s electricity consumption. At the same time, 20 percent of current global CO2 emissions come from the value chains in which Grundfos does business.

For Grundfos this information in the wider context of global warming has accelerated rather than prompted its many sustainability focused initiatives. Long before carbon emissions or green legislation entered the general consciousness, Grundfos was exploring more energy efficient products.

The result of Grundfos’ early interest in energy efficiency is that unlike many more high-profile sustainable-energy technologies, energy-efficient pumps are a proven reality. And, according to one estimate, if every pump operator switched to high efficiency pump systems, the world could immediately cut four percent of its electricity consumption – an amount equal to the residential electricity consumption of one billion people.

Grundfos Director of Sustainability, Pernille Blach Hansen, sums up her company’s view of the responsibility of industrial companies like itself:

“Our energy usage continues to increase at an astonishing rate. Listening to most scientists and forecasts, we need to act now in order to reduce CO2 and create sustainable living patterns. We have the technologies needed – we just need to start using them, especially within the larger industrial sectors. They have a huge responsibility and societal obligation to lead the way.”

Over the last decade, Grundfos has accepted its responsibility as a contributor to the world’s runaway energy consumption and the carbon emissions resulting from it. It now actively pursues a future in which its products and policies exemplify corporate sustainability at work.

Complying with corporate social responsibility calls for a change in habits within organisations of all sizes. In Grundfos’ case, the company has applied its aspirations to its own operations.

That has included a cap on carbon emissions, with the company pledged to never exceed its 2008 CO2 output. Karen Touborg, Manager, Group Environment, Health & Safety adds that “a cap starting at the 2008 levels will allow us, in the long run, to head towards our ultimate goal of becoming emissions-neutral.”

Since 2009, on-going efforts have ensured that all pump installations have been audited and, if necessary, replaced with high-efficiency pumps. More than 1,000 pumps have been replaced in Grundfos’ Bjerringbro headquarters’ factories alone, with the resulting energy reductions ranging from 27-82 percent.

Grundfos has also committed itself to ensuring that all new building is energy-efficient, as befits a signatory to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s manifesto on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. Today, all new Grundfos buildings must be LEED Gold certified, while all renovations must meet LEED certification.

A vivid example of this policy at work is the company’s recently refurbished British headquarters. This features energy efficient pumps along with solar roof panels that supply hot water and supplement electricity usage. Similarly, Grundfos’ new Indian complex is packed with sustainability initiatives that have seen it become the country’s first goldrated green building.

Of the Ten Principles of the Global Compact, there are two that are especially close to Grundfos’ heart.
These are Global Compact Principle 8: "Businesses should undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility" and Global Compact Principle 9: "Businesses should encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies." Grundfos has actively delivered on both principles, bringing the full weight of its global reach and technological leadership.

Over the past few years Grundfos has put a great deal of focus on creating awareness of the role of pumps in industrial energy overconsumption, along with their potential as an immediate solution. This has centred on the Meet the Energy Challenge NOW campaign. Disseminated through multiple media channels, including social media, this campaign has targeted a broad array of relevant people, from company purchasers to CSR managers to politicians. Its goal is as crucial as it is simple – to make people understand just how real and present the issue is, while informing them how the ever-present pumps they take for granted could make an immediate and radical difference.

As there are many who remain unconvinced of the reality or urgency of global warming, the campaign has also emphasised that reduced energy consumption translates to lower power bills and that energy-efficient installation or retrofitting may cost a little more to start with, but in the long run saves a lot of money.

Meet the Energy Challenge NOW has been run in conjunction with the release of next generation high efficiency pump technology. Pumps are an often overlooked opportunity for energy savings. This is because most run at full speed at all times when, in fact, they rarely need to. A typical example of this is hotels, where very few guests will take showers during the late hours. This makes maintaining pumps at their maximum capacity at all times both unnecessary and wasteful. Grundfos’ intelligent pump solutions regulate themselves to avoid this.

These energy-optimised pump solutions exemplify Grundfos’ contribution toward reductions in the use of industrial energy, in that they are a proven technology, accessible to everyone, and available now. Furthermore, most of these perform at a level that surpasses current and upcoming legislative requirements.

Pernille Blach Hansen regards the success of Grundfos and the welfare of the environment and our society to be “mutually reinforcing”. She says: “Fundamentally, we believe that Grundfos and the societies in which we operate are interdependent. Successful companies need healthy societies, and healthy societies need successful companies. Therefore, our business decisions follow the principle of shared value – value that benefit both sides.”

Pernille Blach Hansen believes more and more companies are joining Grundfos and realising the long-term financial benefits offered by sustainable initiatives. She says: “Earlier, sustainability work was regarded as a marketing spend by most companies – something you ought to do. But today, more and more realise that it is an area that offers the benefit of both savings and a return on investment.”

Eventually companies may no longer have a choice. Environmentally-focused legislation continues to tighten in response to greater awareness and acceptance of climate change. This means sustainable initiatives are very much an investment in the future.

For Grundfos, a company with a unique capacity to make a real difference, sustainability has become a company ethos. It’s an ethos that has enhanced rather than hindered profitability, providing a heartening example for companies that still regard corporate social responsibility as a forced expense rather than a viable business model.

“Our course is set,” concludes Pernille Blach Hansen. “Our future as a company is closely bound with the Principles of the Global Compact and sustainable practice. It is not only the responsible thing to do, we believe this is the only way to sustain successful business into the future.”