Our vision of sustainability
Setting a good example is not easy. What we aspire to may not always tarry with what is actually feasible; there may be quite a way to go before theory can be put into practice. What counts, however, is a conscious will to achieve our aims, with our ultimate goal pointing the way forwards. This also applies to KHS and its vision of sustainability. We would like to set a good example and be convincing with our measures to promote sustainability. We are absolutely determined to adopt a pioneering role when it comes to resource efficiency and to make a significant contribution to increasing environmental awareness. As a supplier of filling and packaging systems for the beverage and food industries we are also conscious of the particular challenges we face.
Broadening horizons
Packaging in itself is a sensitive subject – especially when we talk about plastics. Can we advance the concept of sustainability at all with our PET systems? This is a complex question – yet we can say one thing after almost 150 years of our company and over 40 years of experience in PET: the packaging material itself is just a small part of the whole. If you want to take a holistic view, you have to include numerous other factors in your observations. Among others, these include product protection, energy and fuel consumption during the transportation of goods to the consumer, recyclability and, finally, the sustainability of the lines and machines themselves. KHS stands out as it always takes into account the entire life cycle of the containers to be produced. We aim to make as good a contribution as we possibly can to the aforementioned aspects for more sustainability. In doing so, we especially concentrate on those areas we can have a positive impact on: the production of our own machines and the operation thereof, using less energy and saving on materials and packaging.
We aim to make as good a contribution as we possibly can to the aforementioned aspects for more sustainability.
Less is more sustainability
We are constantly working on optimizing the selection and amount of the materials required to build our lines and machines so that these are as sustainable as possible. Here, we are increasingly relying on lightweight construction concepts and modular machine designs. These ensure that only the specific modules relevant to an innovation are replaced instead of the entire machine having to be replaced. For us, it also goes without saying that we attach great importance to the robustness and durability of our machines so that they can remain in service for many years. In the long term we would like to run our filling and packaging systems in a closed-loop system which draws on as few primary sources of energy as possible.
In order to save energy and cut down on other media, such as water and CO2 emissions, we take the full range of possible approaches into consideration: from the recovery of energy on our pasteurizers and washing machines to the use of energy-efficient motors in our drive technology.
PET innovations for tomorrow
We specifically devote ourselves to the great challenge of cutting down on packaging materials through our innovative concepts for PET bottles. As a matter of conviction we develop especially light products which are low on materials. For example, we have produced the lightest 0.5-liter PET bottle for carbonated beverages with a screw cap, launched the lightest 1.0-liter PET milk bottle to market and will very soon present a further innovation in this field. Our machines can already process almost all PET containers with recyclate or which include organic materials. The special systems we offer – such as barrier coating, direct digital bottle printing or the use of adhesives to create film-free packs – are all 100% recyclable. We want to continue to consistently build on this progress.
