Sustainability is a long-standing tradition at NPM company Kramp Groep. The company was striving to operate in sustainable way even before the term 'sustainability' was coined. In 2009, Kramp appointed a Quality Environment Health & Safety coordinator who monitors these specific factors within the company. Kramp also has an ISO 14001 environmental management system. What else does the family business do to reduce its environmental impact and how do they monitor the CO2 emissions, the production of the amount of waste and the reuse of commodities and energy?
Since 1988 Kramp has been using the famous red return crates in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.
Using these crates brings enormous benefits: There's no waste for the customer and they are reusable. They are also easily stackable so trucks can load up to their maximum capacity. The transport of product is more efficient as well is the use of the fuel need for transportation.
One of Kramps customers contacted the company to ask if, in future, they could send his parts sets for machine disassembly without packaging.
To meet this request, Kramp cut a piece of plastic in the shape of each and every item included in the set — creating a sustainable return packaging system that saves packaging and reduces waste.
All Kramp and Gopart packaging features the Green Dot logo.
This logo is recognised across the world to indicate that the company selling the packaged product is making a financial contribution to the selective collection, sorting and recycling of packaging.
Kramp uses filler material to protect items while in transit.
The company used to use an expensive, high-quality paper as filler material, but they have now switched to paper that is cheaper and 100% recycled. A win-win situation!
Kramp uses other materials to seals pallets than before: the new film the company uses is now thinner and we also use stretch machines to stretch the film.
The company previously used an average of 468 grams of film per pallet, but now that figure has reduced to 160-170 grams — which equates to great cost savings and reduced waste.
Both Dutch sites use green power.
This is one way in which we are pursuing our objective to reduce our CO2 impact as much as possible.
At The Kramp site in Varsseveld, the company had a charging point for electric cars. Currently employees can make free use of this facility. The company is looking at the option of making all commutes between the Dutch offices electric.
In warehouse aisles that aren't in use by employees, Kramps lighting system switches the lights off automatically if no movement is detected for a specific period.
In the warehouse and picking area, this immediately generates an energy saving of 40%. Kramp has also replaced all halogen lamps, which consume a great deal of energy, with LED lighting.
In 2012, Kramp opted to install a geothermal energy system instead of regular heating and cooling systems in the new building in Poitiers.
For the new facility in Varsseveld, Kramp is looking at whether geothermal energy is an option.