Sustainability must be the soul of Lasenor
Lasenor decided a while ago already to take a qualitative jump in the environmental policy of its Olesa de Montserrat plant. We were acutely aware of the need to limit the environmental impact of our industrial activity, working in a respectful manner, and limiting pollution, aiming to protect our environment and providing added value to society.
In order to strengthen this commitment, Lasenor also decided to align this environmental policy with the principles, values, and strategic orientations of the company, giving it the same relevance as other key business factors used in its management.
Lasenor’s commitment to environmental sustainability is a bet on sustainable development, social progress, environmental balance and economic growth. This commitment is in line with the new business model being favored in the Western world, where companies’ relations to the environment has become an added value.
That is because the fight against climate change and for the preservation of nature has become a strategical priority for many companies, including Lasenor: “living and working with people in the same place and in particular sharing the same environment, that is what sustainability means, and given the moment we are all going through, it must be the soul of Lasenor” a spokesperson for the company tells us.
What are Lasenor’s goals in order to strengthen its environmental policy? First of all, the improvement of its energy efficiency, generating renewable energies, valuation of waste, technological innovation, in order to lower our environmental impact, greenhouse gas emissions and compensate our carbon footprint.
Reducing resources
In order to achieve the goals we set, one of the first lines of action of Lasenor has been the reduction in the impact of the recources necessary to the development of its activities, starting with water consumption, which has been subject for a few years already to important supply reductions. Thanks to the measures implemented since then, water consumption has already been reduced by 50 percent.
Another area of progress for Lasenor has been the separation and valuation of waste, but the company wishes to go further:
- Giving a second life to the byproducts generated in the various chemical processes, very useful for industrial productions in other sectors:
– Lecithins, fats and solids, destined to the elaboration of animal feeds.
-Fats and solids, destined to the fabrication of industrial soaps.
-Acetic acid, used in the manufacturing of biogases.
-Oils, glycerin and ditris, used as raw materials in various production processes.
- Recycling has also been used in the case of waste generated in our industrial activity:
– Muds from the treatment plant and non-valuable surplus production, used in the manufacturing of biogases.
– Filtering soils, destined to the elaboration of animal feeds.
– Solid waste, compost for agricultural uses.
- Reduction, reuse, and recycling (3R) of regular waste (up to 90%).
- New industrial uses for various materials like packaging, cardboard, plastics and pallets.
A third scope of action has been energy consumption, where we have acted on two fronts. Firstly, on efficiency, that is, the kilowatts used for each kilo produced, a metric that has also been greatly reduced.
The other energy front refers to the generation of these kilowatts in a clean manner, an area in which another jump in quality will be made with the start of operations, at the end of this year, of the solar plant that will be built on the rooftop of the new warehouse. The solar panels that will be installed will cover about 15% of the total energy wasted at Lasenor.
In order to complement the solar energy produced, we will continue to procure electrical energy from carriers that have high energy ratings, even though such an investment will be more costly.
Beyond all these measures, Lasenor is studying other options for renewable and clean energies from its industrial activity that have a positive CO2 balance and enable for greater energetical independence.
Reducing the carbon footprint
This environmental indicator, which gathers data on the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, both direct and indirect, has already been monitored by Lasenor internally for about two years.
The next step taken by the company is leading to the institutionalization of these controls, thanks to various external mechanisms, so that they can be validated by the Administration in order to determine what is our carbon footprint and which greenhouse gases are being emitted. The end goal, in implementing these public metrics, is to reduce emissions.
