Key highlights from leading voices on the green transformation

Spotlight on sustainable manufacturing in North Europe

Sustainable manufacturing was the focus at Leading Lights, CLC North’s first, fully in-person member event, which included keynote speeches from key individuals working with sustainability at SKF Group, Volvo Cars and Hydro. It also included presentations from startups on how they are addressing sustainability challenges, as well as demos from innovation and education projects. The day was rounded off by an all-hands workshop on how the EITM community can work to address key sustainability challenges, raised by the speakers.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM OUR KEYNOTES:

SKF Group —  the case for a cost-efficient path to net zero

Johan Lennering, Head of Sustainability at SKF Group, a global leader in bearing technology, discussed how there are increasing expectations on sustainability from government, customers and investors. In a key example, he showed how SKF managed to reduce the carbon footprint by 30% per produced unit at its world-class manufacturing facility in Gothenburg, Sweden, while increasing production capacity and lowering personnel costs. Solutions at the plant include better condition monitoring, 5G solutions and automated guided vehicles.

Norsk Hydro  the need to increase the battery recycling capacity in Europe

Pia Magnussen, Vice President of Projects at Hydro, demonstrated how batteries enable the green transition, and can enable a 30% reduction in carbon emissions in both the transport and power sectors. In a demo of an ongoing project, she further discussed the considerable under-capacity of battery recycling in Europe today and the urgent need to establish and scale battery recycling. This is an area that which Hydro addressing in part together with partners in the EIT Manufacturing Flex-BD project, which aims to design a flexible automated process that allows disassembling battery packs and improve the quality of the recycling operations.

 

Volvo Cars —  collaborating with suppliers to ensure sustainability

Johanna Berlin, Technical Lead Climate Action at Volvo Cars, highlighted Volvo Cars sustainability ambitions and collaboration with suppliers. Volvo Cars has made a strategic decision to ensure sustainability is now as important as safety in their overall purpose and aim to be a climate neutral company by 2040. In lieu of a common Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) industry standard, Volvo Cars has developed its own, and working with suppliers to implement cradle-to-supplier gate LCA.

The day further gave space for presentations from project demos from Young Manufacturing Leaders (YML), an EIT Manufacturing-education project focused on strengthening the younger generation in the manufacturing industry. As well as presentations from the startups ChainTraced and Stilride on how their solutions can increase sustainability of industry. ChainTraced through CO2 and material traceability in the whole metallic value chain and Stilride through its robotic industrial origami process for sustainable steel construction.

“Leading Lights 2022 has been a chance to gather our community and discuss how we can work with a key topic for our industry. Working with the issue of sustainability shows the strength of the EIT Manufacturing model. This is a problem that is not solved by any one player, but through a systems approach and by engaging the whole ecosystem,” said Anna Hultin Stigenberg, Director at EIT Manufacturing Co-Location North.