[MUSIC] Hello. My name is Håkan Rodhe, and welcome to this section on resource efficiency in industry. There can be no greening of an economy without serious efforts to increase efficiency in the use of resources and reduce waste and inefficiencies. To make environmentally conscious choices of what resources to use is not enough. The resources also have to be used wisely. Industry has the leading role, both by providing solutions for other sections of our society, and by increasing the efficiency of their own operations. Today, we will explore the challenging but essential process of industry becoming more efficient in their own use of resources. So, while resource efficiency is the core strategy for greening of industry, the nice thing about it is that it also reduces cost, and thereby increases competitiveness. We often speak about win-win solutions. It has therefore also become the key element for kicking off an environmental effort in an organization. By showing economic savings, it's easier to get companies to accept devoting time, and attention to an environmental program. The basic process, is the establishment of a resource efficiency program in the organization, with energy efficiency, water, raw materials of some sort. The actual measures to implement, will range from being very simple, such as turning off equipment not in use, to more complicated and demanding developments of technology, and procedures. This big range of measures, involved implies that some things can be implemented with little background and experience, while other issues need specialized capacity. There's not one solution for all. And there is also need for learning and organization. The resource efficiency gains come from a focus on the production process. In contrast to the old day's focus, which was on end of pipe solutions where no productivity gains were made at all, and all environmental measures were costly. A prerequisite is a good understanding of the production process, understanding where and why resources are lost. A lesson here is that many companies lack a good understanding of the processes. Perhaps a bit surprisingly. So this becomes a first good step. Once knowing what goes on, what is needed is some sort of management set up to advance. Monitoring of how resource efficient the process is, and a plan-do-check act cycle, setting targets, assigning responsibilities and following up on the measures. Basically you need an environmental management system. And many companies in Scandinavia have chosen to use ISO 14001 for this. ISO 14001 is big in Scandinavia. And we're one of the leading regions for this. Now let's have a look at a live example, of a successful resource efficiency effort. Just in one hour from Lund, we find the production site of Absolut Vodka, where all the vodka for this brand is produced. Alcohol production is an energy demanding process with, among other things, a lot of distillation to be done. Let's see how they work to increase their energy efficiency. The production of alcohol in the Absolut plant is based on wheat from the surrounding areas. After some preparation, this wheat is fermented and then distilled to produce the final product. Energy costs are significant in the production, and the company has been working to reduce the energy consumption substantially, over the last two decades. Back in 1996 they used more than five kilowatt hours to produce one liter of alcohol. And through a series of changes in the production process, they are now down to 1.3 kilowatt hours per liter. To explore this improvement process in a bit more detail, one can see three large cuts in the consumption curve, followed by a slower reduction rate over several years. The more substantial reduction stem from major overhauls of the production process including entirely new distillation units. A big trick used has been mechanical vapor re-compression, where secondary vapor from distillation is compressed, so that it can be re-used to fuel the process again. But improvements are not only new technology, a lot of optimization comes from continuous attention to efficiency in the daily operations, with detailed monitoring of the process and follow-up. All in all, a more than 75% cut in the use of energy to produce a bottle of vodka. Very impressive. There are several lessons to be drawn from this case. One is that it's a continuous and a long term effort, involving the entire staff. Another key observation would be that it's a mix of larger technical advances with many smaller steps, to optimize the process through monitoring and controlling. The savings that Absolut have achieved are very extensive. And is this level of savings something we can expect to find across the line in organizations? Perhaps not, this is one of the better examples. However, research done here in Sweden is showing a potential for 50% reductions in small and medium sized industries. Not bad at all, of course large and energy consuming industries have already had a focus on energy efficiency for some time. So here the potential for improvement is not that substantial. Optimising resource efficiency is not necessarily a quick fix, there are many challenges involved. But it's nevertheless the backbone of a greening strategy. [MUSIC].
