Sustainability – Doing things the right way requires commitment and investments

For the past year or so we have been working on the TT Gaskets sustainable development program that targets our overall sustainability. Its focus areas are the environmental, commercial, and social sustainability of our company.

We have interviewed our employees and stakeholders regarding the importance of sustainability and conducted research to assess our impact on the environment.

Through our findings, we have made a plan on how to improve our operations in the coming years. We are also working on a Code of Conduct for our suppliers to participate in this important mission. One of the key aspects of this program is our Carbon Neutral TTG 2027 goal which is already being implemented with good momentum. We have pieced together our greenhouse gas emission sources and calculated the overall CO₂ equivalent emissions of our manufacturing and administration.

Avoiding false greenwashing

Of our direct emissions, 100 % come from energy: the electricity and heat needed to run our production and keep our facilities warm. Our emissions could be easily (and falsely) “compensated” by spending a couple of thousand euros towards a tree planting organization. After a swift greenwashing cycle, we could claim our company “carbon-neutral”.

There’s nothing bad about planting trees, but taking the easy way out is just not how we are used to doing things.

We like to do things the right way from start to finish which means not spending our money on a dubious forestation program to alleviate our guilty conscience. Instead, we are making actual progress in our green energy investments and spending hundreds of thousands in the process.

Investments for the future

We have already invested in a solar power plant that covers 20–25 % of our annual electricity consumption, and plans are in place to expand the plant to cover the remaining roof area next year. This would increase our solar energy production to roughly a third of our consumption. The rest of the electricity will be sourced from a certified green energy supplier. We are also reducing our emissions by reducing electricity consumption through investments in LED lighting and taking energy efficiency into account in new machinery investments.

Our facilities are currently heated through traditional district heating from the local CHP plant. Naturally, this means high efficiency, but unfortunately the plant uses mostly natural gas for production which is not compliant with our sustainability targets. Therefore, our plan is to invest in geothermal energy and air-water heat pumps to compensate at least some of the need for district heating. And again, the rest of our heat is sustainably sourced from the soon-to-be finished local bio energy CHP plant.

These major energy investments together with all other smaller actions such as reducing unnecessary business trips, electrifying our vehicles and joining a circular economy program ensure that we are well on our way towards a truly Carbon Neutral TTG in 2027. Of course, the journey doesn’t end there, but instead has just started as we are designing Smarter Sealing for a Sustainable Future.