• Validation at overall Salzgitter AG Group level
• Net zero by 2050 at the latest
• Ambitious plan with decarbonization measures adopted

Binding targets for and holistic commitment to climate protection: together with Group parent Salzgitter AG the KHS Group pledges to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The results of the now completed validation by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) confirm that the Dortmund systems supplier is on the right course.

The independent climate protection organization SBTi develops standards, tools and guidelines which enable companies to set concrete greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. These are transparently validated in a recognized audit procedure. At the end of last year, together with all other Salzgitter AG companies and through the overall Group KHS submitted binding short-term and long-term targets for science-based CO₂ reduction. The results that are also based on the Paris Climate Agreement and are in accordance with the 1.5 °C target have now been validated by the SBTi. Compared to base year 2021, in the short term the KHS Group will cut its greenhouse gas emissions generated directly by combustion (scope 1) and indirectly by the use of purchased electricity (scope 2) by around 36 % at all of its sites by 2028. Furthermore, in the same period the greenhouse gas emissions from the company’s upstream and downstream value chain (scope 3) will be lowered by 20 %. “Alongside the long-term and science-based Group target of net zero by 2050 at the latest, our short-term goals for 2028, approved by the SBTi, are just as ambitious, as important measures such as the switch to green electricity at our German plants were already fully implemented before base year 2021. We’re now concentrating on further energy efficiency measures and our international facilities. These act within very different energy markets,” explains Kai Acker, CEO of KHS GmbH.

KHS adopts ambitious plan

“We only have a few years in which to achieve our intermediate goal,” Acker continues. “We thus put the time up until validation to good use and have adopted a number of specific decarbonization measures. The first steps will now be initiated in the near future. Our ambitious plan is both an incentive and an obligation. We’re also showing our customers that we act responsibly and with transparency when it comes to protecting our climate,”Acker concludes.

The KHS Group now provides the drive technology for its packaging plant technology in two different variants. As customs and standards on some markets are very different, in offering two versions the systems supplier is now much more flexible regarding the worldwide sale of its lines and machines.

From hybrid system to twin standard

Regarding servodrive technology in machines, the world has two prime manufacturers: Siemens and Rockwell Automation. In the past packaging machines from KHS were mostly equipped with a hybrid system, in which the programmable logic controller (PLC) and visualization were either from Siemens or Rockwell and Indramat motors from Bosch Rexroth were used as standard for the servotechnology. In the course of further technical development and standardization KHS decided to opt for PLCs and Simotion D from Siemens for the future. Siemens technology is not the preferred system everywhere in the world, however, explains Karl-Heinz Klumpe, packaging product manager for KHS in Kleve. “We’ve thus now been able to find an equivalent system specially for the North American market, which is dominated by Rockwell Automation, in order to continue to fully satisfy the demands of our customers.”

Different standard, same technology

This solution is not completely new to the systems supplier, however; the Rockwell system has been used in servodrive technology on KHS filling systems since 2008 – firstly, because most of the plant engineering for the American market is built at the KHS production site in Waukesha in Wisconsin, USA, and secondly, because there was a market demand for it very early on.

KHS meets customer demands worldwide

“For us it was important to close this niche – which to date we’d only exploited in individual cases – by producing a standard,” emphasizes Klumpe. “We can now service any request worldwide with our systems because we supply two respectively universal systems with components from the two leading manufacturers.” In practice this means that KHS servodrives of the latest Rockwell Kinetix 5700 generation and, analogous to this, the Siemens Simotion D series are used, both of which have an availability of well over ten years and thus give KHS customers long-term security.