PKT Tiefenbronn – Distinguished 2020 energy award winners!
PKT GmbH already started promoting an energy-efficient way of working at the company back in 2012. Since 2015, PKT and their energy management have been certified according to ISO 50001. This commitment has recently been rewarded with the second-place “Gipfelstürmer” (summiteer) award from the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
The 5,000 Euro cash prize was almost secondary. To PKT’s managing director Peter Rapp and his employees, it’s all about conducting the entirety of the company’s affairs in an energy-efficient way, day after day. This demands a high degree of sensitivity. On this, Peter Rapp remarked, “The only way sustainable results can be achieved is if everyone at the company takes part in saving energy. To now be among the best in Baden-Württemberg is both an honour and an obligation.”
The Summiteer award, which was presented on 19 November, 2020 as part of the KEFF Summit in Stuttgart, Germany, recognises entrepreneurial commitment to a comprehensive energy-efficiency concept. “The diversity of successfully implemented efficiency measures deeply impressed the jury,” said Franz Untersteller, former Minister of the Green Party in the state government responsible for the environment, climate and the energy industry, in his laudation. He appeared most impressed with the industry-specific projects of the tool maker and plastic processor. This is how PKT were rightly able to secure the award, as highlighted by Untersteller at the presentation of the certificate and prize money in Tiefenbronn.
In 2012, the company began systematically analysing flows of energy to identify every area where energy could be efficiently saved. Since 2015, the Environment and Energy Team have been further systematically promoting the company’s energy management, which is certified according to ISO 50001. Other projects got off the ground with the Baden-Württemberg KEFF (Energy Efficiency Competency Centre) Summit starting in 2016.
In this way, PKT have been able to reduce their previous energy consumption by around 20 per cent over the past few years by investing in new pneumatic compressors and plastic granulate dryers, converting to LED lighting, replacing the cooling water system and acquiring energy-efficient hybrid injection-moulding machines, for example.
Annual heating oil consumption was also reduced by over 2,000 litres by optimising the heating system and heat-recovery concepts. All told, PKT have been able to considerably reduce CO2 emissions by over 200 mt annually using these and other methods. The company aren’t stopping there, though, as their formalised goal is to identify other areas for potential optimisation to increase this number further.
This shows that – though PKT are still a small- to mid-sized operation with 150 employees – climate-protection goals are important to the company, which is why they will continue to be promoted. At present, the vast majority of companies of this size aren’t following this path as a matter of course.
Regional KEFF Moderator Andreas Fibich saw things quite the same way, remarking that “winning the Summiteer Award reflects PKT’s courage to lead the way and the effort they put forth.” He was also especially pleased by the recognition for this reason, as the regional competence centre of the North Black Forest Chamber of Industry and Commerce was able to support PKT on site in successfully implementing adapted energy-efficiency measures.
Image at top: Efficiency Moderator for KEFF Black Forest North Andreas Fibich, PKT Managing Director Peter Rapp, PKT Energy and Environmental Manager Jörg Sprenger, Minister of the Environment Franz Untersteller, PKT Technical Director Thomas Kaupp and Managing Director of Environmental Technology for Baden-Württemberg Dr. Hannes Spieth (from left to right), delighted to transfer the cash prize and award certificate.