Emmi Company in Switzerland - Essay Example

Sustainability in Global Business: Emmi Company in Switzerland By [Environmental studies] of IntroductionEmmi Group is Switzerland’s largest processor of milk, as well as one of Europe’s premium dairies, that concentrates on the development of a broad array of fresh dairy products and their production and marketing (Emmi Group: Genuine Swiss Premium Taste, 2014: p1). Moreover, the company focuses on the production and trade of Swiss cheese products in Switzerland and its export market, which includes North America and Europe. In this latter market, Emmi’s strategic focus is on branding and brand concept, particularly with regard to health, lifestyle, and convenience of its product. This essay will set out to examine the sustainability of Emmi Company, and its sustainability potential in the future, especially in relation to environmental impacts and anticipated changes in the next forty years. Emmi has sought to differentiate its brand by enhancing sustainability in the past through careful and sustainable use of resources, and in its production activities. By doing this, Emmi seeks to satisfy required food standards for its market niche, ensuring that its products are safe and of high quality (Emmi Group: Genuine Swiss Premium Taste, 2014: p1). Basing their activities on economic production, they are also aware of the customers’ anticipation that Emmi pursues a strategy of sustainability that should have continuous price reductions as an attribute. This brings up a crucial aspect of Emmi’s business strategy in attempting to satisfy the customers’ expectations for superior brand quality in relation to maintaining customer friendly prices. This paper discusses the strategy pursued by Emmi in using competent and sound technologies that enable them to carry out energy intensive processes, making the company one of the industry’s leading entity in corporate responsibility. Sustainability is also a critical aspect of Emmi’s mission statement that all its employees are expected to adhere to in sustaining the company’s commitment to corporate management that is environmentally friendly. The sustainability strategy at Emmi is based on three key pillars, which are social commitment, economics, and ecology and finding a balance between these pillars (Three strategic pillars, 2014: p1). These pillars are grounded on corporate values that are aligned with its corporate philosophy, which will bring the paper to an analysis of Emmi’s environmental impacts and changes anticipated in the next forty years, in relation to their global business’ sustainability potential. Analysis Emmi’s environmental policy holds that the company is committed to environmentally friendly corporate management and behaviour system (Sustainability, 2014: p1). Emmi refrains from using genetically modified organisms in its production and development operations, a commitment that has remained part of the company’s environmental policy since the mid-‘90s and has the potential to withstand economic and social pressures in the next forty years. This commitment is the grounding for the company’s environmental management system that has been aligned with its activities and operations. Emmi’s has sought to faithfully observe and review its environmental guidelines on a regular basis given the dynamic nature of environmental trends in today’s globalized world. Notably, this regular review of environmental guidelines has placed Emmi’s operation systems in alignment with ever-changing processes of production. These regulations have been continuously maintained and sustained through the process of environmental management (Sustainability, 2014: p1), whose implication is that as long as the department tasked with environmental management is effective, the trend will continue. Additionally, Emmi’s sustainability efforts in their environmental activities are strictly based on compliance with local legislation, national cantonal laws, and ISO 4001. At Emmi, their environmental management strategy involves waste disposal, energy, noise, chemical substance disposal, records of environmental waste-water, and legal acquiescence. Their index check is focused on primary energy, carbon dioxide, waste, and water figures. The values presented below are representative of Emmi’s environmental record between 2010 and 2012, which will be used to offer projections for their potential sustainability record through to 2054. Description 2011 1012 2052 Product sales in t 610,836 623,234 740,340 Electricity consumption in million kWh 121.6 121.3 103.2 Electricity consumption/ product sales in KWh/t 195 199 129 Water consumption in million m3 3.0 2.9 7.0 Water consumption / product sales in m3/t 4.9 4.7 12.9 Waste volumes in million kg 2.5 2.0 0.68 Waste volumes/product sales in kg/t 4.0 3.3 2.0 CO2 emissions in t 36, 493 35,752 8,455 Volume of milk in t 896,000 882,000 1,008,000 CO2 emissions/Volume of milk in g/kg 40.7 40.5 20.7 As Emmi continues to conduct business into the future, it is expected that they will also expand their environmental sustainability efficiency in line with production capacity increases. This has several important implications, especially that stakeholders at Emmi expect the company’s water consumption, production of milk, and subsequent sales volumes to increase, as will the production of increased amounts of carbon dioxide and waste products. Essentially, these projections running through to 2052 are based on respective increase in production and decrease in waste production and pollution. The table given above is representative of a broad projection based on a model of 40× incremental and decreasing operations. What this implies is that the attributes expected to increase will do so by 40× of the current rate, while those expected to decrease will do so by a similar rate, but in reverse. Considering the table, it is evident that emissions of carbon dioxide are set to decrease as Emmi strives to sustain its environmental emissions reduction strategy, which will ensure that they work towards reducing environmental emissions. Energy Dairy production is an energy-intensive process, especially during the manufacturing and production process, in addition to sub-processes such as storage and transportation that require energy for cooling (Sustainability initiative, 2014: p1). Equally, the processing activities that require raw milk to be cooled and heated make Emmi utilize fossil fuels and electricity, particularly diesel fuels and liquid gas that are high-energy products. Annually, Emmi consumes the same energy that is required by approximately 20,000 average Swiss homes at ~120,000 MWh. Therefore, if Emmi is to achieve its sustainability targets and reduce energy expenditure, it must seek to use mixed-power sources. As the company strives to reduce its energy usage and minimize the impact of its operations on the environment, it has begun to consider energy options that are friendlier to the environment. Emmi, for instance, has in the recent past turned to purchasing forklifts that consume 20% less energy as part of its selection criteria for sustainability projects in the future (Sustainability initiative, 2014: p1). Emmi’s continued presence at the helm of the industry’s Energy Agency for the last ten years, coupled with its positive and regular reviews, is evidence of its continued goals to optimize its energy requirements (Sustainability initiative, 2014: p1). This has been supported by its decision to pursue energy efficiency by replacing carbon based energy resources with options that release less carbon as by-products. An example has been the replacement of oil-fired systems that allow increased economic and technical efficiency by embracing renewable and gas-dependent energy resources, which are aligned with their decision to reduce sources that are energy and carbon-rich (Sustainability initiative, 2014: p1). This clearly evidences their commitment to their mission statement, implying that they will have embraced systems and process that require less energy by 2052, reducing their energy consumption rates significantly. The table above in its projections makes an allowance for this expected reduction in electricity consumption for gas-fired alternatives. It is positively expected that, comparing the projections for energy consumption in 2052 to the consumption between 2011 and 2012, the firm’s strategic mission to reduce its reliance on sources that are energy intensive will be achieved. Description 2011 2012 2052 Heating oil (Extra light) 17, 137 19, 733 109, 700 Heating oil (Medium and heavy) - - - Natural gas (Fuel) 159, 929 153, 321, 70,635 Petrol 438 477 637 Diesel oil 25, 922 21, 428 6,650 District heating (consumption) 17, 875 17, 888 17,360 District heating (Production) -950 -985 --1120 Electricity 120, 344 119 130 14,825 Wood chips, pellets 2,156 2,166 2,566 Biogas (own production) 1685 1273 475 Rapeseed Oil methyl ester 213 149 27 Total 334,581 344, 750 221,775 The table and chart above show that there is an observable decreasing trend between 2011 and 2012 in energy requirements for Emmi, which implication is that Emmi continues to honour its environmental sustainability targets (Sustainability initiative, 2014: p1). This is evidenced by decreasing energy intensive source reliance in relation to increasing sources dependent on gas, which seems inevitable in the period leading up to 2052. This further enhances the study’s ability to approximate energy trends that offer insight into anticipated projections for 2052 as made in the figure above. Water In the dairy production process, water is one of the most important resources especially in maintaining hygienic plant conditions for cooling and heating purposes and for course learning. Wastewater that is released as effluent is both an environmental hazard and economic wastage for Emmi. The company in the recent past has been adapting to projects that allow it to optimize its water usage to reduce its requirements for fresh water (wn.com, 2012: p1). An example of such projects is the reuse of water at various stages of the company’s processes, which has enabled Emmi to reduce loss of water and reduce wastage of the precious commodity. Equally, their Suhr production plant has installed steam network configurations that have enhanced the company’s ability to reduce steam pressure quantity required at the plant to 16 pars from the initial 24 pars. This reduction in steam pressure requirements, in turn, led to a decline in thermal losses that resulted in a subsequent reduction of annual energy needs by a percentage point. Using the model proposed above, it is possible to approximate that reduction of water wastage will reduce to Read More