Rompa Group as a partner in sustainability

27 July 2020

Sustainable entrepreneurship is very important to us at Rompa Group. For us, sustainability means securing the success of our business in the long run and protecting our natural environment for future generations at the same time.

Of course, we cannot do that alone. Sustainability is a broad concept that concerns us all. That is why we are collaborating with businesses and industries to develop sustainable initiatives and innovations. Ambitious goals and systematic sustainability management form the foundation for this collaboration. In this manner, we strive to make sustainability a core aspect of all our choices, big and small. In this chapter, we will cover a few of the measures we are taking to reduce the environmental impact of our business operations.

Sustainable product development

Rompa Group is eager to think along with its customers from scratch. Did you know we can even help you design new and sustainable products with a long life cycle? Our subsidiary Verhoeven Ontwerpburo possesses the requisite knowledge and expertise to develop your product for you. To do so, Verhoeven’s engineers collaborate closely with our project engineers, who design the moulds. The benefit for you? We take the manufacturability of your product into account at an early stage of the design process. You will know exactly what to expect.a

Saving energy by utilising machinery more efficiently

By using the so-called tandem technology in our mould constructions, we can shorten the cycle time of our injection-moulding machines. This technology allows us to produce two different components at the same time with a single machine. That is a huge step forward. Since one only machine is running at a time, you can save a lot of energy. On top of that, it eliminates the need to produce the components one after the other and keep a large inventory before sending the parts to the assembly line.

Industrial waste

At Rompa Group, we use post-consumer recycled (PCR) material whenever possible and desirable. PCR is plastic that largely consists of post-consumer waste, e.g. plastic packaging materials. More and more of our customers consent to us collecting, shredding and reusing the residual streams from our production processes. Think of e.g. sprues, rejected products and start-up waste. We think that is an excellent development. However, even if customers do not consent to this or if the residual material cannot be used, we do not simply throw anything out. Instead, we collect and separate the material and transport it to reliable parties that use the materials for ecologically responsible purposes, such as reuse.

Global footprint = more environmentally friendly transport

At Rompa Group, we often talk about our global footprint. This term should not be confused with the ecological footprint, which is the impact a person or business has on the planet. When we talk about our global footprint, what we mean is that we have production sites all over the world. Rompa Group and our subsidiary ITB have production sites across Europe, Asia and North America, where we can take care of every aspect of our customers’ production processes. The benefit of this is that customers can produce on a local-for-local basis, i.e. close to their sales market. This saves on transport costs and is much more sustainable: because the distance from the production site to the delivery location is smaller, significantly less CO2 is emitted, the costs are lower, the supply chain is shorter and companies need less inventory. The shorter distance also allows you to respond more rapidly to changing demands from the market. If the demand for your products increases rapidly in a short period of time, you can deliver those extra products to your customers in no time. Lastly, the shorter delivery times allow you to optimally manage your inventory and avoid wastage. In other words, we use our global footprint to reduce our ecological footprint.

One towel dispenser, millions of dry hands

Together with Vendor, Rompa Group developed a towel dispenser with an average lifespan of nine years. That is exceptionally long, especially when you consider that such dispensers, when placed in a busy toilet facility, can dry hundreds of hands every single day. Because of its long lifespan, the product is highly sustainable. The secret lies in the tightly controlled processes we use. We carefully test every single component and subsystem. After all, a minor deviation in a single component can affect the operation of the entire product. With our rigorous quality-control measures, we avoid such deviations and ensure all systems optimally work together. Furthermore, we can replace components in a modular manner, so there is no need to replace the entire product when one component breaks.

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