A green warehouse milestone
First warehouse in the greentec steel Edition completed
The customer, Nijhuis Saur Industries Benelux, has good reason to place its trust in the voestalpine company NEDCON for its new warehouse, as the low-carbon steel from the sister company in Linz enables the customer to reduce CO₂ emissions by 70% compared to conventional steel. Nijhuis is thus also taking a pioneering role in sustainable warehouse design, as the project, completed in February, is the world’s first NEDCON storage system made from premium steel in the greentec steel Edition 600. Nijhuis Saur Industries Benelux provides innovative, sustainable water and wastewater solutions to industrial and municipal customers in the Benelux countries and the DACH region. One of the company’s key production sites is located in Doetinchem, in the Netherlands. NEDCON, which has been part of the voestalpine Group since 2004, is also based in Doetinchem. This worked out well, because when Nijhuis decided to build a new warehouse, the specialists in the design and fit-out of warehouses and distribution centres were geographically close at hand.
Convincing greentec steel
Even more obvious, however, was the fact that the customer wanted to construct the warehouse as sustainably as possible and that NEDCON can supply shelving systems made from voestalpine materials in the greentec steel Edition – how fitting to support Nijhuis’s sustainability goals. After all, the new 20,000 m² hall for the assembly of water treatment plants and for material storage is one of the world’s first fully sustainable industrial buildings with zero water consumption and is operated in a CO2-neutral manner. By implementing the warehouse fit-out with materials from the greentec steel Edition, the customer can achieve more than respectable savings in the area of Scope 3 emissions – that is, indirect emissions resulting from a company’s value chain.
By using CO2-reduced steel for its warehouse solution, Nijhuis clearly demonstrates the sustainability strategy it pursues: not just talking about sustainability, but living it. The collaboration showed that we share the same values in this regard.
Sam van den Broek, Key Account Manager at NEDCON
Green USP: 72% CO2 savings
As a first step, the NEDCON project leads – Key Account Manager Sam van den Broek and Sustainability Manager Jan Rensen, along with their teams – held in-depth discussions with voestalpine experts in Linz (Austria) regarding the potential for using the greentec steel Edition as the raw material for the racking systems in the warehouse. Subsequently, the benefits, processes and costs were finalised in collaboration with the customer, all necessary product and sustainability documentation was submitted, and the project was successfully completed – marking the world’s first warehouse project realised in steel using the greentec steel Edition. This reduced the carbon footprint by 72% (!) compared to conventionally manufactured material. Even though the costs are comparatively higher, this undoubtedly represents clear added value for environmentally conscious customers and is definitely a compelling argument.
The project with Nijhuis has shown that even though the costs of an investment such as a warehouse are obviously a decisive factor, the long-term, strategy-strengthening advantages of CO2-reduced greentec steel outweigh them. That is our USP.
Jan Rensen, Sustainability Manager at NEDCON