Green targets: MFL reduces energy consumption by one third

With an ecologically oriented action plan Maschinenfabrik Liezen und Gießerei (MFL) wants to reduce the specific energy consumption by about a third until 2030– and enjoy all the resulting economic benefits. Due to this plan the leading traditional company in the Ennstal region will save around EUR 8.5 million in total. Now the company has been certified in accordance with an internationally valid environment management system for the first time.

 How to harmonise economy and ecology: Maschinenfabrik Liezen und Gießerei (MFL) has strongly dedicated itself to this sustainable objective. Until 2030, the traditional enterprise from the Ennstal region wants to reduce specific energy consumption by 32.5 percent. In absolute numbers, this means that consumption measured at current production conditions shall be specifically reduced to 42 gigawatt hours. As a rough guide: With this action MFL will save energy consumption to the amount of some 1,000 detached houses in Styria as well as costs coming to some 8.5 million Euro in this period. “As an energy-intensive leading company we are committed to environment and climate on the one hand as well as local jobs, our employees and the whole region on the other hand. Our approach shows that ecological measures and economic objectives do not have to contradict one another – and this is the decisive factor for us,” explains MFL CEO Herbert Decker. This objective will be brought about by a package of targeted ecological measures that have largely been initiated already. Among these are the thermal renovation of several company buildings, changing to LED lighting (30 percent of the halls have already been changed), insulated windows respectively high-speed doors, as well as optimising heating pumps and heating control systems. Further environmentally friendly initiatives of the company are installing modern air systems ensuring thermal recovery including supplying surplus energy into the grid of the biomass DH thermal power station Liezen as well as increasingly utilising waste. “With these climate-friendly measures to the benefit of future generations we purposefully push the development of our business location – and at the same time we underline our leading role as a future-oriented employer with strong regional roots,” says Decker.

Certified energy management since 2013

 The recent past has shown that the targeted balance between business and environmental concerns is more than just lip service at MFL. Already since 2013, the Ennstal company has been striving to reduce energy consumption with an energy management system then implemented for strategic reasons; and in 2018, companywide heat recovery systems were installed for the heat treatment furnaces. In general, the Foundry has always been using resources particularly efficiently: About 90 percent of the castings are cast from Austrian scrap; and 100 percent of the by-product slag resulting from the smelting operation are utilised externally. “There is much more at stake than just environmental issues and social standards. International business partners and customers are also actively calling for ecological assessments and environmental key figures,” explains Decker. In addition to the energy management system already implemented in 2013, further framework conditions have been established to optimally document the environmental management: Recently, responsibilities and processes to implement the environmental management system were certified in accordance with an international standard. “The recognized environmental standard ISO 14001provides a systematic framework for companies to continuously improve their environmental performance and to make a greater contribution to ecological sustainability. This creates legal certainty and shows that we are acting in tune with the times in this context,“ emphasizes Michael Wolf, Head of Environment and Infrastructure at MFL. Based upon this certification, parameters such as the need for heat, process gas or compressed air shall be continuously and sustainably reduced at the MFL plant.