Constant commitment to the environment pays off: For the second time, Aumüller Druck in Regensburg received the biennial environmental prize for companies awarded by the city. In 1995, the company's exemplary waste management concept was honoured - in 2020, its many and varied measures to achieve largely CO2-neutral production.
The two-time award marks the beginning and the climax to date of an enterprise-wide optimisation process which Aumüller Druck has set up and is continuously driving forward with the environmental consultancy firm Intechnica Consult GmbH from Nuremberg. Active environmental protection has been established as a central corporate objective. Employees and suppliers were sworn to this goal. Today, the workforce is committed to and proactively supports the environmental measures.
Following the successful implementation of the waste concept, the focus of these measures was initially on a comprehensive optimisation of the building technology - including the extraction and use of process heat. Step by step, numerous other projects to reduce the ecological footprint were added. For example:
Printing plate production free of chemicals and water (approx. 2 million litres of water saved, additional savings of up to 16,000 litres of developer chemicals and 20 tonnes of waste requiring monitoring per year)
Printing with "organic inks" (vegetable-based binder, cobalt-free)
Alcohol-free printing (avoidance of VOC emissions)
Use of harmless printing powder (without fine dust pollution)
Minimisation of printing powder (innovative development with Heidelberger Druckmaschinen)
Organic detergents and cleaning agents (high-boiling and vegetable-based)
Minimisation of start-up waste (to approx. 50 % of the industry standard)
Packaging in cartons (no plastic)
Waste concept with high recycling rate (e.g. also pallet foil or disposable pallets)
Recycling rate up to 99% as a result of the continuously developed waste concept
In addition to these environmental protection measures within the company, Aumüller Druck is also involved in contributions to publicly discussed and operated topics. These include, for example, the establishment of a bee colony and the planting of bee-friendly plants in the outdoor facilities. Another example is the handling of the foil packaging of the delivered paper pallets: they are collected separately, pressed and sent for safe recycling.
Aumüller owes this year's presentation of the Regensburg Environmental Award for Companies to a whole range of efficient measures for CO2 avoidance and reduction:
Heat recovery of the printing presses and central compressors (energy saving)
Diversion of process heat in warehouses (energy saving)
New building with skylights (saving on lighting)
Conversion from T8 lamps to LED lamps (energy saving)
Replacement of non speed-controlled pumps (energy saving)
Exchange of all PCs for thin clients (energy saving)
Photovoltaic system (energy generation)
Detailed load curve analysis (detection of energy wastage)
Detailed recording of consumption (detection of waste)
Purchase of a plug-in hybrid car
Purchase of an e-car
Purchase of a load e-wheel
Internal competition: "By bike to work" with award ceremony
Purchase of green electricity only
Christian Aumüller comments: "Of course we cannot produce completely climate-neutral. But our aim is first to avoid or reduce as much CO2 as possible - and only then to compensate for as much of the remaining CO2 emissions as possible. First avoid/reduce - then compensate. Compensation is not 'greenwashing', but helps to stabilise the global climate through projects, particularly in Africa and Asia. And on the recent award of the environment prize: "We are pleased that our activities for sustainable production are also publicly recognised and acknowledged.
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