Green Values – steps towards an ecologically sustainable construction market
Our initiatives for a greener world
We firmly believe that every company has a responsibility to protect ecological diversity and take action in order to reduce climate change. We have therefore made ecological sustainability one of our core values. When we began to implement this promise, we were keen to avoid superficial gestures such as CO2 compensations and other consultant-fueled concepts. Instead, we wanted to transform our green initiatives into real actions to reduce our burden on the planet.
Ground source heat pumps
A major investment in improving the energy efficiency has been replacing oil with ground source heat pumps in the Korsholm factory in Finland. This reduces our annual CO2 emissions by more than 300 tonnes. This is equivalent to 680 flights from Helsinki to Munich and back (reference: https://www.openco2.net/fi/co2-muunnin )
Read more here.
Solar panels
Our factory roof is the site of one of the largest solar power plants in Western Finland, consisting of 1040 solar panels. It supplies 10% of the factory’s total annual energy consumption.
Internal material recycling
During the manufacturing process, 99 % of the polypropylene is used in products and less than 1% ends up being burned for energy production.
Factory
We have replaced the old machines in the factory with new, energy-efficient models.
During the manufacturing process, the hot raw material (polypropylene) is cooled with water. As the products cool, the water becomes warm. The warm water is used for underfloor heating in the factory. This is how we have saved energy since the 1980s.
LED lights
We have invested in intelligent LED lighting solutions at our headquarters.
Environmental certificate
The management system of VILPE has been evaluated and the company has been certified with the SGS ISO 14001:2015 environmental standard. This certificate covers the development, design, manufacturing and sales of VILPE products.
Designing environmentally friendly products
Longevity
Our products are made of polypropylene. The material allows the products to withstand the harshest weather conditions even for 30 years. The longevity of product life cycle saves natural resources.
Resourse calculation
We want our products to have the smallest possible environmental effect. This is the reason we have made a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to e.g. VILPE IO products. LCA indicates the amount of greenhouse gas emissions during the product life cycle, from acquiring the raw material to the product disposal.
For example, VILPE IO 125’s carbon footprint is equivalent to driving a car for 42 kilometres.
Constant product development
We are constantly developing our products to be more durable and environmentally friendly. Our aim is to focus on reducing the pressure loss of VILPE products, which reduces the energy consumption – this benefits both your bank account and the environment.
For instance, VILPE FLOW exhaust ventilation pipes have up to 40% lower pressure loss compared to our previous products, which in turn can reduce up to 12% of a ventilation unit’s total energy consumption.
