Our company is climate neutral!

Wuerzburg – Headmade Materials, developer of the metal 3D printing process Cold Metal Fusion (Metal SLS), is taking responsibility and achieves the goal of a climate-neutral company.

Sustainable development concerns all of us and, in our opinion, starts on a small scale. Therefore, for us as a young, responsible company, acting sustainable is an important aspect to which we feel strongly committed. Therefore we gladly accepted the proposal of our investor btov Partner and joined the Return on Society and Environment (ROSE) initiative of START Global (www.startglobal.org). The ROSE concept includes the known view on the company's own "operational sustainability" (e.g. the CO2 footprint of internal processes and supplied energy) but also the view forward in the value chain and thus the understanding of the impact of products and business models in the market or at the customer in all dimensions of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Already during the development of our Cold Metal Fusion (Metal SLS) printing process, we focused our attention not only on a production process that is as economical as possible, but also as ecological as possible. And we would like to continue to make our contribution to this. A large part of our material is already made from renewable raw materials and thus contributes to an environmentally friendly product life cycle. In the 3D printing process, the near-net-shape production of parts reduces material waste to an absolute minimum and the unused material can be reused 100% in our process.

In addition to the ecological advantages of our production process, we also make our contribution at company level with the achievement of the status of a climate neutral company. A climate-neutral company means: we have recorded our greenhouse gas emissions, are continuously reducing them and have offset unavoidable emissions through carbon offset projects.

 

1. Calculate emissions

Together with ClimatePartner (www.climatepartner.com) we have calculated our CCF - Corporate Carbon Footprint, i.e. the CO2 footprint of our company. In doing so, we take into account emission sources such as energy and heating, but also business travel, office supplies and all emissions that we cause as a company.

 

2. Avoid and reduce emissions

Our CCF clearly shows us where we can further reduce CO2. We update it regularly, giving us an overview of our success in reducing CO2 and identifying further potential for improvement. For example, we are successively increasing our energy sources to 100% renewable energies and have drawn up an action plan to reduce our process energies. Our employees must also make their contribution by gradually reducing business travel or switching to more climate-neutral travel options.

 

3. Offset emissions

However, there are always emissions left over that we cannot avoid at present. We consistently offset them by supporting a carbon offset project from the ClimatePartner portfolio. This year we have decided to support the solar energy project in Outapi Namibia:

www.climatepartner.com/1094

 

4. Create transparency

Via our label "climate-neutral company" and the ID number you can track our climate neutrality in the ClimatePartner-ID-Tracking: www.climatepartner.com/15089-2011-1001

 

Besides the avoidance and reduction of greenhouse gases, offsetting is an important step in holistic climate protection. Without offsetting, the goal of the Paris Agreement is no longer achievable - the technologies required to reduce all emissions drastically enough are simply not yet available. Investing in carbon offsetting projects also promotes sustainable development in the countries of the global south, so that progress does not have to be based on fossil fuels alone.

For us, however, sustainable development does not only mean environmental and climate protection. As described above, we pursue a holistic approach and are committed to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. For example, the project in Namibia pursues not only climate protection but also other sustainability goals such as fighting poverty or improving living conditions in emerging and developing countries. Here, too, we believe that you have to start on a small scale in order to drive a big development forward.

 

About Headmade Materials

Headmade Materials GmbH, Würzburg, Germany, develops materials and processes for metal 3D printing of serial parts. At the core of the technology is the sinter-based 3D printing process Cold Metal Fusion ("Metal SLS"), which enables customers to produce metal parts in series at low cost and in a scalable manner with quantities of up to 100,000 parts per year. By adapting the material, the process runs on established equipment from various manufacturers and considerably facilitates process integration and component certification. Headmade Materials offers customers full use of the Cold Metal Fusion technology as well as 3D printing services and consulting.