Sustainability means taking responsibility
for the people and the environment.
Fastbolt Taskforce
FBsave
Putting a stronger emphasis on green topics along with the blue-red Fastbolt workaday life. That was one of the goals when founding the Fastbolt Taskforce FBsave in 2018. The taskforce’s paramount goal is to boost environmental sustainability with regard to our business activities at Fastbolt as well as our everyday life by continually raising our awareness for environmental issues and resource conservation.
Since its foundation, the taskforce has been meeting on a regular basis, to develop approaches for a sustainable business and to raise environmental awareness. The taskforce is made up of General Manager Ekkehard Beermann, our Lead Software Developer and Environmental Officer in the context of ISO 9001 Daniel Hirtzbruch as well as our Packaging Manager Sven Rosowski. Moreover, two apprentices are part of the taskforce. By including two apprentices in the taskforce, we want to take young people perspectives into consideration when we talk about ecological topics. On the other hand, we want to prepare the apprentices for working on a project base. To finish the project, the apprentices can, for example, present the results to their colleagues.
That was the case for the first two apprentices participating in the taskforce: After conducting several measurements and doing research, they developed projects which they introduced to their colleagues in different trainings. Some of the projects we are going to present here:
FBsave Project
Emissions
Our premises are visited by many trucks, daily. To limit emissions, we put up signs to request truck drivers to turn off their engines while waiting.
Moreover, we want to motivate our employees to cover the distance to work by bike. To make it more attractive, we offer the opportunity to lease very good bikes via JobRad. Of course, the bikes can be parked protected from wind and weather.
FBsave Project
POWER CONSUMPTION
We campaign to consume as little power as possible.
As part of their project, our apprentices measured the power consumption of different appliances both in an active and in standby-mode. These measurements were followed by the development of methods to reduce power consumption. In their presentation, the apprentices invited their colleagues to turn off their appliances when leaving the office in the evening and to avoid standby-mode.
Little by little we replace all lightbulb by power-saving LED bulbs to reduce power consumption even with constant lighting.
FBsave Project
PRINTING AND PAPER
When it comes to paper consumption and printing, we campaign to Think first, then print – we only want to print what is really necessary. When printing, there is always an opportunity to use recycled paper, meaning paper printed on one side that is not used for documentation. There is a drawer for recycled paper in every printer.
For the years 2019 and 2020 the apprentices evaluated the printers’ activities. Even with continuous growth and increasing numbers of orders we were able to reduce our print jobs.
To continue reducing the print jobs, we convert our business to ebilling. That means that after customers agree, they receive their invoices, their delivery notes, packing lists and other documents digitally. At the same time, we approach our suppliers and ask them to provide our invoices and delivery notes digitally.
FBsave Project
HEALTH
Our employees‘ health is most important to us. To maintain their health, we review our workflows in the warehouse on a regular basis, aiming to reduce physical stress so our employees can do their jobs for a long time while staying healthy.
In our tea rooms, we also provide fresh fruit and vegetables, from a local fruit farmer, for all employees.
FBsave Project
PLASTICS
We regularly question our packaging material and seek to find environmentally friendly alternatives which provide the same protection for our goods. We use wrapping foil to prepare and protect our goods for shipment. By converting to a halfautomatic wrapping machine and employing pre-strechted foil, we were able to reduce our foil consumption by 60% (former consumption 316g, now 135g per palette). We therefore have a lower material usage, need to change the rolls less frequently and have a better compacting pressure, which also means a better load securing.
Beyond packaging we aim to avoid plastics. One way to do so is our water preparation system in our tea rooms, where our employees can get chilled, unchilled and carbonated water to fill in their aluminium bottles. Every employee received an aluminium bottle so there is no need to use plastic bottles. If there is plastic waste, we dispose plastic separately to recycle it properly. All dumpsters are labeled accordingly.
