During all stages of our activities, from creating the design through the choice of materials and technological procedures up to logistics, sustainability is a priority for us. We try to minimise the impact on the environment, while at the same time keeping in mind the stability of our company which is an important employer in the region. This is how we define sustainability.
The environmental and economic parameters must be taken into account together. From the very beginning. We call this principle ECO 2.0.
We want to give nature back what we have taken from her. This is a nutshell description of our project A tree for a tree. The first step is the reforestation of bare land in the White Carpathians hills caused by the harvesting of sick or fallen trees. We have planted almost 14 000 new trees. By buying the necessary material at the end of 2020, we have supported the planting of more than 1 000 trees in Angola, specifically on the premises of a secondary school in the town of Longonjo. And this is not the end of our efforts as we are preparing to continue planting the trees.
We want to give nature back what we have taken from her. This is a nutshell description of our project A tree for a tree. The first step is the reforestation of bare land in the White Carpathians hills caused by the harvesting of sick or fallen trees. We have planted almost 14 000 new trees. By buying the necessary material at the end of 2020, we have supported the planting of more than 1 000 trees in Angola, specifically on the premises of a secondary school in the town of Longonjo. And this is not the end of our efforts as we are preparing to continue planting the trees.
At the beginning our effort was to find a meaningful use for the wood scraps created during the production of our street furniture. What we came up with were several product lines of children’s toys, games or teaching aids under the brand didawood. The potential waste has been turned into something useful – thus saving nature, bringing joy and proving that the sources for a considerate approach to nature can be found anywhere…
The project Didawood has also inspired others. The result is a collaboration with several Czech companies who have to deal with leftover or waste material. One example for all: dominoes. The pieces are created from wood scraps. The linen bag and its drawstring have been made from waste as well. And what about the instructions or the mat? Paper from wood leftovers from other projects.
We work with wood. What is left over, is used for heating of two production halls with a total area of 3,000 square metres, equalling to 75 percent of all production space. Our automatically controlled boilers belong to the highest emissions category. As the residual heat is used for heating water, we can save up to 139 MWh of electrical energy per year. When we have bigger volumes of scraps, we start our briquettes production line.
We also have an interesting source of heating in our smaller halls - the heat recovery ventilation units. The system draws waste heat from compressors and furnaces installed at our premises for surface finishing. In future, we also plan to extend our heat recovery capabilities, for example by using the waste heat from water. We are currently preparing the installation of rooftop photovoltaic power stations and further investments aiming to reduce the energy needs of our buildings.
Within our effort to reduce the consumption of tropical woods, we strive to use thermowood as much as we can. The basis is a common European wood which after being thermally modified gains similar properties to tropical wood. Thus, the logistics costs sink dramatically as well as the carbon footprint of the final product. Rather than transporting wood from let’s say South America, just take the pine growing nearby.
We have an established cooperation with the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague and the Mendel University in Brno regarding the specific use and implementation of this technology. We already use thermowood as a material for the production of our street furniture. Its share on the whole volume is likely to increase dramatically in the coming years as we are planning to have our own thermal treatment line in operation in 2022 at our premises in Bílovice.
Four forklift-trucks and seven passenger cars. This is our CNG fleet. The reason why we are turning away from the traditional types of fuel are greenhouse emissions. Through our investments in compressed natural gas technologies, we can save approximately 13 ton of carbon dioxide per year. We are committed to reducing the carbon footprint from our transport vehicles even further.
We don’t leave the water just to drain away. For example, the rainwater falling on our roofs and hard surfaces is directed to our lake rather than to the sewage system. The water in our lake fulfils three roles. First, our premises look better, as the lake and its environment are full of life. Second, it helps us with the irrigation of the adjacent orchard. And third, it is the primary source of water for extinguishing any possible fires on the company premises.