It's all about the tubes: avoiding construction waste
High-profile resource efficiency
In the drywall business, not only is packaging good for protecting products during transport, it can also be a way to display a brand or a message.
The longer a building project goes on, the more damage profiles tend to sustain during transport and unloading. This is often thanks to improper on-site storage or because they've been inadequately secured during transport. This is where new logistics concepts are called for on the job site. For drywall work, our range of tubes allows you to avoid up to 20 percent of additional waste.
Until recently, the circular economy has relied on recycled waste materials, sometimes involving additional energy and logistics costs. The recently updated Commercial Waste Ordinance has also led to a rethinking of how we handle waste minimization, leading to a considerable reduction in waste and transport costs, and not just with plaster and drywall profiles.
As a manager over at Rockwool Germany in Gladbeck, most recently as director of sales and part of the senior management team, Stefan Endlweber had already seen how much damage (sometimes quite a lot of it) could be caused to plaster and drywall profiles while they are transported and delivered to the job site. Now, as a producer of profiles, in barely a year as managing partner, Endlweber has streamlined Baukom's job site logistics, putting the company on a path to real sustainability. "We're increasing our profile in the business with high resource efficiency. Bent edges and corners mean that almost 20 percent of profiles delivered to the job site end up in the trash right after being unloaded from the truck. Until now, this loss is something construction companies would account for even when placing their orders. Today, even competitors count on our tube packaging. Equipped with a company's own logo, companies like to use these reusable packages as a form of advertising,” Endlweber says in describing the unexpected popularity of his ‘transport tubes’.
Value stream design: a standard instead of beacon
For companies working with windows and exteriors, a 20 percent damage rate during transportation is an unacceptable loss. This is why the Baukom team is expanding its reusable "tube range" by a total of
17 plaster profiles in various standard dimensions. "For the building industry, starting in 2018 there's going to be even less construction waste produced on the job site, in keeping with the Commercial Waste Ordinance,” he promises.
One method that can also be combined with the continual improvement process (CIP) is value stream design. As an instrument of ‘lean management’ it can be used in implementing a total productive maintenance (TPM) system, which involves identifying those parts of the production process that increase value and those that don't. It includes the flow of all materials, information, and processes – from raw materials all the way to the customer.
The research initiative Zukunft Bau (‘Future of Building’) from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) also deals with resource efficiency in detail. According to the initiative, by 2050 recycled materials should make up 70 percent of the metals we use – as proposed in the Building the Future research report volume 6 Material Streams: ‘Potential for a Circular Economy’.
In light of the Commercial Waste Ordinance and the looming shortage of raw materials, waste minimization takes a higher priority for everyone involved. On August 1st, 2017 the new Commercial Waste Ordinance (GewAbfV, Gewerbeabfallverordnung) went into effect. According to the ordinance, those who generate and those who own waste produced in the context of construction and demolition projects must now demonstrate compliance with new regulations regarding the separation and documentation of waste products, independent of the type of project in question. New construction, renovation, restoration, and demolition projects will now have to collect waste separately by material (glass, plastics, metals, wood, insulation material, bituminous mixtures, gypsum-based building materials, concrete, bricks and tiles, and ceramics). For solid waste produced by businesses and waste produced on construction and demolition sites, a violation of these waste separation regulations shall constitute a summary offense punishable by a fine of 100,000 EUR and an entry in the Central Register Trade and Industrial Offenses (Gewerbezentralregister). Non-compliance with the rules concerning documentation can also be punished with a fine.
Baukom supports The European Week for Waste Reduction
The eighth European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) is taking place in Germany and 33 other European countries from November 18th –26th, 2017. The EWWR is concerned with the conservation of resources, calling for the responsible handling of resources in everyday life, in business, and in politics. In 2017, the theme is conservation of resources and accountability in everyday life, in business, and in politics and administration.
https://www.wochederabfallvermeidung.de/
In the context of the EWWR, Baukom is leading the discussion on additional means of waste reduction in building site logistics.
About Baukom: Green Competence
Baukom develops, produces, and supplies materials and accessories for thermal insulation systems that provide sustainable protection for the environment and the climate while increasing comfort inside buildings and at workplaces. And with Baukom, safety levels are increased wherever modern insulation materials are employed. After all, thermal insulation means protection – for people as well as the environment. Protection from cold and noise. From fire and heat. From CO2 emissions and greenhouse gases.
http://umweltdienstleister.de/2017/10/10/ressourceneffizienz-mit-profil/
BAUKOM GmbH
Stefan Endlweber
Managing Partner