At Black Bruin, respect for nature has been a core value since the beginning. Sustainability, durability and reduced costs for the end customer go hand in hand. We have been measuring our energy consumption and production waste for a long time and have implemented measures to reduce our environmental impact already in the past. To understand the full life cycle emissions of our products, we have now gone a big step forward and created a life cycle assessment for our RH3016 rotator in collaboration with the University of Jyväskylä.
To fulfil our customer’s wish for a sustainable hydraulic piston rotator, we have been using fossil-free electricity and heating for multiple years already. With our new analysis we are now also including our supplier’s performance, which has shown to be significantly better than the market average and further supports our own sustainability efforts. The high use of fossil-free electricity and more than 68% recycled metal in the rotator and its link reduces the overall carbon footprint to ~263kg CO2eq.
After the rotator’s lifetime, 95% of it can be recycled and made into a new rotator, therefore closing the material loop and contributing to a circular economy.
Due to our sustainable supply-chain and production, less than 2% of the rotator’s emissions are caused during production. Most of the environmental impacts are generated after the rotator leaves our factory and fulfils its job inside the harvester due to fuel burning.
Our low leakage and oil flow rate of 20l/min is an excellent base for low fuel consumption and can be further supported by the end-user. Opting for a sustainable harvester model, fuel-efficient driving and using software-side flow limiters can further decrease fuel consumption. Although the rotator makes up only 1-4% of the harvester’s fuel use, small changes can make a big difference over the estimated lifetime of 20.000 harvester hours (functional unit) resulting in a difference of multiple tons of CO2eq and thousands of euros in fuel costs.
With this successful step towards comparable sustainability data, we are continuing our efforts to expand carbon footprint information also for other products. With our new interdisciplinary team addition, Marc Lomas will continue his work at Black Bruin to develop our offerings and support our customers in making informed and sustainable choices.
The life cycle assessment was created according to ISO14044 as research project in cooperation with the University of Jyväskylä. The cradle-to-grave analysis contains all process steps from mining, metal production, machining and assembly to transport, usage and disposal. A cut-off approach was chosen to include all parts over 1% of the rotator’s weight and data was sourced from suppliers, Ecoinvent database as well as Black Bruin’s own operations. Further details and the full calculation can be found via the University of Jyväskylä.
Veera is studying for the third year at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences to become a logistics engineer. She has always been a keen summer job applicant. Way back in December, she started thinking of an interesting place and to check out her options on the internet.
A true love affair: The Team Leader of Black Bruin’s sales back office team, Jaana Tabally, and Black Bruin have been together already for 25 years. What is the secret of such a long and lasting relationship?
Duru Yildirim is a third-year Industrial Engineering student from Baskent University in Ankara. This past month, we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming her to work with us on sustainability and supplier communication topics.