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2/17/2021

  • Sustainability

Shaping our sustainability efforts around the UN Sustainable Development Goals  

BDR Thermea Group’s vision is to bring a zero-carbon future closer. We supply products and services that enable the global shift towards sustainable energy carriers. This is why we have chosen five UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where we as a company can have most impact on society and the environment.

“As a company owned by a foundation, we are naturally committed to contributing to the world around us,” says BDR Thermea Group CEO Bertrand Schmitt. “We have chosen our five SDGs - climate action, responsible consumption & production, quality education, gender equality and health - very carefully because they are the ones where we as a company can have most impact on society and the environment. We know there is a long way to go, but there’s so much exciting work to be done.”  


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"We have chosen our five SDGs very carefully. We know there is a long way to go, but there is so much exciting work to be done.” 

Bertrand Schmitt | CEO BDR Thermea Group

Climate action: from hybrids to hydrogen

With buildings responsible for 40% energy consumption in the EU and around 30% globally, climate action is a key topic in our industry. BDR Thermea invests in solutions that help reduce emissions in general and specifically the carbon footprint of space and water heating appliances, while offering end-users the comfort they desire.

The energy transition is a complex global challenge, so there’s no one silver bullet to solve it. That’s why we invest in, develop and offer our customers a wide variety of options. All our residential boilers have the highest efficiency ratings and can be used in hybrid configurations – together with a heat pump, for instance – to cut emissions even further. Our increasingly successful heat pumps, which harness air and groundwater to generate sustainable heating, enable buildings to be heated without generating carbon emissions.

Such products can only succeed – and contribute to the energy transition - if they’re appealing and acceptable to end-customers, and if they’re efficient and easy for installers to put in quickly, easily and correctly.

BDR Thermea Group takes a pragmatic approach to product and service design because it’s vital to develop zero-carbon products that people really want to use, and that are simple to install. Only then can we make the energy transition a reality. 

This can mean seemingly banal details such as very quiet heat pumps, compact-sized hybrids or heat pumps that can even fit inside kitchen cupboards, or Bluetooth-connected APPs that reduce commissioning time by 75% for the installer.

Fundamental research allowed BDR Thermea Group to be the first to pilot a ground-breaking experiment featuring a high efficiency pure hydrogen boiler in 2019. We are working together with utility companies, gas grid providers, building owners and governments in many countries to make this 100% clean technology available throughout the full supply chain all over Europe. And we participate in the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance launched in July 2020.

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Walking the talk

In China, the world’s largest boiler market, BDR Thermea Group has built a near-zero carbon factory, which started operating in June 2020. Those new facilities in Jiaxing recently passed the final review and achieved LEED-certified platinum for the main office building, and gold for the production site and warehouse – making BDR Thermea a leader in our industry. Now, the local government in China is using our factory to attract other long-term investors to push and stimulate sustainability. To reduce pollution levels, China is cutting coal use in household heating in favour of natural gas. 

At our Bassano del Grappa site in Italy, the green hydrogen for the lab and testing facility has since 2018 been generated by an electrolyser fed by electricity coming from solar panels installed on the roof of the factory.

 

Heating for health

Heating for health

The Covid-19 crisis has made us all too aware how important our products are for fundamental hygiene. We worked flat out to continue keeping homes, hospitals and businesses supplied with heating, hot water and spare parts during the difficult days of the lockdown in March.

When our Baxi Heating business in the UK was contacted in March by a supplier that had been asked for 32 hot water heaters to equip hospital isolation units, we had run out of stock of these heaters. So our factory in Preston immediately changed its manufacturing schedule to prioritise these important products, and the order was fulfilled within a few hours, although our standard lead time is 10 days.

Good health and wellbeing are also highly relevant to BDR Thermea as a company that employs many factory workers. We have robust health & safety programmes in our factories, and we are constantly working to improve these further.

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Nurturing diversity

We’re making progress on our other SDGs, too. Take gender equality: there’s no doubt this is a challenge in our male-dominated industry but we’re working hard to gradually narrow the gender gap at BDR Thermea. Our supervisory board and management board are 25% female. 
We believe that increased diversity of gender, cultures, nationalities, views and more benefit the quality of our decision-making and business operations. An inclusive approach also ensures we can attract and retain the best talents in society, and so perform better as a company. 
“The SDGs provide a great framework to build out our sustainability efforts even further,” says CEO Bertrand Schmitt. “We’re happy to take that responsibility and look forward to making more progress on our chosen SDGs. The journey has begun and we’re on our way.” 

 

 

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You can find our head office at:


Kanaal Zuid 106 | 7332 BD Apeldoorn | The Netherlands

© BDR Thermea Group 2020

© BDR Thermea Group 2020