Discover CleanTech
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Cleantech Company of the Month
KEBA Energy Automation
Sparking change KEBA Energy Automation is a company leader in electric charging points. Sunniva Davies-Rommetveit explores what drives the Discover CleanTech company of the month, including how the firm is aiming to be carbonneutral by 2025. BY SUNNIVA DAVIES-ROMMETVEIT, PUBLISHED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH KEBA
When thinking about e-mobility charging points, one does not usually wonder about the charging units’ own carbon footprint; after all, they charge electric cars and are supporting to move the world away from fossil fuel dependence. Yet, there is an environmental cost of producing electric charging points, something which KEBA Energy Automation, a charging point forerunner, decided to change. “We’re putting ourselves to the test by having our company’s carbon footprint calculated,” explains chief executive officer at KEBA Energy Automation Christoph Knogler. “Our goal is to become fully climate-neutral by 2025. It’s an ambitious goal, but one we simply cannot ignore,” he adds. Becoming carbon-neutral by 2025 is no easy feat, as Knogler acknowledges. To illustrate this, he explains what was involved in ensuring that the climate-neutral charging points, also known as wallboxes, became a reality. The firm started by collecting data on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions generated during production of the wallboxes, in order to know exactly what needed to be changed. Firstly, transportation emissions were reduced notably by using components made mainly in Europe – much closer to the Linz-based plant. Impressively, the wallboxes are now also produced with green energy alone, and the final packaging has also been changed in order to reduce emissions. “All of this resulted in markedly lower carbon emissions, but some remained. These were 78 |
Issue 05 |
November 2022
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PHOTOS: KEBA
offset by investing in certified climate-protection programmes. All of these measures add up to a product that is 100 per cent climate-neutral,” Knogler says. KEBA’s aim to deliver carbon-neutral charging points to all customers by the end of this year indicates something further about the company, which has been in the e-mobility sector for over 13 years. The firm supports a bottom-up approach to locking in sustainability into what it does – with their Austrian headquarters flooded with natural daylight to save energy, as well as this latest carbon-neutral venture paving the way for future carbon offsetting milestones ahead. And the company is delivering on its promise: as of April this year, all wallboxes delivered to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic were carbon-neutral. “This shows that we live out our sustainability values,” says Knogler, “and we really feel that this is the way to reach carbon-neutrality by 2025.” SMASHED MILESTONES The electronics company passed two notable milestones this and last year. The firm sold 250,000 wallboxes in 2021, and impressively doubled that to 500,000 sales in just 20 months. “Thanks to our innovative, intelligent, but at the same time durable and climate-neutral charging solutions, we have strengthened our position as one of the leading European wallbox manufacturers,” Knogler says.