Electrolux and Whirlpool have announced measures which they plan to undertake to make their companies truly sustainable in the future.
Electrolux has announced that by year-end 2012 its factories, offices and warehouses will use 15% less energy than in 2008. These savings will result in CO2 reductions of over 70,000 tons – the equivalent of the yearly emissions from more than 30,000 cars. Moreover, reductions in energy consumption are projected to bring the Group annual savings of approximately over £8 million, based on 2008 prices.
“Electrolux has a role to play in the climate challenge. We can do this while growing our business and streamlining our operations,” said Hans Stråberg, Electrolux president and CEO.
Meanwhile Bracken Darrell, president of Whirlpool Europe, and executive vice president of Whirlpool Corporation, speaking at the Energy Efficiency Global Forum and Exhibition in Paris at the end of April 2009, stressed the importance of a concerted effort between industry, government institutions and research bodies, to have “an effective impact on the environment”. In particular he showed how appliances that can respond to signals from the grid by switching to a low-energy consumption mode for a period of time, or delay operation until peak-demand is over, can significantly lower overall need for power plant capacity.
Mr Darrel also announced that “by 2015 we are prepared to make all the electronically controlled appliances we produce, anywhere in the world, capable of receiving and responding to a signal requesting curtailment of the appliance’s energy consumption. These products will also be capable of providing the consumer with contemporaneous information about their energy consumption.”
