Buying clean air is the right choice

CMP’s straddle carriers move containers seven days a week. The company's environmental policy means that in a number of cases targets are much more ambitious than required by law.

There is no legal requirement for pulling and straddling vehicles which do not use public roads to be fitted with emission controlling particulate filters. Notwithstanding this, Copenhagen Malmoe Port (CMP) has decided that their exempt vehicles will be fitted with particle filters and silencers before 2010. 

Danish companies take their social and environmental commitments a lot more seriously than many people think. Employees are also committed to ensuring that we all make an effort to achieve a better balance, to the advantage of future generations. At CMP we work with highly targeted Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies in order to ensure that we achieve both ISO certification and a better environment.

”We review the fuels we use constantly and test them to ensure that they're used under optimal conditions. The filters we used before turned out to be very inefficient. Two factors contributed to this; firstly, they were only first generation particle filters, which meant that they were not very effective, and secondly, we were operating with a type of diesel that contained high levels of sulphur,” says Teis Lind, Purchase Manager at CMP. 

It's easy to fit the relatively large platinum-coated particle filters to straddle carriers. Their efficiency is indicated by the fact that Teis Lind (left) had no problem persuading Director Jørgen Komi from KCS to accept a two year operational guarantee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rapid Returns

Experience gained from workplaces on both sides of Oresund (the straight that separates Denmark from Sweden) was collected and evaluated just over a year ago, and the data clearly showed that Finnish Proventia filters delivered the best ROI within just one year of use. The opportunity to benefit from simple and effective data logging, and two year-long operational guarantees also formed a significant part of an investment that reached DKK million levels.

”Our employees are very focused on the way their work affects the environment, and we wanted to show them that our environmental policy could make a difference in the real world. What's more, in Malmoe our machines actually work in enclosed spaces, but with noise and particle filters in place we can show both our partners and our employees that environmental investment pays. It is not inexpensive and we will soon reach an investment level of two million DKK, but we have chosen to set a standard, which goes beyond legislative requirements for vehicles on public roads,” says Teis Lind.

CMP employees also play an active role in lifting the challenge as the environmental plan includes instruction in environmentally friendly driving for equipment users. Different driving styles can have a significant impact on fuel consumption, and this in turn affects pollution and particle emission levels. Driving style efficiencies are also of financial benefit to the company as they make each litre of diesel stretch that bit further.

2010 is just around the corner but Teis Lind and CMP will meet their targets.

”It's about protecting the environment, but an investment in Finnish Proventia particle filters also generates returns after one year,” says Teis Lind.