Environmental policy and environmental technology are topics that nobody can avoid these days, especially when it comes to industry or manufacturing. But society is also called upon and challenged in this area. Environmental policy wants to steer, environmental technology wants to help implement and achieve the goals that have been set. Buzzwords such as green revolution, compliance guidelines, decarbonization, traffic turnaround, sustainability, climate neutrality and protection, resilience, recycling, resource efficiency, regionality, etc. are doing the rounds and are on everyone's lips. But how should we deal with them?
Everyone needs to be aware: We all live from and with the environment, this one environment! Without it or against it, nothing will work in the long term. This insight should be written into the DNA of people in the 21st century and encourage them to act accordingly. All of us, each and every one of us. We need to move away from the doctrine of "what can we do, what can't we do" to more of "what can we do, what can't we do, without risking irreparable damage to the environment". We need to trust ourselves more again, but also expect more of ourselves.
Environmental protection and consistent climate protection are not an invention of the 21st century. Environmental protection is more or less a child of the early 1960s, which in turn has had "offspring" over time called climate neutrality, sustainability, resource conservation - and whatever else they may be called. A multitude of different, complementary but also overlapping regulations, laws and agreements at international, EU and national level are intended to define the framework conditions and requirements for the industry. This jumble of regulatory rules and regulations, which repeatedly threaten to nip the creativity and innovation of industry and companies in the bud when implemented, is exuberant. Let's try out what works and what doesn't without overshooting the mark.
The realization of a comprehensive circular economy is helpful for achieving climate neutrality. The following explanation can be found on Wikipedia: "A circular economy is a regenerative system in which resource use and waste production, emissions and energy waste are minimized by slowing, reducing and closing energy and material loops; this can be achieved through durable design, maintenance, repair, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing and recycling. The concept of the circular economy also plays a central role in composite production." Fundamental principles are the design of products without waste, the use of renewable energy, the environmentally friendly cascading use of materials, i.e. the multiple use of materials in several stages, and the extension of product life through reuse, repair and refurbishment. In general, this system is to be made more resilient through the diversity in the use of different approaches and solutions and also strengthened through systems thinking, the understanding of the connections and interdependencies within the entire system, in order to find optimal solutions. The aim is to keep materials in the economic cycle for as long as possible before they have to be recycled or disposed of.
Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 (EUDR), better known as the EU Deforestation Regulation, seeks to tackle global deforestation and help reduce forest damage. This regulation affects commodity groups such as cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soy and timber. The European Union reserves the right to extend the range of product groups at any time. At first glance, the impact on areas such as the industrial extraction of raw materials from natural sources, raw materials that are also used in the chemical and electroplating industries, may not be apparent. But these effects do indeed exist.
The measure of all things in terms of environmental standards is currently the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) from 2024, which is intended to regulate the approval and operation of industrial plants - including electroplating plants - across Europe from July 2026. It is intended to help harmonize environmental standards in Europe and create fairer competitive conditions. In connection with this directive, the "construct" BREF (Best Available Techniques Reference) must also be taken into account, which essentially states that the best available techniques in the industry must be applied equally by all companies and that certain emission limits must be binding for all. However, industry and associations believe that the excesses of this directive will have to be discussed intensively in the future.
With the noble Green Deal, which forms the "superstructure" for all European efforts (climate, energy, transport and tax policy) to save the climate in particular, Europe aims to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The aim is to create a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy by spending a good third of the €1.8 trillion investment from the NextGenerationEU recovery plan and the European Union's seven-year budget. The aim is to achieve net greenhouse gas emissions of zero percent and to decouple growth from resource use, and no person or region should be left behind in all these measures.
Further measures in this direction include the Supply Chain Duty of Care Act (LkSG), which seeks to regulate compliance with ethical, social and environmental standards for the protection of the environment, human rights and children's rights along the entire supply chain. We should also not forget the sustainability reporting obligations arising from the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD, Directive (EU) 2022/2464) and the EU Supply Chain Directive, better known as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD, Directive (EU) 2024/1760), which deal with the sustainability aspects of supply chains.
It is not just the wide range of obligations that are unsettling and challenging for the industry, but above all the uncertainty as to what will last for how long and where the legislator's journey will take them. Determining theCO2 footprint of products (product carbon footprint (PCF)) and manufacturing processes for a company as such and within the supply chain is mandatory and will tie up immense resources.
In the future, the current Ecodesign Directive (Directive 2009/125/EC) will be replaced by the Ecodesign Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation; ESPR for short), which is intended to ensure the sustainability of the design and manufacture of almost all physical products in the EU. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, it is designed as a framework regulation and can be continuously fleshed out by the European Commission through delegated acts and guidelines. Examples of this are the Delegated Regulations (EU) 2021/340 and 2021/341, which are such legal acts for electronic and electrical appliances, including for households. Other legal acts, such as Directive 2024/1799 on the promotion of the repair of goods, regulate the rights after the purchase of a product and are intended to support the Ecodesign Regulation.
Unfortunately, a regulation that seems sensible is usually associated with excessive bureaucracy in its implementation. Just think of the many notification, information, declaration, documentation and publication obligations for companies, which can also affect the smallest of businesses under certain circumstances. To make matters worse, there are constant amendments and additions to existing regulations. An omnibus regulation as a European legal act is currently in the starting blocks, which is intended to amend or update existing regulations at the same time. The only constant is change.
Company measures aimed at the workforce can also help to promote environmental and climate protection. These include the following: Establishing a climate team that takes care of internal environment-related issues, setting up an internal company climate fund to finance environmental projects, implementing specific climate projects and selected climate competitions for the careful use and conservation of resources and much more. However, the training and further education of today's and tomorrow's employees is also a factor that should not be neglected (principle of lifelong learning). For companies, economic sustainability through organic growth should be the maxim of the hour. Responsibility must be assumed in all three dimensions of sustainability - economic, ecological and social - even beyond the boundaries of the company itself.
Appropriate and up-to-date environmental, wastewater, waste and risk management as instruments of environmental protection, as well as sophisticated quality management, can have a guiding influence on the effects of industrial production and lifestyles. Industry must always strive to replace hazardous substances and production processes with less hazardous ones (substitution principle under REACH).
Environmental technology has now been given a high technical status and is already very mature in many areas, suitable for series production, but relatively expensive. Technologies for environmentally friendly production are available and should be used wherever they are sensible, technically adequate and economically viable. Creative and resource-efficient procedures and processes are required in production, which can be realized through sophisticated system concepts and suitable modern process technology. All of this is already largely state of the art.
The damage that mankind has caused to nature and the environment through the excessive use of technology can only be made good through the sensible use of the (same) technology.
With its processes and products for refining, improving, functionalizing and optimizing surfaces (properties), electroplating can also make a certain technical contribution that should not be underestimated, as well as through modern, resource-saving and environmentally friendly production technologies. New coating systems and processes are constantly being (further) developed, which bring improvements in terms of both process technology and the properties of the coatings. Using metals efficiently and recycling them in a targeted manner is an important building block for the resource-saving production of the future. However, resources such as water, air and soil must also be used sparingly and sustainably during production. Protection against weather events with catastrophic consequences for the country and its people, such as heavy rainfall and flooding, should be promoted.
Future technologies, such as green hydrogen technology or e-mobility, can help to achieve the goals that have been set. The production technology used in each case is also important, as it should be designed to be environmentally friendly and conserve resources. Many things are already technically possible today that are not necessarily economically viable. Forward-looking technologies, such as hydrogen technology and e-mobility to create the transport turnaround, should continue to receive extensive state funding in order to become more attractive.
Wouldn't it perhaps be more targeted to make full use of the existing regulations and to implement and further develop all available technology in a sensible way than to create further regulations of all kinds? Find out for yourself here and now. This initial overview can only touch on many things very superficially and cannot go into all aspects in detail. You can find more information in the individual technical articles and papers by selected experts in this issue of Galvanotechnik.
