Fujifilm Europe has installed five wind turbines at its manufacturing and R&D site in Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Developed in partnership with ENECO, the Vestas V90 wind turbines, each able to generate a maximum of two megawatts, are together capable of generating approximately 20% of the total energy used by the 63 hectare Tilburg site. The development is part of an ambitious target set by Fujifilm to become a carbon neutral site, with the wind turbines alone likely to reduce CO2 emissions by 12,000 tonnes per year.
The company has also installed a water recycling facility, consisting of two large water purification units, on site. With these and other sustainability measures in place, the company estimates that it reuses 13% of the waste it produces, recycles 68%, regenerates 18% and so is left with less than 1% of the total site waste to dispose of.
To supplement these initiatives, however, Fujifilm is also investigating the possibility of cleaning some of the waste water the site generates for reuse within the production process, as well as the option of constructing a complete waste water treatment system on site, in collaboration with three neighbouring companies. In addition, a feasibility study is also in progress for replacing the natural gas used in production with bio-gas, with the results of this study due to be available at the end of 2011.
