RASCO WINNER OF THE "LIDER INVEST" SPECIAL AWARD FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Sustainability and sustainable practises are an integral part of RASCO’s development strategy. All projects, whether they focus on processes and production or on innovation, have been developed with the philosophy of sustainability in mind.

The project “Increasing the use of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency”, for which RASCO was awarded for energy efficiency, involved a two-year investment cycle in technologies and processes aimed at reducing the need for supplied energy and increasing energy efficiency.

The largest part of the investment, as well as the total energy savings, was the construction of a 324 kWh photovoltaic system on the roof of the production hall in Kalinovac. This is the second photovoltaic power plant that RASCO has invested in over the last 5 years. The company now covers 70% of its electricity requirements from sustainable solar energy.

The newly installed waste heat recovery system also contributes to the energy savings. The heat that is a by-product of operating the compressors in the surface protection plant is redirected and used to heat the working areas.

During this period, several energy-efficient machines were also purchased and implemented in the production process: a CNC-controlled sheet metal cutting machine, metal bending presses and a vertical machining centre.

In line with RASCO’s policy of continuous modernisation of the production process and the promotion of sustainable practises, the investment was rounded off at the end of last year with the implementation of the ISO 50001:2018 certificate, which aims to provide an efficient and reliable system for monitoring and managing energy consumption.

The award was accepted by CEO Ivan Franičević at the Financial Investment Forum in Zagreb. “In times of unstable energy supply and strongly fluctuating energy prices, the importance of an off-grid energy supply, as offered by our own power plants, cannot be ignored. Thanks to this investment, we now cover 70 per cent of our electricity requirements from our own renewable solar energy source,” he emphasised in his speech.

With the construction of the second photovoltaic power plant, the replacement of machines with more energy-efficient ones and the introduction of a waste heat recovery system, RASCO has continued its investments with a green perspective.