With over 400 employees, of which almost 10% work in development and innovation, RASCO has grown from a craft workshop into a combination of large manufacturer and high-tech development company. We develop, manufacture and sell our own products in over 40 countries. Being successful in what we do comes with great responsibility to the environment and the community, both locally where we produce and globally where we export. All this has to be rounded off with responsible company management and employee welfare.
Our sustainable business approach is based on three areas: responsibility to the environment, to the community – the local one in which we produce and those where we export, and in the responsible management of the company.
Environmental protection is a particularly important topic, as climate change has a direct impact on our further development and success. As a manufacturer of snow and ice removal equipment from roads, we are partly dependent on snowfall and cold weather during the winter. Global warming, especially in recent years, reduces snowfall during the winter. Preventing global warming is not only what we wish for, but also a need and a direct interest. That is why all our activities, both within production and the development of new products, are done to reduce harmful emissions as much as possible. In our products, this means continuous electrification. An example of this is the upcoming electric version of the Lynx compact sweeper, a very complex and technologically advanced vehicle, powered completely by electricity. An example from production is certainly our solar power plant with an output of almost 500 kW, which satisfies a part of the company’s electricity needs directly from our roofs.
Waste management, active filtration of exhaust gases, saving and recycling of processed water and heat are measures that we have been doing for years and we do not consider them special, but an integral and normal part of our business.
Our responsibility to communities is most emphasized through the efficient use of our machines. For example, city sweepers, although designed to clean cities of dust, leaves, and debris, can be very polluting. Therefore, all our sweepers are made and independently certified according to high and strict emission standards. RASCO is also a major investor in local communities, where we support youth education and development. In the previous 10 years, we have invested more than a quarter million Euros in education, sports and culture programs for elementary, high school and college students.
The third part of our sustainable business strategy is responsible corporate governance. In addition to careful risk management, we place great emphasis on employee satisfaction, engagement and development, both current and future. For example, we’ve had a scholarship program for the best students at universities across Croatia for more than twenty years, a program in which 650.000 Euro has been invested so far, and which has created a whole new generation of experts and managers.
Today, there is a shift towards new technologies based on electricity, hydrogen, and “green” technologies in general, regardless of the high prices of such technologies. Some of the leading customers in the industry are already willing to put aside the commercial viability of fossil fuels, and replace them with renewable sources. That has a direct impact on our current and future development plans. Therefore, our product development in recent years, in all areas where it is technologically possible, has focused on electrification, but also on increasing the efficiency of machinery we produce.
New and useful technologies, such as 5G, IoT, machine connectivity, remote control and autonomous driving, are part of our research and production portfolio today.
Protecting the environment and caring for the community means that our future generations will inherit a sustainable, growing and strong high-tech company with hundreds of employees, in a small village in the heart of the Podravina region. Future generations from this area will continue to work with state-of-the-art technologies at RASCO, always ahead of what they can experience elsewhere. We also believe that our way of thinking will be transferred to others in our environment, and beyond, which combined will have a strong positive impact on the entire community.
