At Ammann Group, we look at sustainability as a very important aspect of our business and were fully committed to doing our part. Not only are our investments in sustainability essential to fight climate change and protect the environment. Theyre also essential to protect our customers businesses, and thus ours.

We successfully elaborated a first group-wide greenhouse gas accounting. This is a highly detailed analysis of all emissions directly or indirectly associated with our business and operations. The results now give us a deep understanding of where we stand today. And this, allows us to make fact-based decisions and prioritisations for upcoming initiatives and development investments.

In addition to capturing our overall carbon footprint, a high-level emission reduction roadmap was elaborated. For these calculations, the results of the greenhouse gas accounting act as a baseline. Our todays emissions are then reduced by projecting numerous very specific reduction measures along the time axis. This gives us a realistic idea of how our carbon footprint will decrease over time, and which measures contribute the most to our ambitious targets.

Sustainability was of course also a core topic at last years Bauma fair in Munich. We were able to show our customers many innovative and sustainable solutions with which they can reduce their footprint today and tomorrow. These solutions include among others digital services, alternative/biogenic fuels, and electrified machines.

Also going forward, product innovations will be at the core of our sustainability efforts. For our customers, the emissions our products emit during operation are direct emissions from their core business. Thus, it is essential that we can offer greener alternatives to todays technologies and fuels. And this is not only in the interest of the environment but in times of high energy costs and also in the interest of reduced operating costs for our customers.

For example, some of the innovations that we have recently introduced include but are not limited to, higher usage of recycling asphalt in combination with low-temperature asphalt, which will not only reduce carbon footprint, but it will also reduce transportation, and harmful emissions and preserve natural resources. Recycling of asphalt is becoming more and more common and we at Ammann globally have the technology to use even up to 100 per cent recycled material. Our closed-loop precise control of aggregate temp will reduce fuel consumption. The state-of-the-art bag house can restrict particulate matter emission to less than 20 mg/Nm3. Our usage of direct drives and variable frequency-controlled motors will help in the usage of optimum power.

Alternative fuel
Gas as an alternative fuel solution is already being offered in our asphalt plants where LPG or CNG is used as a fuel for aggregate heating and thermic oil heating.

We are also exploring options for liquid fuel-based alternatives for achieving reduced carbon emissions in diesel vehicles and machinery. With credits and incentives that are offered, biodiesel is cost-competitive and in some regions can be a lower-cost option than traditional diesel. When considering the price of carbon and the fact that the price of diesel is expected to continue to rise, biodiesel is an easy choice. Biodiesel emits 50 per cent fewer soot particles, allowing for dramatically improved localised air quality.

Electrification
While the idea of electric vehicles has been fast emerging around the world, Ammann Group has also been developing a range of rollers and compactors that are fully electric. However, we expect to see a switch to green hydrogen sooner than later. We are also exploring ways to use green hydrogen and fuel cells in our equipment. Research and development in this direction are in progress at our global R&D centre in Switzerland.

Rental focus
In the recently announced union budget, the capital investment outlay is being increased steeply for the third year in a row by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore.

The governments increased focus on infrastructure projects like metro projects, railways, airports, highways, bullet trains, housing for all, and rural roads is expected to have a positive effect on the construction equipment rental industry.

The rental market in the construction equipment segment is very vibrant and with the renewed focus of the government on infrastructure, the future looks bright. We at Ammann India are open to offering our plants and machines with attractive finance schemes through the rental players too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
The article is authored by Anand Sundaresan, Managing Director India & Executive Vice President, Ammann India