Paving the Way

Sustainability at GF has taken center stage as part of the Strategy 2025 and the company vision. Johann Viljoen and his team from Corporate Sustainability follow a holistic approach. Their goal: To make GF a leader in sustainability.

When it comes to sustainability, GF can already count on some remarkable successes. By making the switch to lightweight castings, GF Casting Solutions has made it possible for car manufacturers to reduce both fuel consumption and emissions. For example, the division has been producing a new light metal battery housing for Renault since 2020. GF’s other divisions are also on sustainable tracks. GF Piping Systems’ NeoFlow valve (PRV) strengthens aging water supply systems, reducing water loss and CO2 emissions. GF Machining Solutions helps to avoid the use of corrosive chemicals with laser texturing machines.

Johann Viljoen, Head of Corporate Sustainability

Johann (50) has been in the sustainability business since before it became mainstream. He studied chemistry and switched to environmental management in the late 1990s, before joining GF last year. Here, he’s excited to quantify challenges, find sustainable solutions, and drive the change that is needed to become a truly sustainable company.

Anna Oetinger, Corporate Sustainability Manager

Anna (32) started to work for GF after university in 2017, because she believes in the important role companies play in society. She enjoys designing that relationship by combining economic, social, and environmental perspectives.

Setting the right priorities

Johann Viljoen, Head of Corporate Sustainability at GF, aims to establish a more holistic view. Together with his team, he coordinates GF’s global effort to become a sustainability and innovation leader. “We have established three workstreams to frame GF’s sustainability ambitions. The first one refers to our product portfolio, followed by a focus on climate and resources, and the third one on people and their well-being,” explains Johann. Defining these workstreams laid the foundation for setting eight sustainability targets the company aims to achieve by 2025.

PLATZHALTER METITO VIDEO

In this age marked by climate change and dwindling natural resources, companies like GF are under pressure from multiple external stakeholders to combine economic ambition with an eco-friendly approach. “We need to deliver and set the right priorities,” says Johann. Despite the challenge ahead, GF is keeping a positive stance. “In the end, sustainability and innovation merge to reach the same ambition. Today both are an integral part of the business strategy and we don’t see it as something playing second fiddle,” says Anna Oetinger, who is part of Johann’s team and, as Corporate Sustainability Manager, works closely with the divisional sustainability officers.

Waste is an opportunity

Accordingly, sustainability was established as an integral part of the GF Strategy 2025 and embedded in the company vision. Now it is the task of Johann and his team to realize this aspiration. “We are working closely with teams from the three divisions to define concrete measures and implement them worldwide,” says Johann.

In October 2020, GF conducted its annual regional sustainability conference virtually, which brought together over 60 environmental and health and safety specialists as well as Senior Managers from GF’s Americas locations. Best practices were shared between production sites to ensure replication at other sites.

Over the last year, Johann and his team have done a great job. They established CO2 emission targets for GF that are in line with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a non-profit organization focused on climate protection. They analyzed GF’s value chain to eliminate environmental risks and designed a framework to rate suppliers. Moreover, they plan to establish a circular economy approach with customers. So is everything going as planned? “We have to be honest,” says Anna. “For example, we still have challenges with our waste going to landfills or incinerators. There are opportunities to reduce over-packaging of products, reduce the volume of oil emulsions, and recycle copper wires.”

58%: This is the percentage of products and solutions in GF’s 2020 portfolio that have a positive social or environmental impact. In 2018, this number stood at 47%. The company’s target for 2025: 70%.

One thing is clear: The way has been paved for GF to become a global sustainability leader. The task now is to work holistically toward this vision.

SUSTAINABILITY MINI-GLOSSARY

Circular economy is a model of production and consumption that aims to extend the life cycle of products and eliminate waste at the end of their life by keeping materials in the loop. Key concepts are: repair, re-use, and recycle.
EcoVadis is a business sustainability rating and network that GF signed up for in 2020. It assesses, certifies and helps to improve the sustainability impact of a company by managing its supply chain through looking at environmental, ethical, labor, and human rights aspects as well as at sustainable procurement.
Science-based targets are a set of goals that GF follows that leads it to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Value chain approach identifies key points of intervention in the totality of an economic system. It aims to reduce the use of natural resources and negative environmental impacts caused by production and consumption.
Carbon neutrality refers to achieving net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be realized by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal through carbon capture and storage or by eliminating emissions in the production process by switching to renewable energy.

8 sustainability targets 2025

70% of sales with social or environmental benefits.
Reduce absolute CO2e footprint by 12.5%.
Reduce water intensity by 20% in high stress areas.
Reduce waste by 20% sent to landfill or incineration.
Perform sustainability assessments for 80% of procurement spend.
Diversity and inclusion: 25% of newly appointed managers are female.
Employee engagement: At least 80% of employees would recommend GF as an employer of choice.
Health and safety: Reduce accident rate by at least 30%.

Lightweight components make cars more sustainable: Solutions from GF Casting Solutions enable car manufacturers to reduce the CO2 emissions of their vehicles.

Texturing without corrosive chemicals: GF Machining Solutions’ state-of-the-art laser texturing machines help reduce the use of chemicals, protecting people and the environment in the process.

Fighting water loss: GF Piping Systems’ innovative piping systems significantly reduce the loss of freshwater in urban water distribution networks.

Three video statements from the sustainability officers from each division