Our Mission:Resource Efficiency

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Water

Mineral Oil

Wood

Steel Gravel

Boron

4 Orientation through expertise

6 Resource efficiency pays off

8 Tools for practice

12 Qualification in resource efficiency

14 Laying foundations with formation and in-service training

16 VDI ZRE: Well networked

18 VDI ZRE: Know-how and networking for more resource efficiency

19 VDI ZRE in figures

Content

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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Udo Ungeheuer, President of the VDI: “Resource efficiency makes business activities more successful. In this regard, the VDI Centre for Resource Efficiency is a sought-after adviser, supported by the expert network of the VDI, the largest technical-scientific association in Europe.”

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The VDI Centre for Resource Efficiency (VDI ZRE) is closely connected with the VDI Association of German Engineers. With more than 150,000 members, the largest association of engineers in Germany pools experts for interdisciplinary dialogue and propagates knowledge of current developments in science and research, economy, society and policy. The VDI ZRE strongly cooperates with the professional associations and regional organizations of the VDI, which connect the Centre to the network of over 12,000 voluntarily active members of the VDI.

The VDI ZRE was launched in 2009 as a cooperative project of the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the VDI. As the Competence Centre for resource efficiency, the VDI ZRE works at the interface between business and science and pools know-how from theory and practice.

VDI Guideline Work

An example for this close cooperation is the VDI Guideline Work on resource efficiency, which belongs to the responsibilities of the VDI. Apart from the input from research institutions,

industry, authorities and other stakeholders, also the expertise of the VDI ZRE is incorporated. VDI Guidelines are scientifically substantiated. They describe the current state of the art and set standards that serve as orientation for engineers in their daily work.

At the moment, four guidelines on resource efficiency are being drawn up. The goal is to clearly define resource efficiency and to render it measurable. Thus, the guidelines explain, inter alia, the methodological basis for the assessment of resource efficiency and show which strategies will lead to success. It is intended to develop a VDI Guide on Resource Efficiency at the end of the Guideline Work.

Orientation through expertise

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Dr. Eric Schweitzer, President of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK): “Using resources efficiently is the principle of successful management. The VDI Centre for Resource Efficiency offers competence and practical help - an ideal partner for small and medium-sized businesses and Chambers of Industry and Commerce.”

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In the manufacturing industry, material costs are cost factor no. 1. In 2011, their proportion of the total costs amounted to 45 %. Savings in this field have a significantly greater impact on the company’s coffers than labor costs or the much discussed energy costs. Resource efficiency helps companies conduct their business more successfully: the reduction of energy and material consumption enables them to reduce costs and to produce more competitively. The innovative processes and technologies thus developed can be sold worldwide. This strengthens Germany as a business location. Resource efficiency creates growth that safeguards jobs, while the economic use of resources protects our environment.

But what exactly are resources? In the first instance, these are all means used in the production process. “Natural” resources are energy or energy raw materials, such as coal or natural gas, as well as non-energy raw materials, such as metals and industrial minerals. Included are also biotic raw materials, like water, soil or farmed areas as well as air and its capacity to absorb greenhouse gases. There are many approaches to the more efficient use of resources.

Our mission: know-how for SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often lack the capacities to deal with resource efficiency. The VDI ZRE was established by the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and the VDI in order to close this gap. The mission: knowledge transfer for resource-efficient management - in the interest of environment and enterprises.

Resource efficiency pays off

Cost structure in the manufacturing industry

Source: Federal Statistical Office 2013

Material

Interests

Taxes other than on income

Labour

Contract work

Trade goods

Energy

Balance (Profit etc.)

Others (depreciation, lease, etc.)

44.6 %3.7 %

15.1 %

0.9 %3.1 % 16.8 %

2.2 %

2.1 %11.5 %

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Naemi Denz, Managing Director for Waste and Recycling Technology and head of the department Technology and Environment of the Association of German Machinery and Plant Manufacturers: “The increasing consumption of resources and resource availability issues require long-term efficiency and innovative solutions. The manufacturing industries often search for improvement potentials and optimization tools. The tool kit the VDI ZRE provides is an important and useful component for it.“

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The VDI ZRE develops instruments that help enterprises implement measures for higher resource efficiency. Its team consists of experienced experts of diverse disciplines who address the objective of economical material and energy consumption from different perspectives. The VDI ZRE offerings are free of charge, industry specific and practically oriented.

Fields of excellenceThe VDI ZRE makes its expertise widely available to SME. Its thematic priorities are the field of industrial production and the construction business. For example, the VDI ZRE offers tools for manufacturing processes in the metal industry

and in plastics processing or even for foundry and forming technology. In the construction sector, enterprises will find information, inter alia, on building services engineering and large-scale projects such as hospitals.

The Resource Check The starter - the basic moduleWith the “Basic Module Resource Check“, it takes enterprises a few minutes to find out where in their businesses the savings potentials are to be found. To this end, they must answer seven general questions on their operational procedures. A detailed evaluation will give preliminary indications on how they can use resources more efficiently. In addition, more detailed checklists will help detect further savings potentials.

Industry-specific in-depth moduleResource efficiency means different things to each branch of industry and each process. For this reason, the VDI ZRE developed in-depth Resource Check modules that are particularly designed for important technologies in the manufacturing industry. The offer is constantly enhanced and permanently supplemented by new modules.

Tools for practice

Seven questions for a preliminary assess- ment. A traffic light indicates how efficient the company is.

The resource checks are to be ordered online or offline at www.vdi-zre.de/ressourcenchecks

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The process chain - step by step

It is the innate goal of successful management to produce as efficiently as possible. Science and industry continuously work on new technologies and process innovations that companies can use to increase their resource efficiency and to save money. The VDI ZRE compiles the know-how available along the process chain of a specific field of technology. The systematization by means of process chains provides decision makers, within a few minutes, with insight into how they can realize savings in individual process steps.

Resource efficiency starts with product design, includes the actual manufacturing process and takes into

consideration the handling of waste and exhaust air as well as the recycling of material.

Based on project examples from enterprises, information about the best technologies available, and illustrative videos, the process chains provide structured access to information for each production step required by SME in order to implement resource efficiency.

Each new technology development will immediately be included in the VDI ZRE portfolio which is constantly expanded in order to give companies a comprehensive overview.

Information for various fields of technology is set up along the process chain in a systemized way

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No matter whether information on funding programmes, contacts to consultants or networks for experience exchange are required, such information is pooled in data bases and studies and made available to decision makers.

The Innovation Radar - trends and innovations

On behalf of the enterprises, the VDI ZRE uses the Innovation Radar to trace the latest technology developments and process optimizations with the potential

to sustainably reduce material and energy consumption. Prior to their entry into the database, the technological fields and phases of the product life cycle, for which a project may be relevant, are analyzed. So SME gain access to innovations from other fields and industries, which may also be applicable to their companies. Examples of what has already proven to work are listed among the Good Practices.

Studies and publications

The regular publications of the VDI ZRE provide a comprehensive overview of contemporary knowledge about resource efficiency in selected fields of technology. In 2013, a study on resource efficiency potentials in the metal processing industry revealed that in this industry alone savings amounting to millions could be effected. A survey on the use of carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic in vehicle construction is one of the first publications to examine the resource-efficiency aspect of this lightweight construction material.

Making know-how available

VDI ZRE Publikationen: Kurzanalyse Nr. 2

Ressourceneffizienz der Tragwerke

Januar 2013

VDI ZRE Publikationen: Studien

Analyse von Potenzialen der Material- und Energieeffizienz in ausgewählten Branchen der Metall verarbeitenden Industrie

Juni 2013

VDI ZRE Publikationen: Kurzanalyse Nr. 3 und Dokumentation des Fachgesprächs

Kohlenstofffaserverstärkte Kunststoffe im Fahrzeugbau –Ressourceneffizienz und TechnologienMai 2013

Using the Innovation Radar to find practical solutions for resource efficiency

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Kathrin Wunderlich, Project Manager at richter + partner GmbH and participant in a VDI ZRE qualification course: “With its wide range of offerings for formation and in-service training, the VDI ZRE imparts the know-how required to realize savings potentials. The seminar has increased my awareness of resource efficiency and helps me with my daily work.”

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Practice-oriented know-how is indispensible when resource efficiency is concerned. Therefore, the VDI ZRE provides current and future decision makers and professionals with the know-how needed to render their company resource-efficient.

Qualification courses in resource efficiency

With the qualification courses in resource efficiency, the VDI ZRE has, for the first time, developed standardized professional training which imparts the essential methods for the analysis of optimization potentials and the realization of efficiency projects. The qualification courses are offered to consultants and to company employees of the manufacturing industry. These courses are carried out by the VDI ZRE in cooperation with experienced consultants with industrial expertise and with local partners, such as associations or chambers. The result: practice-oriented and industry-relevant training of utmost quality. The qualification courses in resource efficiency last five days and consist of two modules:

From the basics…In the first part of the qualification course, the instructors provide the participants with concrete tools and impart the basics and methods, which enable companies to identify potentials to increase resource efficiency and to develop and implement the suitable measures.

… to practical applicationIn the practical part, the participants apply the acquired skills in the company. During a tour of the company, they first analyze the actual situation of a business and then derive resource efficiency measures. The instructors support them in drawing up a time and action plan.

Qualification in resource efficiency

Information on the nationwide event schedule is available on the website www.qualifizierung-re.de

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Prof. Dr. Mario Schmidt, Director of the Institute for Industrial Ecology (INEC) of Pforzheim University: “We need young people who take the careful use of our natural resources seriously. This is not only a task for engineers, but also for a new generation of managers. The formation and in-service training provided by the VDI ZRE makes students and employees aware of precisely that.”

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In particular SME can benefit considerably from employees having the know-how to realize efficiency projects. The VDI ZRE offers modules for universities and professional development throughout Germany.

Teaching modulesUniversity lecturers can integrate the ‘Resource Efficiency‘ teaching module in their instruction units. It is drawn up in blocks of 90 minutes and intended to help students to become aware of the resource efficiency issue.

The VDI ZRE teaching modules can also be included in existing offers for in-service training. In the past, among others, the participants in the TÜV training seminars for energy efficiency auditors have already profited from it. Other success stories about in-service trainings were the ‘Sustainable Manufacturing’ Summer School, carried out by the Technical University of Berlin along with the Scientific Society for Production Technology.

The cooperation with the Berlin School of Economics and Law enables students of the

‘Sustainability and Quality Management’ in-training course to qualify as Resource Efficiency Managers.

Putting resource efficiency on the syllabus

On request, the VDI ZRE supports universities in setting up study courses on resource efficiency. Along with the Technical University of Braunschweig, for example, teaching aims for a new master course on climate and resource-friendly design and construction were developed, which contributed to the integration of the resource efficiency issue in the syllabus.

Even the employees of the VDI ZRE themselves stand at the teacher’s desk and impart the basics of resource efficiency to students of different fields of study. Moreover, the Competence Centre organizes information events for high-school graduates, students or scientific staff in engineering and related subjects to sensitize them for the concept of efficiency.

Laying the foundations with formation and in-service training

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Dr. Andreas Blaeser-Benfer, Project Manager in the field of Innovation of the RKW Competence Centre: “The challenges our companies face with regard to the increase in resource efficiency can only be tackled jointly. This is why we are committed to the excellent partner networks of the VDI ZRE. In this way, we are able to jointly provide companies with the expert knowledge they need for sustainable management.”

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Due to its specialized know-how, the VDI ZRE is a sought-after interlocutor of politics - regionally, on a federal level and worldwide. It examines what impedes and what motivates companies to produce in a more resource-conserving way. Politics can set-up the framework to remove barriers and to further resource efficiency.

Its networks make the VDI ZRE strong and enable the Competence Centre to identify innovations and new technologies in order to learn from the experiences of the network partners and to develop industry-relevant offers. To this end, the VDI ZRE experts cooperate with numerous institutions of science and research, with associations and chambers, with information centres nationwide and regionally as well as with politics on the national level, in the federal states and in Europe.

In the regionIn cooperation with the regional trade and industry associations, with Chambers of Industry, Commerce and Crafts on-site as well as with efficiency agencies, economic development agencies and local organi-zations, the VDI ZRE presents its tools to the SME in the regions. Moreover, the VDI ZRE experts

gather experiences from companies, prepare them and provide them as examples.

NationwideThe VDI ZRE, as coordinator of the nationwide Resource Efficiency Network, pools stakeholders in resource efficiency. Since 2011, the Competence Centre acts as network coordinator and regularly organizes regional events and nationwide network conferences with more than 100 participants. In these events, participants discuss Good Practice examples, possibilities for the support of companies and new solutions for more resource-conserving production.

InternationallyThe VDI ZRE provides its professional expertise on European level and exchanges experiences with international organizations. With the international exchange, the Competence Centre provides German companies with access to other countries’ experiences with resource efficiency. Furthermore, the VDI ZRE presents “Germany as a location for efficiency” in the world by introducing Good Practice Examples from Germany in talks and lectures.

VDI ZRE: well networked

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Politics•Support •Advice

Network Resource Efficiency

•Coordination •Organization

Network•Guideline work •Technical expertise

Companies Multipliers•Consultants •Chambers •Business development •Universities

VDI ZREThe Competence Centre for operational resource efficiency

•Information •Qualification •Events

VDI ZRE: Know-how and networking for more resource efficiency

VDI ZRE: Know-how and networking for more resource efficiency

VDI ZRE in figures

1,000 online resource checks per year were carried out, several hundred orders for new offline versions on DVD

2009 Foundation

21,000 people were reached by events in the last two years

46,000 times – that’s how often the films have been watched since the launch of the WebVideo magazine

2,000 website visitors per month

50 % of the users of VDI ZRE tools are from companies,40 % are multipliers such as consultants, chambers, and business developers

Imprint

V.i.S.d.P.: VDI Zentrum Ressourceneffizienz GmbHManaging Director: Dr. Martin VogtJohannisstraße 5-610117 Berlin

Phone: +49 30 2759506-0Fax: +49 30 2759506-30E-Mail: info@vdi-zre.dewww.vdi-zre.de

A project in the framework of the climate protection initiative of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).

Editorial work and design: komm.passion GmbHPictures: Cover: © Volker Moehrke/Corbis,Inside covers: Thomas Kierok, Thomas Rosenthal,VDI, VDI ZRE, Patrick Werner, © Fotolia.com,© Westend61 – f1online, © hüseyin harmandaglı – iStockphotoGraphics: komm.passion GmbH

This brochure was printed on environmentally-friendly recycling paper (awarded with the Blue Angel).