Aliplast sets new standard in sustainability

Aliplast, a leading manufacturer of aluminum profiles for windows and doors, verandas, pergolas and cladding, continues to assert its leadership role in sustainability with a wide range of initiatives that contribute to a circular economy and a greener future.

Ruben Snurawa, Quality and ESG manager of Aliplast: “For us, sustainability is not a single concept, but a combination of multiple attributes. It goes much further than just wanting to reduce our emissions, for example. We try to achieve the maximum and throughout the entire production process we try to focus on circularity, limiting CO₂ emissions, responsible energy consumption, ...”

Product circularity

Aluminum is an ideal material for circular construction. Aluminum is produced from the natural material bauxite ore, which is abundant. Once mined and refined, it can be rolled, cast or extruded. Aluminum is 100% infinitely recyclable without sacrificing quality.

For some projects, we use Low Carbon Billets. These can either be billets with a high content of recycled material or billets produced with green energy. This makes it easier for buildings to achieve BREEAM certification.

AluLoop

• For partners who sign up for this, a scrap dealer will pick up the aluminum scrap from our distributors.
• This scrap is remelted into high-quality low-carbon billets.
• We repurchase these billets to extrude and produce new aluminum profiles.

We are delighted to see that many of our distributors are enthusiastic about our new concept and are already signing up. With AluLoop we close the cycle and reduce our ecological footprint. Together we make a difference!

Ecological initiatives throughout the production process

Ruben adds: “Aluminum is inherently a sustainable material, but at Aliplast we go one step further. At every stage of our production process, we watch out for environmentally friendly initiatives so that our solutions are not only strong and aesthetic, but also contribute to a greener future. Below we highlight some of our initiatives.”

Efficient energy management

We take many actions to manage our gas and electricity consumption as efficiently as possible:

• During the extrusion of our profiles, our dies must be sufficiently heated before they are placed in the press. We have invested in modern IR die furnaces that reduce our electricity consumption by 108,500 kWh per year. That is the equivalent of the average annual consumption of 30 families.
• To reduce natural gas consumption, Aliplast replaced the billet furnace, reducing our annual gas consumption by 296,000 kWh, equivalent to the average annual consumption of 16 families.
• Aliplast derives renewable energy from 5,400 solar panels with a capacity of

± 1,600,000 kWh of green electricity per year, saving 664 tons of CO². On top of our own green energy production, we purchase only certified green electricity. We therefore use 100% of green electricity. In addition, the CO² emissions from our gas consumption in the production of the C2C certified systems 100% are offset.

Additional investments in solar panels and storage batteries are planned in 2026!

New ideas for using less water

We have invested heavily in our powder coating lines to reduce water consumption there by a factor of 4. How? By combining the water treatment for our lacquering lines, we were able to drastically reduce consumption.

Aliplast has also optimized its vertical pretreatment line to reduce water consumption. In fact, traditional cleaning and pickling zones have high water consumption. By building the tunnel and implementing a new type of cleaning and pickling process, we have reduced water consumption by 64%. In fact, in this sustainable system, water is optimally recycled, instead of using fresh water each time.

Driven electric transportation

Already 89% of our material handling is electric! Of the 27 forklifts, 26 are already electric. Each new electric forklift saves 16 tons of CO² per year. In recent years, our transport partner has also invested in ever greener trucks, so that all trucks that supply our customers meet the EURO6 emission standard.

We even have a first: we just commissioned our first electric truck.

Reusable packaging materials

We use metal containers to deliver the profiles. So no disposable material, but metal storage racks in which we deliver the profiles to our customers and which we get back from them empty. This relieves both ourselves and our customers of unnecessary packaging material.

An important factor in reducing our CO₂ footprint, is the choice of packaging materials. In this too, we have reliable partners such as Abriso Jiffy who supplies Ocean Green protective material, among others, which on the one hand consists of material recycled up to 100% and is 100% recyclable again. To ensure that these high-quality products get to the yard unscathed, they are packaged with ‘Ocean Green’ certified material.

Cradle to Cradle

Thanks to the thorough ecological efforts initiated by Aliplast, we received C2C (Cradle to Cradle) certification for several of our aluminum systems. Cradle to Cradle Certified™ is a globally recognized benchmark for safer and more sustainable products in view of the circular economy.

EcoVadis Platinum

EcoVadis is a globally recognized platform that rates companies on their sustainability and ESG performance (Environmental, Social, Governance). Sustainability performance is assessed on 4 major issues: environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.

Corialis, the group to which Aliplast belongs, earned a platinum Ecovadis medal through its efforts with a score of 84/100. This places us among the top 5% of the best scoring companies, even 1% of our industry.

Conclusion

Ruben concludes, “The road to sustainability is constantly changing and marked by challenges that require our constant innovation and resilience. Only by remaining steadfast in our resolve, knowing that every effort counts, no matter how small, will we contribute to a more sustainable future. Sustainability is not an individual effort; it is a collective commitment. Together, we can build a greener, more resilient and prosperous world.“