In a bid to become the first leading manufacturer of sanitary products to achieve carbon-neutral production by 2020, Grohe has once again stepped up its pledge with “Grohe goes Zero” initiative, where all five production plants worldwide as well as the logistics centers in Germany were converted to run on green electricity in July of this year.
By April, the manufacturer will offset unavoidable CO2 emissions through two compensation projects, namely, the clean energy through hydropower in Pradesh, India and repairing damaged boreholes in Malawi.
Clean energy through hydropower
The project is located on the Satluj River between Karcham and Wangtoo in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. As a hydropower plant, the project uses the river’s natural flow to generate energy.
More importantly, there is no reservoir in which the water is temporarily stored, thus the potential negative environmental impacts of water storage are avoided. In the underground turbine house, four Francis turbines are driven by the power of the river water before the water is returned to the river bed below.
All the power generated by the power plant is fed into the North Indian transmission grid and replaces conventionally generated electricity, which mainly comes from coal-fired power plants.
Repairing damaged boreholes
In the project’s districts of Dowa and Kasungu in Malawi, half of the population lives without access to clean drinking water. Part of the problem is that around one-third of the existing boreholes can’t be used due to wear and tear.
This is the reason why Grohe supports a project that repairs damaged boreholes and improves the living conditions for the people based in the area. Most boreholes are operated by a hand pump. Generally, the pumped water is clean and can be consumed without any additional treatment. This also reduces carbon emissions, since water would otherwise be purified using fuel to boil it.
In addition, the project also makes it possible to set up financing mechanisms to ensure the boreholes are maintained in the long-term, securing the water supply.