moving towards a sustainable car fleet at Lamers

We spoke with Rik Knol, facility manager Lamers, about sustainability-related activities at Lamers. One interesting initiative they are working on is related to their car fleet. “At Lamers we currently have 44 cars, and we decided to investigate using electric cars in our fleet,” Rik says. “The technology and the supply from various brands have greatly improved in recent years, so when replacing and/or supplementing the fleet it is increasingly practical to look for sustainable solutions.”

The 100 percent CO₂-neutral balance sheet production is an important building block on the way to production without any impact on the environment. Source: volkswagenag.com

 

Rik continues, “We now have six electric cars and one hybrid car. Two pool cars (Skoda Rapid Diesel) were recently replaced by Volkswagen ID.3s. These are used for customer and supplier visits and as consignment cars for the SLA. A hard requirement for the electric replacements was they had to be able to drive to our regular customers and suppliers without having to charge (meaning a range of about 300km).”

 

“There are other limitations and things we need to take into account,” Rik adds. “For example, our Installations department relies on several VW Crafters, VW Caddy’s, and VW Transporters within our fleet, but these cannot yet be replaced with electric vehicles due to the current range of buses and also the load. Another thing to consider is having sufficient electricity capacity. For example, due to the planned renovation of a third cleanroom this year, it wasn’t certain that there would be enough electricity available to accommodate charging stations for electric cars.”

 

Rik concludes, “Becoming more sustainable may sound easy, but in reality it can be quite complex. Nevertheless, where it makes sense and where we can, we do strive to do so.”

Dirk Veldhuis, the Sustainability representative for Aalberts AM, commented; “Although 2 electric vehicles may seem like a small thing, this is a great example of opportunities we have on our way towards a Sustainable Operation. So far we have focused on the energy consumption in our facilities, but going forward we will be looking at the total carbon footprint of our operation, and this will also include our company cars. Therefore it is great to see that Lamers has started to solve the puzzle of how to implement a sustainable solution on a small scale, so we can learn from that and implement it on a larger scale in the future.