Grade "B" at energy audit

Audit according to DIN standard 16247

Everyone is talking about sustainability. Saving energy is the watchword – to treat ressources with care, but also to save costs. This is why the company GEORG SCHLEGEL already has commissioned an energy audit last year to collect saving possibilities and improve our energy footprint.

In order to inspect the actions independently, SCHLEGEL relies on an audit according to the standards of the ISO certification in various fields. This is also true for the energy audit. The company MZM Consulting, together with auditor Josef Menz, has conducted the audit in accordance with the requirements of the standard DIN 16247.

The result: The auditor attested that the company’s current state is already on a good level and gave SCHLEGEL – if you put it simply – a grade "B". Some of the recommended possible savings have already been implemented.

The first step of the audit was to evaluate the annual energy consumption and pinpoint those areas that consume the most energy. A big part of the consumed energy is still required in the production. By paying those areas a visit, they have been evaluated separately and energy-saving potentials have been derived. Those are rated in the record, whether they can be realised technically, how quick they become profitable and corresponding to that, how viable they are for the company.

Possible savings

The report mainly sees possible savings in waste heat utilisation, waste heat recovery and the heating systems themselves. Another thing that was recommended is to switch to LED lighting. This has been realised in many areas already. Starting in 2024, the energy audit is mandatory for many companies. Anticipating that, SCHLEGEL has realised it in 2023 already.

The energy audit is the basis for an environmental management system according to ISO 14001 which SCHLEGEL wants to implement, as quality manager Michael Weber explains. He is also the one who initiated and monitored the energy audit.