At Dover, efficiency in our operations is a foundational principle, and our commitment to reducing our environmental impact includes managing waste responsibly. Accordingly, we are pursuing efforts to identify and minimize sources of waste in our operations and value chain, including upstream and downstream waste production associated with material sourcing and customer product use.

EMBEDDING EFFICIENCY IN OUR OPERATIONS

Efficiency is a core principle for all Dover operating companies. Each operating company is responsible for managing waste and developing an approach that is customized to the unique context and requirements of their business.

Waste management practices vary at our sites depending on our operating companies’ product lines and customer needs, but generally waste management efforts include some or all of the following:

  • Focusing on efficiency and continuous improvement through lean manufacturing that reduces the seven kinds of waste (i.e., overproduction, overprocessing, waiting, motion, inventory, transportation, and defects) identified in the centralized 0DOVER operational excellence and safety framework
  • Developing recycling or waste strategy based on value stream mapping and optimized packaging design
  • Following internationally recognized best practice environmental management systems such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 and setting goals for waste reduction
  • Assessing waste management through third parties such as EcoVadis at the request of customers
  • Conducting an internal audit of waste management and lean practices through the 0DOVER framework
  • Innovating for sustainability in new product development to enable a more circular economy, including consideration of the entire product lifecycle and efforts to reduce waste generated and energy or water consumed by products

As with other sustainability-related risks, waste risks are evaluated and integrated into our broader company-wide oversight of risk management as needed. We strive to address waste-related risks through our ongoing conservation efforts. In the future we are considering centralizing data collection, reporting, and management of waste to drive increased attention to waste reduction efforts.

Operating companies reducing waste

A number of our operating companies are certified to the ISO 14001 environmental management system standard, which requires setting goals for resource efficiency, including waste. For example, Markem-Imaje is targeting the reduction of its global waste 5% by 2030 from a 2019 baseline by improving waste management practices. Through optimizing manufacturing processes, Markem-Imaje has already reduced waste by 10% based on production activity (kg waste per ton shipment) from 2019. Read more in the 2022 Markem-Imaje Sustainability Brochure.

SWEP has also achieved continuous progress toward its aim to create more from less. In 2022, SWEP improved first pass yield – the proportion of heat exchangers that are manufactured without the need for rebrazing – by 11%. By reducing the need for rebrazing, SWEP saves materials and energy, while improving production capacity and efficiency. New data systems and strong collaboration between shop floor employees, management, and improvement teams have supported SWEP’s waste reduction. Read more about SWEP’s dedication to resource efficiency in the SWEP Sustainability Report 2022.

Dover’s PSG Grand Rapids has reduced its waste footprint by investing in a trash compactor and participating in a mobile trash compaction service, which significantly reduces the volume of waste sent to landfills. Waste compaction also reduces a company’s emissions by reducing the need for fuel-intensive trash hauls.

Many of our operating companies support enhanced resource efficiency by implementing recycling programs for materials used in production. Examples include the following:

REDUCING WASTE AND ENABLING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY THROUGH PRODUCT INNOVATION

We also consider waste from a broader value chain perspective, particularly the value we can create by developing products and solutions that help our customers reduce their waste footprint. As an industrial manufacturer of equipment and solutions for diverse markets, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunity to support our customers in addressing their waste goals.

Increasing the use of recyclable metals

For over 60 years, Belvac has designed machinery that is integral to the manufacturing of aluminum cans, which are infinitely recyclable. The machinery also reduces the amount of raw material needed to manufacture aluminum cans while maintaining can strength and durability, making these cans lighter and less expensive to transport than other single-use containers. In this way, Belvac’s manufacturing technologies play an important role in supporting sustainable packaging.

Enabling reusable packaging to reduce single-use plastics: Markem-Imaje

Markem-Imaje's innovative marking solutions enable customers to reduce single-use plastics in their value chain with proven inks and marking solutions, which enable coding on returnable glass bottles, refillable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, or on easily recyclable aluminum cans. Markem-Imaje also offers a coding solution, Coding Integrity, that verifies the information printed on products using cameras and scanning technology. This helps ensure that product coding, such as expiration dates, are more reliably printed, which in turn reduces food waste. Markem-Imaje’s solutions support advanced inventory management and selective product recalls, enabling customers to minimize waste in their value chain.

Reprocessing plastic products: MAAG

MAAG Group systems also play a key role in reducing waste and enabling a more circular economy for plastics. MAAG Group serves the entire plastics value chain from virgin polymers to processing of parts to end-of-life recycling. This breadth and depth of experience gives MAAG Group insight into how its products can enable the effective transformation of used plastics material into high quality products. MAAG Group’s recycling processing solutions address the technical challenges posed by working with used plastics material streams that are often highly contaminated, including filtration technologies that remove paper, metal, wood, or other contaminants from used plastics and color control systems for recycled plastic pellets. For example, MAAG Group’s ETTLINGER’s melt filters allow remove contaminants more efficiently from highly contaminated loads of used plastics with a reduced loss of material compared to alternative solutions. MAAG Group’s product portfolio of pelletizers, dryers, pulverizers, and melt pumps are used in a wide variety of applications that support closing the loop for plastic materials and creating a circular economy.

For more information on our innovative and sustainable products and solutions and how they enable the circular economy, please visit our Innovation for Sustainable Products webpage.