Sustainable Manufacturing and Energy Infrastructure
The world is confronted simultaneously with a number of crises, among them climate change, disrupted supply chains and workforce shortages. The seventeen sustainability development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations represent a widely accepted framework for acting towards a better world, at country, at organization or even at personal level.
Today, global warming has reached a level where its dramatic effects are visible without sophisticated research. From drying lakes to flooded coasts, from burning forests to ocean acidification and losses of biodiversity, from climate migration to high repair costs, extraordinary disasters are increasingly becoming the new normal.
Being more sustainable through zenon, is that possible?
Can the United Nations' sustainability goals be achieved while remaining economically competitive?
zenon can support you in your digital transformation and make you fit for a more sustainable future.
We are convinced that in the intersection between sustainability and digitalization, a scalable software solution like zenon will help you become more competitive and, at the same time, more sustainable.
In an ecosystem, everything is interrelated and influences each other. The same is true in the globalized economy, where many processes are intertwined and influence each other.
Transnational supply chains have become indispensable, but they falter or breakdown as soon as one link in this chain gets out of sync. Sustainable business is, therefore, also always about robustness and flexibility.
It is about actively addressing and implementing measures and solutions. Digital technologies and industrial automation are crucial for the expansion of tomorrow's industry. In this future world, cost pressure, transparency and the tracking of one's own process data will become new resources.
In the context of climate protection goals, there is also talk of "net zero manufacturing" or “industrial decarbonization”. This mainly involves reducing harmful greenhouse gases, primarily CO₂, in the manufacturing environment and the entire supply chain (Scope 3). Companies that have both Scope 1 and Scope 2 transparently under control can also more easily ensure the necessary Scope 3 classification as a supplier for their customers. Due to the open interfaces in zenon as well as the extensive possibility to pass on data across companies and production locations by means of the software platform, our solutions support the sustainability initiatives of our customers.
With zenon on the way to a sustainable future
The three pillars by which zenon makes you fit for the future:
Empowerment: zenon supports users with transparency and traceability of existing processes.
Possible goals: make data and energy flows visible and derive measures from them. Digitalize and automate paper-intensive procedures. Relieve employees of analog and error-prone paperwork and free them up for more rewarding work every day. Reduce travel with secure and reliable remote work. zenon also helps you with a carbon footprint calculation to obtain possible subsidies or to meet legal or customer-specific requirements.
Increase efficiency: You can use existing resources more efficiently and plan ahead with zenon.
In this way, you increase productivity in an ecological and economic sense. Identify energy and material savings potential and implement targeted measures. Implementing an energy data management system allows you to monitor and adjust energy consumption, save costs and reduce environmental impact.
Renewable energies: Fossil fuel phase-out technologies can be implemented more quickly with zenon.
You can become more autonomous and be your own energy supplier on the way to integrated manufacturing using photovoltaics or wind power. zenon also helps you here – for example, as an energy management system. For many energy suppliers and grid operators, zenon contributes to the energy transition and to a balanced, stable grid.
A best practice approach with zenon
zenon supports you in your daily business with versatility as well as high connectivity and scalability. For example, digital twins can minimize effort in costly small batch production and, thus, streamline development processes. In addition, you can reduce setup times and also produce small batch sizes efficiently – right up to "batch size 1". Not only new production lines, but also preexisting plants and production lines can be retrofitted and equipped with zenon. Energy networks have in some cases already been running stably and robustly for decades thanks to zenon. Digital substations, which can save thousands of meters of copper cable, are implemented worldwide with zenon. In the Success Stories section on our website, you will find user reports from companies where zenon is already being used successfully. On the one hand, these success stories illustrate the versatility of zenon. On the other, they also confirm our mission to make the lives of our users easier. In addition, the stories show how the topic of sustainability is already a long-standing companion in the history of zenon. Our best-practice approach reflects the successful symbiosis between software and industry and between the digital and real worlds. From energy infrastructure to freshly brewed beer to painkillers – zenon is one platform for many solutions. In keeping with several UN sustainability goals, zenon supports users with its comprehensive capabilities.
Goal 3: Health and well-being
With zenon, the technology company Merck KGaA was able to implement modularization according to MTP standards in a higher-level Process Orchestration Layer (POL). In addition, numerous machine manufacturers in the life sciences environment operate their machines with zenon, thus ensuring greater production efficiency and data transparency.
Goal 6: clean water and sanitation
The name Bodensee-Wasserversorgung stands for the highest safety and quality. Drinking water for four million people is kept in constant supply cycle with zenon.
Goal 7: affordable and clean energy
The energy supplier Azienda Elettrica Ticinese (AET) uses zenon to operate power plants and electricity grids in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland – based on hydroelectric and solar power. COPA-DATA develops zenon in Salzburg. The green electricity used for this is generated with zenon in the hydroelectric power plants of Salzburg AG.
Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Megalopolis is a central node of the national power grid of southern Greece and thus essential for the energy transition there. The substations of the Greek transmission system operator IPTO S.A. are automated with zenon.
EREMA's recycling machines return plastic products that have already been used to the production cycle. In this way, they contribute to building a sustainable circular economy and avoiding plastic waste.
Cloud data centers form the backbone of modern office infrastructure and consume a lot of energy in the process. zenon supports well-known providers in operating these large-scale facilities efficiently and securely.
Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities
With a visualization system based on the zenon software platform, the W.E.I.Z. innovation center keeps a better eye on its energy balance. Discover energy management as a service in Weiz: energizing the city.
Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production patterns
The mills of GoodMills Austria process grain into flour, semolina and baking mixes. At two sites, control technology based on zenon ensures ergonomics, robustness and energy efficiency.
Goal 13: Climate protection measures
Working together towards sustainability at Carlsberg Srbija. Innovative technologies and resource-saving processes are used to continuously improve production processes.
Learn more about our Software Platform
zenon helps you manage your facility's efficiency and costs to create quality products or keep energy infrastructure stable and running. COPA-DATA has more than 30 years of experience working within different industries. We are continuously improving the zenon Software Platform to maintain the necessary logic and algorithms.
Contact COPA-DATA online with your questions about our automation solutions.