Energy Management at the heart of our decarbonization journey
ISO 50001 is a voluntary standard for designing, implementing and maintaining an energy management system. Energy management is a prerequisite for energy-efficient operations and an important pillar of AGC's decarbonization roadmap and competitiveness. The implementation of ISO 50001, that started in 2023, is a milestone and a great achievement that was only possible thanks to the commitment, operational excellence and collaborative effort of multiple departments and teams across AGC’s production sites.
About ISO 50001
ISO 50001 is an international standard for Energy Management Systems (EnMS) that provides organizations with a structured framework to improve energy efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. It empowers companies to establish systematic processes for monitoring, managing, and optimizing energy use, ensuring continuous improvement in energy performance.
Achieving ISO 50001 certification brings transformative benefits to production sites. It enables significant cost savings by optimizing energy consumption and reducing waste, while also enhancing environmental performance. Additionally, it cultivates a culture of energy awareness and efficiency, empowering employees to actively contribute to energy-saving initiatives.
The teams behind AGC’s energy efficiency success
Securing ISO 50001 certification required AGC production sites to implement a comprehensive energy management system tailored to their operations. This involved:
- A continuous effort of the plants’ Energy Managers to bring the organization to have a different awareness of the energy efficiency, and to manage the daily activities to achieve the defined targets
- Deploy a monitoring system able to show the energy consumption of the production lines in real time and to identify the actual energy distribution in the manufacturing plant
- Set relevant KPIs and targets that the management can follow-up
- Put in place an action plan based on the indicators that can effectively reduce the energy consumption in nominal conditions
Achieving ISO 50001 certification was a collaborative effort involving multiple departments and teams across AGC production sites. The Energy Management team led the charge, coordinating the implementation of the Energy Management Systems and driving progress. Production, Procurement and corporate Industrial Coordination teams played an important role in identifying and implementing technical improvements to enhance energy efficiency, while Sustainability department ensured alignment with broader corporate goals.
Overcoming challenges during the certification journey
The path to ISO 50001 certification started in 2023 and was not without obstacles. Here are some of the challenges overcome by the AGC teams all over Europe.
"Setting in place an Energy Management system in a complex plant with different departments and production lines, requires a strong organizational effort since it is embedded into the Plant Management integrating operational, environmental and financial processes."
Laurent Romain, Energy Manager, Moustier plant (Belgium)
"Implementing technical improvements to enhance energy efficiency required a careful planning and working hand-in-hand with the production departments. In Cuneo we have not only worked to optimize energy consumption but also to reduce dependence on the electricity grid by means of photovoltaic, heat recovery turbines and efficient cogeneration."
Davide Giordano, Energy Manager, Cuneo (Italy)
“Gathering accurate energy consumption data is a prerequisite to be able to take action. Our “Factory of the Future” team worked out a robust monitoring and reporting system that allowed just that! We can now monitor the energy consumption of the production lines in real time, identify issues put in place actions plans for improvements “
Energy Management and Factory of the Future teams, Řetenice plant (Czech Republic)
The ISO 50001 certification of the upstream operations reflects AGC Glass Europe’s commitment to responsible energy management and contribute to a sustainable future.
For the full list of certified sites, visit the page ISO 50001.
