ARN Sustainability Report 2010

ARN Recycling Services

Utilising expertise
in the right way

Ensuring the correct, environmentally- sound disposal of waste materials is not only relevant at the end of a car’s lifecycle but also throughout its useful life. ARN Recycling Services now supplies the garage and vehicle repair sector with the knowledge it has acquired over the years about the recycling of old cars and recycling costs. The objective is to improve the efficiency of managed waste flows.

ARN has also developed the Environmental Scan to encourage garages and damage repair businesses organize their waste flows and energy consumption more efficiently. As well as saving costs for these companies, the ARN Environmental Scan improves awareness in the field of sustainable business practice. The majority of customers for this scan are car businesses with their own workshop.

Waste management

Each waste flow calls for a specific approach to storage, transport and processing. Sound waste management guarantees minimum environmental burdens while improving cost effectiveness. ARN takes over full responsibility from these companies in organising their waste flows, via a one-stop-shopping service. ARN as it were acts as a broker for the waste flows, by bringing together supply and demand, while also guaranteeing that the waste materials are disposed of in a responsible and environmentally-friendly manner.
ARN offers businesses a single contact point for registering their waste materials. Via the Internet, the registration is automatically passed on to the most suitable waste collection company. Invoicing is also an automated process. Once a year, the business receives an annual overview listing the quantities of the various types of waste handed in, and the costs incurred. The ARN waste materials concept combines ease of organization with cost savings.

ARN Environmental Scan

The Environmental Scan developed by ARN helps companies understand their current waste management and energy consumption. The scan is combined with a series of targeted recommendations on sustainable improvements the company can make to ensure more efficient and more environmentally-friendly working processes. The ARN Environmental Scan is the pragmatic first step towards reducing environmental burdens generated by car companies, and, in the longer term, by the entire mobility sector.

ARN has now carried out an ARN Environmental Scan at more than 100 companies. The combined results represent a benchmark allowing each business to compare its own performance with that of fellow operators in the sector. Useful yardsticks are for example the quantity of waste or the power consumption per workshop visit. To ensure an valid comparison, it is important to make a distinction between the different groups of companies in the mobility sector, for example general garages, damage repair companies and dealerships, since there are after all major discrepancies in the waste flows from for example a general garage or a damage repair company.

The combined results of all ARN Environmental Scans offer businesses with a poor score within a group an opportunity to leARN from higher-scoring businesses from the sector. Improvement programmes suitable for implementation at individual business level often relate to improving the logistic processes within the company, for example, or to tracing more accurately why the volume of waste is higher than at other comparable businesses.
Damage repair companies, for example, can reduce waste levels by a smarter approach to repair; instead of automatically selecting a new part, they can first assess whether it is not more efficient to repair the existing part.
Huge gains can also be made by garages and damage repair companies in terms of the packaging for waste storage. By working with larger units and operating a smarter approach, it is possible to reduce the number of waste collection visits, which can result in considerable financial savings.
For dealerships, electricity bills are usually very high. Lighting in the showroom, after all is of vital importance. Nonetheless, through a few simple measures, considerable energy savings can be achieved without reducing the actual lighting levels.

In 2010, the ARN Environmental Scan was expanded to include the energy survey by Energiecentrum MKB (SME Energy Centre). This addition has enabled ARN to offer its customers an even more complete scan in the fields of waste management and energy consumption. The energy survey shows how a business deals with its energy requirements and identifies possible savings opportunities. The account managers at ARN Recycling Services have been trained by Energiecentrum MKB to carry out the energy survey. The decision has been taken to not standardize the environmental scan, in order to ensure continued flexibility and to make it possible to adapt the ARN Environmental Scan to the latest developments on the market.

ARN Environmental scan

ARN certificate

The ARN Environmental Scan focuses mainly on waste materials and energy consumption. Attention is also paid to the consumption of gas and water. The environmental scan delivers a qualitative judgement on:

  1. Waste prevention and waste separation.
  2. Waste storage.
  3. Waste removal.
  4. Energy and water consumption.
  5. Other environmental aspects of operations.

If a company obtains a satisfactory score on four of these five points, an ARN certificate is issued that is valid for two years. The environmental scan also delivers a benchmark figure that shows the score achieved by the company as compared to other businesses in the sector, for example in terms of costs per service engineer or energy costs per workshop visit.

In collaboration with Care Schadeservice (a chain of specialist damage repair companies) and the BMW dealers’ association for the Netherlands, ARN carried out an ARN Environmental Scan at all Care branches and almost all BMW dealerships in 2010. Interest in the scan has now spread to the special vehicle division of the RAI Association. These companies specialize in building vehicles for disabled people and for ambulance services, and interest has also been shown by agricultural machinery organizations. Other car makes have also expressed an interest in the ARN Environmental Scan.

Useful support

On many occasions, the environmental scan has proved a useful support for managers in their efforts to make changes to traditional business processes. One important step in reducing the environmental burden is for example to prevent waste being generated in the first place. If a garage that uses three thousand half-litre containers of windscreen washer a year replaces those containers with bulk packaging with a tap system, the result is not only a reduced environmental burden but also a cost saving. The environmental scan reveals just these kinds of opportunities for change, which result in financial and environmental advantages for businesses, without excessive effort.

Batteries and cable trees

Despite the many environmentally-harmful materials they contain, batteries and cable trees can now be very effectively recycled. The value of batteries lies above all in the lead and of cable trees in the copper they contain. ARN buys in batteries and cable trees at standard market prices from vehicles dismantling companies and garages, from municipal authorities and operators in the sme segment. Together with its contract partners, ARN guarantees the sustainable processing of both materials.

Developments in 2010

Outlook for 2011

Menu: three scans for sustainability

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