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World Environment Day 2022: protecting the climate together

3-minute read

Providing long-term protection for our climate requires raising environmental awareness worldwide. This is the important goal being pursued by World Environment Day, an international event that takes place every year on 5 June. The first World Environment Day was organised in 1972 by the United Nations. Since then, around 150 countries take part in World Environment Day every year. Each Day is dedicated to a different theme, with ‘Only One Earth: Living Sustainably in Harmony with Nature’ being this year’s focus. This is a clear call to sustainable action, which has also been an integral part of SCHELL’s company philosophy since our formation. After all, the company does hail from Olpe in the Sauerland region, surrounded by fields, forests and natural waterways. Accordingly, we’ve always been aware of the need to handle natural resources responsibly.

Rejecting plastic bottles to protect our oceans

One important step to protect the environment is avoiding the use of plastic: figures show some 4.8 to 12.7 million tonnes of this waste can end up polluting our oceans every year. But this isn’t surprising, given that around 1 million plastic bottles are sold around the world every minute, of which 70–80 percent are not recycled. The bottles would need between 450 and 5,000 years to decompose. Many bottles are flushed into oceans from rivers, where the plastic not only destroys habitats but also endangers human health via the food chain. To counteract these effects, the only real option is to switch from single-use plastic bottles to tap water. This is always available and also – despite popular opinion to the contrary – contains valuable minerals just like bottled water, as is shown by the analysis results from utilities. And in Germany at least, tap water meets the highest safety standards right up to a building’s water mains connection. To ensure water quality is maintained within a building, SCHELL – the drinking water hygiene expert – offers award-winning and sustainable solutions that also help to save water. 

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Drinking water hygiene is a top priority

Our tap water can therefore be consumed without any concerns whatsoever. In Germany, this is also ensured by compliance with relevant drinking water legislation: more than 99 percent of measured values obtained from samples of German drinking water meet or even exceed the legal requirements. Germany therefore has some of the highest-quality drinking water in the world. To ensure drinking water quality can also be maintained within a building, and especially during prolonged periods of non-use, stagnation flushes are an essential tool for the public and semi-public sector. Regulators in Germany require a complete exchange of water throughout the installation and at all tapping points at intervals of no more than 72 hours. This is simple to achieve with the contactless, electronic fittings from SCHELL, which can be programmed with specific flow times and sensor ranges, and can also carry out stagnation flushes automatically. This ensures the installation’s specified normal operation over the long term and prevents the exponential growth of bacteria that are harmful to health.

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The smart, premium solution from SCHELL

Ensuring specified normal operation for an installation is particularly straightforward with SCHELL’s Water Management System SWS. SWS can be used to network, control and monitor all of the electronic fittings in a building by means of a central water management server. Stagnation flushes can also be easily executed and documented using the water management system. Various settings, such as flow time or actuation force, can also be adjusted quickly and conveniently. In this way, SCHELL’s SWS helps to maintain drinking water quality, protect against damage from leaks, log runtime parameters from the drinking water system and ensure cost-effective operation. 

Responsible handling of a precious resource 

With its electronic fittings and the Water Management System SWS, SCHELL can also help to save water. Thanks to optimised hygiene flushes and a coordinated range of components, SCHELL’s SWS keeps water consumption as low as possible. Like electronic wash basin taps, for example: which start automatically, interrupt the flow of water during prolonged ‘soaping-up phases’ and stop automatically when no longer needed. Compared with conventional fittings, savings of this essential resource can add up to 62 percent for hand washing alone. 

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Sustainability comes naturally to us

At SCHELL, environmental awareness is part of our corporate philosophy and an essential part of our company DNA. This is why we use green electricity from renewable energy sources throughout our company – including both of our factories and our office buildings. Charging points for electric vehicles are also provided on company premises to promote low-emission mobility. High-efficiency LED lighting and a commitment to the cradle-to-cradle model are other factors that form part of our environmental protection strategy. It’s therefore appropriate that raw materials and products are reused and recycled at SCHELL, so as to protect our valuable resources.