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HVO100 proves how sustainability is close to LCL's heart
LCL's switch from diesel to HVO100 is source of inspiration
Whether the emergency generators at LCL’s data center in Aalst could run on the CO2-neutral biofuel HVO100 instead of diesel? That wish from LCL’s Managing Director Laurens van Reijen put Eneria on edge. “It was the first time a customer asked us that question,” says Tim Bisson, Manager at Eneria. “Now our emergency power is also on HVO100 and LCL is a great ‘use case’ for other customers we advise to reduce their CO2 emissions.”
Like a Don Quixote fighting windmills. That’s how Tim Bisson, Manager at Eneria, felt barely four years ago when he brought up the importance of sustainability and an ecological energy transition. A few years and a solid energy crisis later, the picture looks completely different: “Even if not all companies have jumped on the bandwagon yet, by now it is obvious that those who do not make efforts in the coming years will eventually become irrelevant.”
Requests like LCL’s to stop running a data center’s emergency power generators on diesel, and instead run on HVO100 (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) are not presented to Eneria every day. Tim Bisson: “To be clear, we do not produce the biofuel HVO100 – that is Neste’s work. What we did do for LCL was demonstrate that our Caterpillar emergency power generators do not lose power, consumption or operational reliability when exchanging diesel for the biofuel HVO100, which is 90 percent CO2 neutral.”
Help with energy transition
For LCL, the successful setup is an ecological boost, but also at Eneria, the project fuels the ambition to help companies with their energy transition. “Typically for Eneria, the levers to achieve lower emissions are almost entirely in Scope 3: a recent study of our carbon footprint shows that the customers who use our machines represent 99.3 percent of all our emissions. That makes sense somewhere, because we sell machines that essentially consume diesel or natural gas and run for many years – which of course has a huge impact. So, the first pillar of our CSR strategy (coporate social responsibility) is to help reduce that consumption among our customers. We obviously have no control over their activities, but we do have control over the machines we offer them and how they drive them. HVO100 is an option, but there is also hydrogen, biogas, ethanol…”
“Mapping our carbon impact is part of our impending commitment to the SBTi (Science Based Target initiative) – which, by the way, LCL was one of the first to sign.”
“LCL was the very first customer to ask if the emergency generators could run on the biofuel HVO100. The project is an inspiration and a great 'use case' for other clients we advise to reduce their carbon emissions.”
Tim Bisson — Director Eneria
Rapids
The value of sustainability is becoming clearer by the day, notes Sales & Marketing Manager Curd Merlo: “The 2022 energy crisis accelerated everything. Each company asked the same questions: How weHow we can use less energy. How can it be cheaper? How can it be more sustainable? Until then, the energy transition was slow. Sustainability did not really have a value, except for large energy consumers that are ETS-compliant (Emissions Trading System, the European emissions trading system). Advising those companies is becoming an increasingly important activity for us. We engage with our customers about their energy issues and explore how we can use our knowledge and expertise to bring down their emissions – and thus our scope 3. In this way, together, we can ensure that we can continue to exist and grow in the long term in a sustainable way.”
Eneria in brief
Eneria is part of the international family group Bergerat Monnoyeur NV, which is also the official distributor of Caterpillar in Belgium. Whereas Caterpillar focuses on the design and construction of heavy earthmoving equipment for road, water and mining and generators, among other things, Eneria focuses on Caterpillar products and solutions related to energy. Like the emergency power generators at LCL in Aalst.
