Environmental responsibility

Greenhouse gas emissions

Cell Impact has a very low climate impact from direct emissions in its operations (Scope 1). Producing flow plates involves a range of different steps including forming, cutting and welding. All machines in Cell Impact’s processes are powered by electricity and there is no combustion of fossil fuels. There is also a diesel-fueled van that the company uses for local transportation.

Indirect emissions (Scope 2) include emissions from the electricity and district heating that supply the factory and office in Karlskoga.

Scope 3 downstream emissions include Cell Impact’s suppliers’ emissions of greenhouse gases from the production of steel. While Scope 1 and Scope 2 have a relatively small climate impact, Scope 3 has a more significant impact due to the steel the company purchases to produce flow plates and forming tools. This also includes the transportation of materials from the manufacturer to Cell Impact’s factory in Karlskoga.

When it comes to Scope 3 downstream, Cell Impact has chosen to limit Scope 3 emissions to those that occur from the moment a delivery of flow plates leaves the factory until it arrives at the customer. This means that Cell Impact reports indirect emissions from truck, train, boat and sometimes air transport. There are also a number of processing procedures at Cell Impact’s customers that can also give rise to emissions.

During 2023, Cell Impact was not able to assess the climate impact in Scope 3. The plan is to include the most relevant emissions in the company’s calculations during 2024.

Energy consumption

The company’s forming technology, Cell Impact Forming™, is significantly less energy-intensive than conventional forming techniques. Cell Impact’s ambition, which is evident in the company’s Phase II productivity and profitability program, is to constantly streamline and rationalize processes to reduce energy consumption per flow plate, which is crucial when producing flow plates on a large scale. This will be followed up in more detail in subsequent reports. A total of 32 percent of the electricity Cell Impact uses comes from renewable sources.

Heating at the Karlskoga factory comes from district heating, which according to the supplier derives mainly from renewable sources. In 2022, district heating consisted of 95 percent renewable and recycled energy, with the majority from wastebased fuels composed of fractions that cannot be recycled efficiently.

LED lamps are used for lighting in Cell Impact’s manufacturing process.

Water consumption

Cell Impact’s manufacturing processes does not require lubricants. For this reason, no water is needed to clean production machinery. The water consumed at Cell Impact’s factory relates to drinking water, flushing toilets and cleaning. Water consumption is therefore unusually low for an industrial company.

For 2023, it has not been possible to quantify Cell Impact’s water consumption as the water meter did not cover the entire premises where other activities are also carried out. In 2024, the company will investigate the possibility of installing its own meter.

Waste management and recycling

Already in the design phase of forming tools, recycling is an important factor. Tools are manufactured from a life cycle perspective with a focus on sustainability. With the right material and manufacturing method, Cell Impact can ensure that a tool will maintain its shape and quality for a long time.

Well-designed tooling optimizes the forming process to make the most efficient use of material for the flow plates, minimizing waste as much as possible. This makes the manufacturing process highly resource-efficient.

In manufacturing, despite good preparation, there is a need to manage waste and recycling of discarded flow plates and scrap generated when cutting plates. Cell Impact recycles unused sheet metal and reuses discarded plates, for example, for test runs.

Cell Impact’s flow plates are primarily made of stainless steel and titanium. Leftover material is recycled, and it is relatively straightforward to recycle, although the coated sheet metal that Cell Impact uses is somewhat more resource-intensive when recycling.

In 2024, Cell Impact will take steps to improve and expand sorting of other recyclable material.