We must help our customers to use fewer resources
Why not rent your blasting or painting equipment instead of buying it?
And if you now have to buy: Why not buy the equipment used rather than new? A bit in the same way as it has become fashionable to buy clothes second-hand?
In any case, there is no shortage of options if you as a company want to make an effort to reduce your climate footprint. Especially if you don't just look narrowly at the usual financial bottom line when justifying the investment case.
"Now take something like renting out equipment, which we already do to a large extent in our Offshore Energy business, and which we would like to do even more of in our other business areas. If you buy new, the equipment risks ending up in a corner after some time. But rental machines always end up where they can create value. And we can make sure to upgrade them and keep them up to date, so that we can make the most of them. Therefore, renting is basically a much more circular business model, which I think we will see a lot more of, says Claus Andersen, CEO of Mouritsen A/S.
A train that will hit us all soon
Like so many other companies, Mouritsen A/S is still in the initial phase of the responsibility journey that all players in the industry must go on - and where very few companies know where they will actually end up.
But according to Claus Andersen, one thing is certain: the EU's taxonomy - the EU's classification system for sustainable activities, which entered into force in January 2022, and which sets out a number of conditions and criteria for when an economic activity is environmentally sustainable - and the upcoming requirements in relation to ESG reporting will be a "train that will hit us all soon," as he puts it.
At Mouritsen A/S, the green transition has therefore long since become a strategic aim, as 'responsibility' is one of the company's core values. And for the same reason, Mouritsen's role is kind of self explaining, says Claus Andersen.
"We must help our customers to use fewer resources. It's really quite straightforward.”
The built-in commercial tackle
Mouritsen A/S can do this, based on competences and our specialists’ many years of experience, in many ways, emphasizes Claus Andersen.
It can be by pointing out the climate benefits of renting equipment rather than buying it. It can be by extending the life of production and process equipment. Or it can be something as simple as reducing the consumption of compressed air for blasting by optimizing the blasting agent and the recycling unit.
But in advising customers in the best possible way, there is also a built-in commercial tackle, as in reality it often pays off better for Mouritsen A/S if the customer relatively often upgrades its production and therefore buys new equipment more often.
"This is of course a bit of a paradox in itself, and it is in situations like this that we as a company must grasp our values and stand firm that as a responsible, quality-conscious company we owe it to both our customers and society to help customers to the most responsible solution," says Claus Andersen.
New business models lie in wait
It is precisely the willingness to move into new business models. Whether you are a supplier, consultant or end user.
In Mouritsen's case, according to Claus Andersen, it could be an example in the long term to contribute to developing a form of sharing portal where companies can make their equipment available to other companies.
Or it could be that in the future the company no longer sells and rents painting equipment, but instead sells the number of liters of paint delivered from the equipment per hour, so that the customer does not pay for the equipment itself but rather for the output.
"These are two examples of something for which there is currently no business model. But that could easily happen if legislation and technological development make it possible," concludes Claus Andersen.