GOTHENBURG (March 27, 2013) – SKF’s newly built bearing factory in Ahmedabad, India was awarded the coveted LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification by IGBC (India Green Building Council). With this certification, the Ahmedabad factory became the first bearing factory in India to be certified by LEED rating and the third SKF facility across the globe to attain a LEED certification.
Tom Johnstone, SKF President and CEO said, “SKF made the decision some years ago that all our new facilities should be built to the LEED standard. I am delighted that Ahmedabad has achieved Gold status, which will ensure we achieve world-class environmental performance – minimizing the local and global environmental impacts as much as possible. This is an important step in us achieving our aggressive new climate targets, which we launched last year. We strive to reduce our impact on the environment throughout the full value chain from the raw materials we select to the way we run our operations to developing customer solutions as in the SKF BeyondZero portfolio.
"It is important that business growth takes place without compromising the sustainability of the future. SKF India is committed to sustainable growth and this is reflected in everything that we do. With this certification, the Ahmedabad plant opens another page in the journey of sustainability for SKF in India," said Shishir Joshipura, Managing Director and Country Head, SKF in India.
The features that enabled the facility to achieve the LEED Gold certification:
- Energy efficiency: The factory has 23 percent better energy efficiency compared to normal building standards.
- Water reduction: Uses 30 percent less water compared to normal building standards.
- Excellent indoor air quality.
- Overall lower local and global environmental impact.
SKF is a global supplier of bearings, seals, mechatronics, lubrication systems, and services which include technical support, maintenance and reliability services, engineering consulting and training. SKF is represented in more than 130 countries and has around 15,000 distributor locations worldwide. Annual sales in 2012 were SEK 64,757 million and the number of employees was 46,775.