BALANCING RESOURCES FOR OUR FUTURE
Water - an undervalued resource
Sika takes measures to use water economically by reducing consumption, treating water, and using lower-grade water qualities especially in geographies with water scarcity. Efficient production projects have been implemented using closed-loop cooling, cooling towers, and switching from public to groundwater in order to reduce the amount of processed drinking water used in production. With these measures, the reuse of treated wastewater, and the collection of rainwater at various production sites, Sika reduced its water consumption on a large scale over the past years.
WASTE – RAW MATERIALS WASTE
Efficient use of input materials is highly important for all Sika companies. Sika’s production processes are material intensive, using high volumes of nonrenewable resources like sand, cement, fillers, organic raw materials, and packaging and transportation materials. The major commercial impact of input materials makes their efficient use and reuse a mandatory element at Sika. Efficient production means reducing and reusing production scrap and packaging materials as well as improving packaging design, resulting in higher productivity and lower material use.

SIKA COLOMBIA S.A., plant Tocancipa, Colombia
Sika Colombia installed a central water collector, separate tanks and pipelines to feed rainwater into the industrial processes in its Tocancipa plant. A specific water treatment filter system keeps water quality on the required level leading to a 70% reduction of total water consumption. More than 8000 m3 of rainwater are collected and used annually, corresponding to 82% of water used.

Sika S.A.U., plant Alcobendas, Spain
To reduce waste water discharge, the existing waste water treatment facility was upgraded with ceramic ultra- and nanofiltration membranes. This resulted in tap water savings of 200 m3 per month (-25%). The quality of the treated water allows its re-use in cleaning processes of the loading bulk station and in the water treatment plant too.

SIKA YAPI DIMYASALLARI AS; plant Tuzla, Turkey
The cooperation with a licensed recycling company and the introduction of an internal quality control system in 2012 boosted the re-use of product and raw material intermediate bulk containers (IBC) for product supply. Within a year, the re-used IBC volume increased from 115 tons to 287 tons and the quantity of packaging waste and the need for new IBC containers dropped significantly.

SIKA CHINA LTD.; plant Shanghai, China
Significant material and cost savings could be achieved at the Shanghai plant by granulating polyester scrim and feltback materials, and feeding the materials back into the production process. Material recycled and reused in new membranes increased up to 520 tons in 2013.