Our member company Svapipe demonstrate resourcefulness to achieve net zero by 2050. They have identified that their largest environmental impact is fossil emissions from the six transport vans they use for assignments around the country. Because they use the vehicles as offices, they need power and heat during the days. As a result, the vehicles often idled. This didn’t feel right, thought Dennis Skoglund, who is the technical manager at Svapipe. Two years ago, he started the project to reduce fossil emissions from the vehicles.
We need to have the heat on in the vehicle because it is the guys’ office. They sit there and work, heat food in the microwave, and have lunch and coffee there. They need power and heat, and I enjoy modifying equipment and making improvements that take us further on the path to net zero, says Dennis.
The first thing they did was to connect a gigantic power bank (LPS) to the vehicle’s electrical system, which then charged while the vehicle was running. After that, Dennis got the idea to put solar panels on the roofs of the vehicles.
It works great; with the solar panels, the battery charges a bit all the time. This means we can now turn off the vehicle and run both the heater, microwave, coffee maker, and refrigerator from the LPS. The next project is to put solar panels on our trailers that have two humming generators. So, we are taking steps all the time, says Dennis.
Christoffer Johansson is the CEO of Svapipe, and his vision of net zero by 2050 is clear.
Svapipe is a small company. When we joined No Dig Alliance, we had not worked so purposefully with ESG and sustainability; there was simply no contracting authority that required fossil-free operations. Now it is a given for us. Everything we do is about reaching net zero, and the next step will be electrification for production. Since last year, we have had a completely electrified fleet of service vehicles, and new fuel-powered vehicles should, as far as possible, run on HVO100. In the meantime, we are extremely proud of what we have done to reduce our footprint, says Christoffer.
Svapipe has specialized in pipeline maintenance of water and sewage systems for municipalities and municipal companies since 2015.
