Climate for Life ‘Change for Good’ sustainability award copywriting, IFS. Each year, IFS ‘Change for Good’ Sustainability Awards recognize ESG excellence across its global community of customers. Following an interview with key stakeholders, I created this profile for ‘Journey of transformation to a sustainable Business’ category winner Climate for Life.
- COPY: Ian Castle, Freelance Copywriter
- CLIENT: IFS
Sustainability case study copy sample, Manufacturing sector, IFS (US English)
[Excerpt]:
Totally pivoting its business from a domestic condensing boiler manufacturer to heat pump technology, Holland’s CFL group is the winner for our ‘Journey of transformation to a sustainable business’ category.
Following the merger of Dutch companies Itho and Daalderop in 2010, the group’s management took a bold strategic decision to change direction. “We realized our mission was really about creating a more comfortable, healthier and energy-efficient indoor climate for everyone,” says Kerst Algera, Operations Director. “We wanted to see how we could redirect our expertise in traditional domestic heating and ventilation systems towards reducing CO2 emissions and making homes more energy neutral.”
Setting a strategy
A four-point strategic plan emerged: to begin transitioning from producing gas condensing boilers to heat pumps; to develop products and services that reduced emissions; to make the company’s production processes as energy neutral as possible; and to make all new products increasingly recyclable. The strategy was cemented by a commitment to only develop new products and services that served a new mission tagline for the group: “Climate for life”.
As a result, Itho Daalderop became the first company to develop systems to deliver and control a complete, integrated offer for indoor climate spanning heating, ventilation, cooling and domestic hot water.
New horizons
The group provides new build social housing schemes with a complete package to engineer indoor climate, heating and ventilation for every dwelling. By providing the total end- to-end solution as a single supplier, the risk compared to configuring elements from several third parties is significantly reduced. The package includes installation and finance for the project. Residents pay a fixed monthly fee, and monitoring ensures usage is reasonable within agreed guidelines.
“We began exploring the ‘climate as a service’ proposition around 7 years ago and, at that time, we were the first to do so,” explains Algera. “The concept allows us to provide a resident with an energy-neutral, comfortable indoor climate, including plenty of hot water, for a fixed fee for 25 years. This is obviously attractive to consumers for many reasons, but especially so for financially vulnerable groups.”
“In Holland, new build houses are generally energy neutral; but the real challenge now will be developing viable solutions to adapt existing dwellings to achieve energy neutral housing Europe-wide by the 2050 target,” says Algera.