Spare parts warehouses, a key factor in decarbonisation

Decarbonising spare parts warehouses is now a top priority for the world's carmakers, who are looking at viable methods.

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By: Gianmarco Gori

Published by: Brian Potter

Jan 10, 2024 at 7:46am ET

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For the world's carmakers, reducing atmospheric emissions from production facilities is just the tip of the decarbonisation iceberg. In addition to the centres where the cars are actually built, the various companies also have many other buildings to make carbon-efficient.

These include, for example, spare parts warehouses and logistics centres, i.e. all the facilities through which the spare parts and components needed for the assembly or subsequent servicing of cars.

Porsche Italy recently made its Italian headquarters in Costa di Rovigo (RO) more energy-efficient, but this is just the first of many examples.

Towards an emission-free future

More than ever, manufacturers of cars, light commercial vehicles and heavy goods vehicles are aiming to reduce emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere. To achieve this, all companies have been working for years to find sustainable solutions for their day-to-day processes.

It all starts, as we have already mentioned several times in this article, with finding sustainable partners for the production of the basic components, i.e. all the parts that, once they arrive at the factory, will be used to build the final product.

Having done this, the second important part of the decarbonisation objective is to try to transport these components as efficiently as possible between the various factories. In this respect, for example, zero-emission medium and heavy-duty trucks are already playing a key role, such as the first fleet of Mercedes eActros recently delivered by the company to several European customers.

Le centre de pièces détachées pour camions de Daimler à Bologne

Finally, as mentioned above, the last important step is to make the national territorial warehouses where components are 'stored ' as energy-efficient as possible, while waiting to be delivered to dealers or factories.

More About Factory Emissions:

Reducing CO2, the key role of green aluminium and steel

Zero-emission factories? How to make them a reality

Also in Italy

Precisely the last point of those mentioned in the previous paragraph is very important when it comes to cars, which are now more than ever made up of a very large number of parts.

The latest Italian example of the decarbonisation of a spare parts warehouse comes, as we said, from Porsche Italia and its facility in Costa di Rovigo (RO), which serves Porsche centres and Porsche assistance centres throughout the country.

L'entrepôt de pièces détachées de Porsche Italia à Costa di Rovigo

Porsche Italia's spare parts warehouse at Costa di Rovigo

In the large industrial centre, expansion work was carried out in 2020, doubling its operational area to 5,200 square metres, for an investment of almost €3 million.

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At the same time, the entire warehouse has undergone a process to optimise the use of energy resources, reducing emissions to almost zero, saving around 89 tonnes of CO2 per year.

L'entrepôt de pièces détachées de Porsche Italia à Costa di Rovigo

But that's not all. At the site, the company has also completely eliminated the use of fossil fuels, removing the natural gas heating system and replacing it with a more modern and efficient high-efficiency chiller, while upgrading the photovoltaic system on the facility's roof to 135 kW. With an average output of 170 MWh, this covers around 60% of the facility's needs.