Mölnlycke Kulim Factory Opening: Sustainability

Last September, Mölnlycke opened its new Biogel manufacturing facility in Kulim, Malaysia. In this series of blog posts, we hear from members of the factory’s team to learn what the new facility means to them, and how it is supporting them in producing industry leading Biogel surgical gloves. Today, we hear from Azhar Ahmad Ahmed Rifaie, EHS Director at the new site.

I work as the EHS Director for the Gloves operation in Malaysia, with oversight over initiatives such as waste management, green ideas and making sure we achieve our commitments to social responsibility. My aim is to ensure that as we grow as a business, we work to reduce the intensity of our carbon usage in the production process. Glove production places high demands on our energy consumption, so we need to make certain that we are doing all we can to drive green measures across our manufacturing facilities.

We’ve committed to reducing half our carbon emissions by 2030, by controlling our direct and indirect emissions at the factory site. The Kulim facility is our most efficient yet. The facility implements state-of-the-art technology, which will improve our energy efficiency dramatically. We’re also in discussions with Energy Impact, a leader in energy management globally, who will be reviewing our processes and helping us go further.

It’s amazing what we’ve been able to achieve already. By eliminating an extra process in the manufacturing chain, we’ve reduced carbon emissions and water wastage without compromising on quality. Partnering with Veolia, a leader in water and waste management, has helped to reduce our water consumption, with at least 50% being recycled and reused. With their help we’re also making the water we send for treatment much cleaner and removing chemicals more effectively before it even gets sent to local wastewater treatment plants.

Not only are we saving water within the facility itself, but we also have grasses and trees as part of the landscaping that require minimal watering to maintain. The land the facility is built on used to be an old palm oil plantation, so we’ve managed to not disturb any of Malaysia’s local wildlife by using a site which was already ecologically degraded. It’s taken a lot of planning, but we’ve tried to think as holistically as possible about what sustainability really means and how to reduce our ecological footprint.

The design of the facility points to the future of Mölnlycke’s manufacturing processes, and has helped us to re-think our other facilities. These new technologies and redesigns of manufacturing processes at Mölnlycke will be implemented across all our factories in Malaysia. Every time we improve one facility, we want to make sure others keep up so we can reach our goals quicker.

I’m proud to say that my team have big ambitions – to eventually reduce emissions across our entire supply chain, looking at raw materials, transportation, and where our final product ends up. This is a massive undertaking, but I really want us to push ourselves to achieve the best for our environment and local people around the world.