“This year we are celebrating 45 years of activity; we can say that we have reached maturity as a company. We have been recycling for many years, since the time when the term sustainability was not even mentioned in the economic environment.

Through our business concept, we recycle approximately 99 percent of the raw materials used in the final products. If we look at reports, we can see that the lead-acid battery is the most recyclable product globally. From this perspective, we can be considered a model of good practices. We use this concept in the circular economy, as we reintegrate a large part of the recycled raw materials into the products we make. At the same time, we have a constant focus for innovation. Every year we try to find new solutions to increase recyclability even more,” Alin Ioanes, CEO Rombat said during Sustainability in Business Forum organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest and Sustainability Today.

“Sustainability is a widely used concept, but many people do not know what this term entails. In every company there must be information on how each of us can contribute to this general effort.

Each of us must be aware of the way in which we can contribute, the impact we can have and at the same time we must be aware that sustainability takes some of the time we allocate for different tasks.

If sustainability is not integrated into the organizational culture, then sustainability can be perceived as an additional task that takes up a lot of our time without necessarily generating added value.

Sustainability must be part of the companies’ DNA. Sustainability definitely comes with a cost, but we will see the benefits in 2-3 years.

The lifespan of the products is an important aspect that we don’t talk about or talk too little about. At Rombat, we focus on research and development in order to increase the lifespan of products, even if it does not seem feasible from an economic perspective.

We are the first company in Romania to offer a 4-year warranty for a product for the first time.

In addition to increasing the lifespan, we need to see how we can integrate as many raw materials as possible into the product with a high degree of recyclability.

We have a continuous focus on reducing energy consumption, we have developed two photovoltaic parks. All the energy we purchase is from renewable sources, so the carbon footprint of the electricity used is extremely low.

We have annual KPIs for reducing the carbon footprint from the perspective of gas and water consumption.”