Sustainability
We have done the work. We do not have the figures.
Why this page is not the front page
For many years sustainability was the first thing we told people about ourselves. We have moved it here, and that is a deliberate decision.
The reason is simple: no design engineer chooses a supplier on environmental profile. They choose on whether the part can be made, whether the tolerances hold, what it costs and when it arrives. The environmental profile decides only when two suppliers are otherwise equal — and then it often decides completely.
So the measures are real, they cost money, and we stand behind them. But they are a supporting argument rather than a selling argument, and treating them as anything else makes both weaker.
There is one context where the environmental profile turns into a pure cost argument, and that is the carbon border tariff. It is further down this page.
Five measures that have actually been taken
All of them follow from building a new plant where recovery was on the drawing board from the start rather than retrofitted.
Recycled aluminium
Our main feedstock is secondary aluminium from Metallco at Toten, where aluminium scrap is re-alloyed into full-value casting alloys to international standards. Remelting takes a fraction of the energy of primary production. This is the single largest effect in the whole value chain.
Closed water loop
All process water is recirculated in a closed loop. No process water is discharged from production.
Recovered waste heat
Heat from the melting process is captured and heats the premises. The building needs no separate heating.
Solar panels on the roof
Our own array covering part of our own consumption. At weekends and holidays, when production is down, it feeds the grid.
Prepared for energy export
The plant is built so surplus energy can be delivered to neighbouring industry. Note the wording: prepared. We are not claiming it is in operation.
Less metal per part
Positive product criticism removes unnecessary metal before the tool is built. That gives lower material consumption, a shorter cycle and a lower price — one move, three effects.
CBAM: a carbon border tariff from 2027, and what it means for you
This is the part of the environmental profile that is not about the environment. It is about administration, and that makes it far more important to a buyer.
What applies. The EU carbon border adjustment mechanism, CBAM, entered its definitive phase on 1 January 2026. It covers six goods groups, aluminium among them. Norway introduces equivalent rules from 1 January 2027, with the same goods groups and the same threshold of 50 tonnes per year. Goods originating in the EEA are exempt.
What it means for an importer. If you import covered goods above the threshold, you must register in both a national register and the EU register, document actual embedded emissions or apply default values, purchase and surrender certificates, and report. The EU certificate price was 75.36 euro per tonne CO2e in the first quarter of 2026 and 75.28 euro in the second.
What it means for a component cast in Rade. Nothing. It is an EEA good. No registration, no certificate purchase, no emissions reporting, no supplier in Asia you have to request emissions data from who may not be able to provide it.
Be precise — we are not going to oversell this:
- Finished aluminium castings are not within the current CBAM scope. The rules bite on aluminium at earlier stages of the value chain. Nobody is saying castings are levied today.
- The Commission has proposed extending the scope to around 180 downstream products with high metal content, applying from 2028 at the earliest. That is a proposal in the ordinary legislative procedure, and the product list is still being negotiated.
The point is not the price of a certificate. The point is that you as a buyer have to build a reporting apparatus, keep track of a product list that is moving, and carry the risk when it expands. A supplier inside the EEA takes that entire question off the table.
Supplier decisions for series running in 2027 are being made now.
Recycled metal has become a cost argument
When we started using secondary aluminium it was primarily an environmental choice. That has changed.
The LME aluminium price has risen sharply over the past year. When metal makes up a larger share of the cost of the part, freight, lead time, capital tied up in stock and currency risk all matter relatively more. A short transport distance and short series become more competitive, not less.
At the same time the carbon price is rising. Metal with a low embodied energy becomes relatively cheaper than metal with a high one.
We price on metal weight plus cycle time. That makes both effects visible in your quotation — and it means a design change that removes ten grams gives you a reduction you can calculate yourself.
Do you need emissions figures for a tender?
Then you should know we do not have them today. Call us anyway — we can say exactly what we can document, so you know whether you can use us.