In Focus: Brunswick Corporation states its sustainability credentials
The company recorded full-year net sales of $5.36bn, up 2.4 per cent from the prior year
Brunswick Corporation has published its 2022 Sustainability Report, highlighting the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts to build a more sustainable future. The company reported several new investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency technology, progress in achieving zero waste-to-landfill status at many facilities, the launch of new electric products, awards for workplace inclusion, and improvements in employee safety.
“We are proud of our action-oriented approach to ESG, which is demonstrated through the progress and innovations detailed in this report,” says Dave Foulkes, Brunswick Corporation CEO. “Protecting our environment is a critical element of serving our stakeholders and ensuring the long-term success of our business, and it’s a commitment that we have and will continue to embed into the core of Brunswick.”
In his introduction to the report, Foulkes states that the company’s efforts at protecting the environment have been demonstrated by the launch of Mercury Marine’s Avator electric outboard motor platform and Navico Group’s Fathom e-power generator replacement system, and also by its new investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency technology.
However, the report says a fully electric marine propulsion system is currently not a viable option for all of today’s recreational boaters and their needs, especially for those with larger boats. Water is approximately 800 times denser than air, so the power required to move a boat through the water at a given speed is much greater than that of on-road vehicles. Boats are also very weight-sensitive, and adding electric power to larger boats requires larger batteries, which dramatically increases the weight of the boat and creates challenges to capacity, speed and range.
With the current limitations of electric propulsion systems, Brunswick is evaluating a range of sustainable fuels and how they might be applied in the marine industry. Similar to the aviation industry, the company says sustainable fuels can play a significant role in helping decarbonise recreational boating. It’s supporting industry efforts to generate awareness of ‘drop-in’ sustainable fuel options for the marine industry as well as efforts related to the development of an infrastructure for such fuels.
Brunswick is also looking at continued advancement and refinement of its Mercury internal combustion engines. This, it says, offers another potential area for fuel efficiency improvements and subsequent reduction of carbon emissions. These include improving both internal combustion engine efficiency and hydrodynamic performance.
Check out Brunswick Group’s latest news on MIN, including Sea Ray’s launch of its latest SLX 280 Outboard, the latest model in its range of premium SLX Series of recreational craft.
(The Mercury Marine complex in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin (pictured above), accounts for the majority of electric and natural gas consumed by Brunswick. To minimise resource consumption and deliver operational savings, the local facility management team relies on both an electrical management system (EMS) and a building management system (BMS) as part of its energy management programme.)
