Decarbonise process manufacturing while safeguarding productivity
How can your process-manufacturing operation decarbonise while maintaining output, safety and cost-competitiveness?
What industry leaders asked and what they learned: Insights from the Improve Competitiveness & Future Energy Seminars
When we brought together clients, partners, and industry leaders at our recent “Improve Competitiveness” and “Future Energy” seminars, one question echoed across every discussion: How can we decarbonise industry without compromising productivity and profitability?
The conversations made it clear: achieving both isn’t only possible, it’s already happening. Here, we share answers to the questions that mattered most during those sessions, distilled into the key themes that define the future of competitive, low-carbon manufacturing.
If you are responsible for sustainability, operations or plant performance at a process-manufacturing company, you face a constant balancing act. Regulatory deadlines, rising energy bills and stakeholder expectations demand rapid carbon reduction, yet your business cannot afford to slow production, compromise safety or erode margins.
The productivity vs decarbonisation paradox
In process manufacturing, fossil-fuelled thermal operations still dominate. As part of the Dutch industrial decarbonisation initiative Project 6-25 launched by VEMW and FME, Haskoning together with the Process Design Center (PDC) carried out an independent study evaluating 15 proven technologies across motors and drives, heat integration, ICT, separation and power flexibility. The validated results indicate that these technologies could deliver a potential reduction of 3 million tonnes of CO₂.
When applied strategically, the same levers that reduce emissions — efficiency, electrification, and digitalisation also improve reliability, flexibility, and profitability¹.
(¹See: Meftahul Ferdaus et al., “Digital technologies for a net-zero energy future,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (2024))
During the seminars, the message was clear: decarbonisation, done right, is a business advantage.
Where should you start?
Clearing the runway: reducing energy demand
Attendees often asked: “If we can’t do everything at once, what comes first?”
The consensus: before investing in new systems, the smartest move is to use less energy. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), targeted efficiency measures can cut industrial emissions by up to 34% while delivering rapid returns on investment. This aligns with findings from Project 6-25, the Dutch industrial initiative that validated a portfolio of proven energy-efficiency technologies.
Where to look first: focus on areas of high complexity, where waste often hides.
- In heat and steam networks, many facilities still vent usable steam from pasteurisation or drying that could instead preheat water or feed another process stage.
- In cooling systems, oversized refrigeration units and constant-load compressors drive unnecessary energy use.
- Mismatched pumps and motors operating continuously at full speed waste both energy and money. In addition, significant energy is often lost through cooling water; with heat recovery and heat pumps, much of this waste heat can be captured and reused.
Reducing energy demand not only frees capital but also creates the operational headroom needed for electrification and digitalisation.
During the seminars, clients reinforced this point with practical examples, from reusing waste heat to optimising pumps and drives. These measures showed that efficiency improvements generate not only emissions reduction but also immediate operational benefits, such as improved reliability and reduced maintenance needs.
How do you electrify operations under current grid constraints?
Rethink how you generate and use energy
The Future Energy seminar tackled one of today’s toughest realities: Europe’s grid congestion.
Many participants asked, “What can we do while waiting for grid capacity?”
The answer lies in smart energy planning and collaboration. While infrastructure upgrades take time, manufacturers can already reduce dependence on the grid by improving efficiency, generating energy locally, and optimising consumption. Shared energy hubs and on-site generation are helping industries maintain decarbonisation momentum, even before new capacity becomes available.
Our recent work for the Dutch government shows how different families of energy-hub models can support industrial decarbonisation and help manage grid constraints.
Once energy demand is stabilised and optimised, the next step is to rethink energy supply. Many process-industry operations run at low to medium temperature ranges where electrification is both technically and economically viable. Replacing gas boilers with heat pumps, integrating thermal storage, and combining renewable electricity with on-site generation can significantly cut Scope 1 emissions while improving energy stability.
A real-world example came from Heineken, where together we created a decarbonisation roadmap combining heat pumps, solar thermal, and hybrid systems. As a result, HEINEKEN gained a clear line of sight towards carbon-neutral brewing across more than 180 sites.
Decarbonisation isn’t cheap but with the right technology in the right place, it pays back in competitiveness.
This means aligning process temperature, energy source, and grid readiness to operational needs, not simply chasing the latest trend.
But even the most effective electrification plans face one major hurdle: limited grid capacity.
Overcoming infrastructure and grid constraints
Across Europe, grid congestion is now one of the biggest barriers to industrial electrification, with many sites facing multi-year connection delays or high upgrade costs.
Here, proactive planning makes all the difference. Assess connection timelines, capacity and upgrade requirements early, and explore shared energy hubs or micro-networks where neighbouring facilities can balance demand and generation collectively. Load-shifting strategies, battery storage and AI-based energy management can also maintain progress when the public grid lags behind.
Experience from recent industrial energy-hub projects shows how cross-site collaboration and intelligent energy management can relieve grid constraints and keep decarbonisation plans moving forward.
Collaborative energy systems and smart controls are already helping industrial parks relieve grid congestion and move faster toward net zero.
What role do digitalisation and AI really play?
Turning data into operational advantage
At both events, participants were curious whether AI can go beyond buzzwords. The answer, according to Daco Olasolo, Director of Future Engineering at Danone, is yes — ”start small, with validated data.”During the seminars, one message stood out clearly: digitalisation is the link that makes efficiency and electrification scalable and measurable. While efficiency and electrification deliver savings, digitalisation ensures those gains endure by turning performance into data that can be managed, optimised and expanded.
Validated digital twins and process models let teams simulate changes before implementation, avoiding costly trial and error. Predictive analytics enables maintenance teams to prevent energy spikes and equipment inefficiencies, while carbon dashboards connect sustainability metrics directly to operational KPIs.
As Daco Olasolo emphasised, knowing where AI can add value and applying it step by step, with reliable data and the right context, is what turns technology into real operational advantage. When engineering and digitalisation converge, sustainability becomes a performance outcome, not a separate initiative.
How can we expand impact beyond our own operations?
Beyond your site: value-chain and circular opportunities
Even companies nearing net zero in their own operations face a bigger challenge: Scope 3 emissions.During the seminars, many attendees asked: “How can we influence suppliers and logistics?”
The discussions highlighted that collaboration across the value chain is becoming the next competitive frontier. Forward-thinking manufacturers are putting this into practice, engaging suppliers on renewable sourcing, redesigning packaging, and investing in waste-to-value systems that turn by-products into feedstock or energy.
Drawing on recent projects across the manufacturing sector, we’re seeing how sustainable and effective manufacturing initiatives such as recovering heat, reusing materials and optimising logistics can significantly cut fuel use, improve operational resilience and enhance brand reputation.
By building partnerships that integrate manufacturers, suppliers and technology providers, these initiatives prove that sustainability and performance can advance together, delivering both environmental and business value across the chain.
Your next move: from ambition to action
Both seminars showed that the industrial energy transition is accelerating, but its success depends on integration: bringing together engineering, data and leadership.
Decarbonisation is not a single project; it’s an ongoing business transformation. Start by quantifying your current position — including energy flows, heat profiles, grid risks and digital maturity. Then identify where efficiency, electrification and digitalisation intersect to deliver the highest impact.
Connect these opportunities to tangible business outcomes such as reduced energy costs, improved reliability, stronger compliance and lower emissions and embed them into procurement, maintenance and investment decisions. That’s how sustainability becomes part of everyday operations.
When engineering, data and leadership align, your organisation moves beyond compliance towards true future-readiness.
Let’s explore together how efficiency, electrification and AI can accelerate your facility’s path to net zero
Every facility’s journey is unique, but no company needs to navigate it alone. Connect with Haskoning’s decarbonisation specialists to explore how efficiency, electrification, and AI can help you stay competitive while moving decisively toward net zero.
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