Company News • 18.02.2010

Eco-friendly scales: METTLER TOLEDO promotes sustainability at the fresh foods counter

Energy-saving processors and power-saving modes, long-life, recyclable materials: METTLER TOLEDO is bringing increasingly sustainable weighing technology to the fresh foods counter.

In the face of climate change, sustainability is increasingly becoming a distinguishing feature in food retailing, whether it is fish and seafood from environmentally friendly fisheries or organically grown regional produce. Anyone who wants to use sustainability in order to make their range of products and brand distinctive, or simply wants to demonstrate social responsibility, requires suit-able technology partners for their infrastructure. METTLER TOLEDO offers energy-efficient weighing solutions – and has a commitment to sustainability above and beyond the legal requirements (see background).

Energy-saving power-saving modes
Today, all METTLER TOLEDO touch-screen scales are equipped with a time-controlled display deactivation function. This function is available for all operating sys-tems and is flexible enough to be easily adapted to the company’s policy requirements, as defined by the IT de-partment for production systems.
The power-saving modes allow for using differing pro-files still commonplace in food retailing, in regard to op-erating periods, shut-downs and disconnections from the network, without compromising operating safety and availability. Depending on which scales are used and where – pre-packaging, self-service or service counter – the food retailer is able to reduce electricity consumption by 20 to 25 per cent.

Up to 50 per cent less power consumption
METTLER TOLEDO stands for reliable and efficient weighing solutions on the basis of innovative technology. “That is why it is our philosophy to follow the trend to-wards increasingly economical processors, power adapters and memory elements at the earliest possible stage, in the procurement of electronic parts and components”, says Daniel Joha, Head of Retail Marketing Management at METTLER TOLEDO. ”The Intel Atom Processors are certainly a particularly interesting example in terms of the potential energy savings. Our classic tactile scales, which work with imbedded technology, are already very eco-nomical.” At the level of the components, energy savings of up to 50 per cent are possible.

Long-life and recyclable materials
METTLER TOLEDO often uses steel plating for the cas-ings of the scales. The material is not only very durable and eminently suitable for recycling at a later date, “We also succeed in leading off waste heat through the casing. Of course, we do our best to avoid it in the first place.” Daniel Joha adds. “At the same time, we can usually do without the energy-guzzling fans, which always represent a certain hygiene risk and breakdown potential as well.”