By the Editorial Team

In environmental protection, even small measures add up to measurable effects. That’s why Messer also abides by ecological principles in communication.

In many places, the use of gases plays a significant role in preserving the environment. Cold grinding and supercritical extraction save large quantities of solvents. Where the latter are used, however, they can be recovered with cryogenic processes after use and transferred to closed material cycles. When melting steel or glass, the addition of pure oxygen provides for efficient combustion and saves large quantities of greenhouse gases. This also happens with transport cooling, when carbon dioxide in the form of dry ice serves as coolant. And because this eliminates the need for refrigeration equipment in the vehicles, it also reduces noise emissions.

Less paper, ink and CO₂ emissions The list of significant environmental protection benefits could go on and on – for the gases specialists at Messer, ecology represents an intrinsic and large-scale part of the core business. But that’s no reason to neglect the details that also conserve resources and reduce pollution. Even “small” measures make impacts that contribute to the overall result. One such measure concerns this very magazine. This edition of Gases for Life marks the first time that it has been published exclusively online and is no longer printed. With an average print run of 5,000 copies, that means a savings of about one ton of paper per issue. Moreover, 140,000 magazine pages no longer have to be printed. That saves not only printing ink, but also electricity for operating the printing presses. It has also eliminated the need to put the magazines into envelopes and physically deliver them. In the past, these periodicals had also been sent to far-away readers – in China, Vietnam or America, for example – so this alone reduces greenhouse emissions to some degree.