By planting a piece of woodland, the FACC workforce have joined forces and set an example for sustainability and growth. Before Christmas, every employee received a sapling as a gift. With the onset of the warm season, some of these trees have now been planted in a stretch of woodland close to the FACC headquarters in Ried.

Sustainable thinking and management have long since been an integral part of FACC. The focus is on innovative lightweight solutions that will make flying of the future carbon neutral. A wide range of projects are currently underway, from the use of renewable raw materials through to new recycling concepts that take into account the entire life cycle of a product. Of equal importance is the company's own CO₂ footprint: 98% of space heating is already generated by means of geothermal energy and heat recovery. By 2040, the entire production process will be carbon neutral. Ways to optimize energy consumption further are currently being researched as part of several projects. The tree-planting campaign organized by FACC employees demonstrated that the workforce actively embrace this concept of sustainability.

Sustainability and growth

"The trees that were given to the staff before Christmas last year were intended to set an example for sustainability but at the same time to be a symbol of the sustainable growth that FACC and the entire aviation industry now expect," emphasizes CEO Robert Machtlinger. The trees numbering more than 2.500 were planted in a joint effort by the employees and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability. Equipped with shovels and spades, the trees were placed in the woodland soil and watered. The initiative was also very popular with FACC's younger members: many of the FACC employees also brought their children along to this tree-planting campaign. By 2040, the FACC woods will have eliminated 500 tons of CO₂. This corresponds to the annual consumption of approximately 200 single-family homes.

Sustainability as a competitive advantage

Symbolically, the trees also represent the growth of FACC and its workforce, which is going to grow by approximately 200 members until the end of the year. Thanks to new innovations for the aviation industry and the new segments of Space and Urban Air Mobility, FACC anticipates constant corporate growth in the coming years as well. More than EUR 150 million will be invested in the sustainable development of the locations in Upper Austria over the next five years. The initiatives for greater sustainability are developing increasingly into a competitive advantage for FACC because customers, too, are increasingly calling for sustainable production. For many years, FACC has been an international pioneer in this area, working above all towards further developing its products sustainably in the long term.