Meet François Hordebise, Director of Quality & Environment

François has been working at CE+T since 2013. In addition to his responsibilities in terms of quality, he works to improve CE+T’s environmental footprint throughout the production chain and facilities management. With manufacturing facilities in Belgium, India, China and the United States and customers around the world, this is becoming increasingly challenging.

François, how would you describe your responsibilities within CE+T? 

As Quality Director, one of my main missions is to look at the customers’ satisfaction by insuring and maintaining the highest quality level of our products. To succeed in that mission, I collect and analyze all available relevant data from the production chain and from the field. I discuss afterwards with the R&D team when necessary to improve our products and solutions. I’m also working on continuous improvement / LEAN manufacturing projects to increase efficiency and quality of our processes. I also manage ISO 9001 and 14001 audits in our various facilities. In addition, I work on specific projects to reduce our environmental impact: waste management, logistics, energy consumption, etc.

How important is the environment to your customers? 

The environment is increasingly important, overall for large customers. Some of them now require an environmental audit or certification before starting any discussion with us on our products and solutions. We have seen this change over the past 3 to 5 years and have had to adapt to provide this information and improve on certain subjects.

The Environment is becoming an important part of corporate social responsibility in all industry sectors.

Concretely, what were your last projects to improve the environmental impact of CE+T? 

This year, we installed a complete energy storage solution including photovoltaic panels and batteries. The photovoltaic panels installed now cover 60% of our electrical needs. The installed batteries reduce the impact that our solar panels could have on the electrical network, which is also very important.

We also worked on waste management. For instance, by replacing expanded polystyrene with cardboard to protect our power converters during transport. We also re-use this cardboard, for example when we ship modules from one group facility to another. The result is a 35% reduction of our waste.

And finally, we have modified our logistic process to allow a significant increase in maritime transport instead of air transport. Over the past 10 years, the share of maritime transport has increased by 20%. This allows a significant reduction in CO2 production. We also integrate rail transport in our method of transportation when possible.

What are your next projects ?  

In terms of environment, the possibilities are always numerous. We have several projects in mind, so stay tuned to find out more in the coming months!