First hybrid truck from serial production to win eco-award
STILL GmbH, leading supplier of customised internal logistics solutions worldwide was awarded the Federal German Ecodesign Award on Thursday in the presence of 200 guests in Berlin. The Hamburg based company has won the prize for its STILL RX 70 Hybrid forklift truck in the category “Product” for excellent ecologic design covering the complete life cycle awarded for the first time by the Federal Ministry of Environment and the Federal Environment Agency.
The prize was presented at the award ceremony in the Federal Ministry of Environment to the Chairman of the Management Board at STILL and the Director of Corporate Communications of the company Matthias Klug by the Parliamentary Secretary of State Ursula Heinen-Esser together with the President of the Federal Environment Agency Jochen Flasbarth. The prize honours companies for products designed to especially avoid any harmful environmental effects.
“The Federal Ecodesign Award is of special value to us, because it honours not only the individual product but the whole underlying philosophy.” says Knoef. “Ecologic responsibility is an elementary component of our corporate mission and it comprises production processes, product use as well as recycling of the product. Winning the award tells us that we are on the right way.”
And indeed, the RX 70 Hybrid from STILL – the optical design has been developed together with the internationally successful design agency ´Teams Design` – is a prime example for an ecologically responsible product philosophy. The truck is fitted with a diesel-electric drive and is propelled by energy from a diesel tank as well as by energy from an electric energy storage system, so called Ultracaps. These capacitors are capable of storing large amounts of energy developed when brakes are applied and release it when needed.
This reduces the work load of the combustion engine which will therefore consume less fuel and significantly reduce CO² emissions – by up to 20%. This makes it by far the most economic truck of its class. Eco-friendly production processes, the energy saving programme Blue-Q which is available as a standard on all STILL counter balance trucks as well as the fact that 95% of the materials used for the RX 70 Hybrid can be recycled, round off the future-oriented product concept of the awarded truck.
The Federal Ecodesign Award is awarded in three categories: “Product”, “Concept” and “Young Talent”. The panel of renowned design and ecology experts elected the winners of the individual categories from a total of 140 nominees. Environment minister Peter Altmaier was the patron of the award ceremony. He opened the event with a welcome speech in which he complimented the companies on the unique combination of the aspects economy, environment responsibility and design.