Schoeller Allibert’s green commitment as sponsor of Punch Powertrain Solar Team.

Schoeller Allibert, the global leader in reusable packaging solutions, has recently joined a select group of sponsors for Punch Powertrain Solar Team 2015. The mission of this team: to win the World Solar Challenge, a race of more than 3000 kilometers across Australia.

In the coming months 17 promising engineering students from Campus Groep T Leuven are building a brand new electric car that runs on solar energy. The objective for the students is a successful participation in the bi-annual world championship in the Australian desert, scheduled for October 2015. Schoeller Allibert, the number one in terms of reusable green packaging, will support the Solar Team financially and materially during their preparations and the race itself.

Sustainable solutions

"We enter this partnership out of sympathy for the innovative nature of this project. Schoeller Allibert strongly believes in continuous innovation and the choice of sustainable solutions”, explains Chief Innovation Officer Ludo Gielen. He is an engineer by training and follows the trajectory of the team therefore with particular interest since 2014. "Schoeller Allibert does not only commit for financial support to the team, we have the necessary logistical support as well. Our transport packaging for the automotive industry can be perfectly used to support the necessary logistics challenges that await the Solar Team. We are happy that we can help this project in such a way forward. The first components are already way Down Under in Schoeller Allibert boxes and we are very happy”, Gielen says with a big smile on his face.

Reusable packaging, renewable energy

Schoeller Allibert packaging invests heavily in innovation. "For us it is more important to offer sustainable and reusable solutions to our customers and our processes are fully tuned to a 100% take-back guarantee on all our products. These concepts I also see reflected in the Punch Powertrain Solar Team. These students learn from the experiences of their predecessors and will further adjust and perfect. Personally I see a great importance in order to continue to work on renewable energy, because it is consistent with our mission of reusability and sustainability. I expect that in ten years virtually anyone will travel by electric cars”. Not only does the car of the Solar Team use solar energy, the engineers also use a 'green car' for their movements in Belgium during the development phase.

Aiming for victory

"The Punch Powertrain Solar Team is the only Belgian participant in the World Championship. By further refining a number of innovations to our solar car, we will be able to aim for victory in Australia”, says Joren De Wilder, one of the three drivers in the team. "The coming months will be devoted to development and extensive testing. Now it comes down to the details. "Karel Windericks, responsible for public relations, is optimistic provided that more companies want to contribute to their project.

PUNCH ON SOLAR POWER TRAIN TEAM

Students Campus Group T Leuven started building solar cars twelve years ago. The team of engineering students which developed an own solar car in the course of 2015, chose the motto "Perfecting performance”. This sixth generation of solar cars created under the impetus of Group T will focus even more strongly on reliability. Their predecessors in the previous solar car finished sixth in the Australian world championship of 2013. Early this year they even achieved a podium place in the Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge.

ABOUT SCHOELLER ALLIBERT

Schoeller Allibert offers the widest range of standard and customized packaging solutions in high-quality plastic. Moreover, the company consistently invests in further innovation. One of the core ideas within the company is the "closing the circle” principle: the plastic products can be produced locally, are reusable and can be recycled perfectly at the end of the cycle. Something that according to Ludo Gielen, will be one of the fundamental aspects for the emerging "circular economy”.