Sustainability at Exotec: we measure it, so we can prove it

Nicolas Hunsinger

Head of ESG

November 12,2026

At Exotec, we apply the same rigour to sustainability as we do to product design: measure, act, improve. Before communicating on our environmental and social commitments, we set out to quantify them, component by component.

Here is what that work has produced in concrete terms, from components to working conditions in the warehouse.

We are engineers. We measure.

When we design a robot, we do not work by intuition. We measure, analyse, identify where to act, improve, then measure again. This is the method that has made our systems reliable.

We applied the same philosophy to our sustainability approach. Exotec has been calculating its carbon footprint for several years, not because a regulation requires it, but because ignoring the impact of our activity on the planet is not an option.

What we have actually done

Since July 2025, the carbon footprint of our solutions has been included in all our commercial proposals. Every customer receives this data as a structural element of the purchasing decision.

Getting there required years of work by our teams to build precise knowledge of the footprint of every component we deliver. Demanding work, but it allows us to offer our customers something concrete: the ability to calculate their own footprint accurately and to manage their environmental commitments with full visibility.

The results speak for themselves. By working on the weight of our racks, we reduced their carbon footprint by 20% while simultaneously cutting transport costs. By switching to recycled plastic for our totes and trays, we reduced their impact by approximately 40%.

Our decarbonisation targets have been validated by the Science Based Target initiative, and we are also EcoVadis certified, sharing our progress transparently across all ESG dimensions: environment, human rights and business ethics.

Sustainability and efficiency are not in opposition

What is often presented as a trade-off between economic performance and environmental responsibility is, in most cases, a false choice.

A lighter system costs less to transport. Recycled materials can perform as well as virgin ones. A system that lasts twenty years amortises its carbon impact over twenty years; a system replaced after five years triggers a new cycle of manufacturing, transport and installation.

The quality and longevity of our systems are not merely commercial arguments, they are sustainability imperatives in their own right.

The human dimension

Sustainability is not reducible to carbon. It also encompasses the conditions in which people work every day. A poorly designed automated warehouse can subordinate the operator to the machine, imposing throughput rates and postures that damage their health.

We therefore invest in the ergonomics of our picking stations and in the overall working environment. The machine must serve the operator, not the other way around.

Our share of the work, and everyone else’s

Every link in the chain must be able to account for its own impact. Exotec wants to be that link and to bring the rest of the industry with it.

We will not change the sector alone. But we can do our part, demonstrate that it is possible, and push our suppliers and our customers to do theirs.

The transition to genuinely sustainable logistics will only happen if every player adopts the same rigour in measurement and reporting.

Curious how Exotec’s Skypod system could boost your throughput? Take a 3D tour and experience firsthand how Exotec’s solution solves your toughest warehouse challenges.