Bright Laser has released its latest ESG report.
ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) reports are increasingly issued by major companies. It’s a way for the company to inform the public, customers, and shareholders of the efforts they have taken to ensure the sustainability of their products, staff, and the environments they operate within.
In the 3D print industry, there are very few ESG reports issued. Perhaps the most comprehensive is done by Stratasys, which has now issued two such reports. The new BLT report is the first we’ve seen from the company.
In the report, BLT explains that “ESG principles are embedded at the core of BLT’s strategy”, and that they want to support a “low-carbon, sustainable, and inclusive future”.
The highlight of the report seems to be their new “fully automated production line”, which took over nine months to build. This line is designed with a closed-loop philosophy, where powder and gas consumables are contained to minimize waste and emissions.
They are able to produce usable metal powder for 3D printing by re-using a “recycled material process”. They say that when recovering argon gas, this process can save as much as 80% of CO2 emissions over conventional production approaches.
The report highlights several customer applications that have saved considerable amounts of CO2. For example, they list footwear manufacturers Zhongke Fengyang and Wanbang Footwear as customers that have switched some of the production to additive manufacturing, thus reducing emissions and chemical use.
For staff, BLT explains they undertook 398 training sessions for staff in 2024 to increase their “general knowledge, technical skills, onboarding, and corporate culture.” They also implemented a comprehensive development program for certain staff.
The company reports they spent almost 16% of their revenue on research and development, which is a healthy amount at their size. They also say they’ve now reached a total of 375 patents, with 646 patent applications filed.
One area they write about is bribery, something we don’t often see in this type of report. They write:
“BLT enforces a strict anti-bribery policy that prohibits all forms of commercial bribery from suppliers and partners. The company has established risk control protocols and whistleblower mechanisms to safeguard business integrity. It also continues to strengthen its corporate governance structure, internal controls, and risk management framework to ensure transparent and compliant operations.”
The 2024 BLT ESG report is a good start, but it seems far less comprehensive than some other ESG reports we’ve seen. There seemed to be frequent mention of companies benefiting by switching to AM technologies over traditional processes, which is good, but not something happening inside BLT itself.
There is also a lack of sustainability statistics, such as those you might see in a standard European ESG report. For example, there was no mention of the total CO2 generated by BLT, or the change from the previous year. That type of information would be very welcome in the next iteration of this report.
Via BLT
