Coming to Lifosa on bicycles and bikes, guests saw more than just mountains

Coming to Lifosa on bicycles and bikes, guests saw more than just mountains

One of Europe’s largest and most modern fertiliser producers, Lifosa, and what it does always draw interest from those with inquisitive minds – especially so with respect to the plant’s phosphogypsum stack, dubbed ‘The Alps of Kėdainiai’. This is why Lifosa is always exploring new opportunities to present to the public what it does, the technologies it uses and the environmentally-friendly solutions it invests into, inviting people to visit the plant and its surrounding areas. In what is a bit of a departure from its annual open-day event, Lifosa decided to welcome its guests in a new way this year and invited them to come to the site on bicycles.

Some 350 bikers who’d come to Kėdainiai on the occasion of its 649th anniversary had the chance to learn that a weekend visit to Lifosa is a guarantee of a stimulating and exciting time. They joined members of the town community to marvel at the impressive surrounding areas of the company and the progress it has made.

Kėdainiai residents said that the roaring bikes in ‘The Alps’ created a truly memorable atmosphere and the bikers, for their part, thanked for the opportunity to learn about one of the most interesting chemical industry sites in Lithuania.

VeloRatai, the cycling sport club of Kėdainai, also expressed their appreciation to Lifosa. On the last weekend of the summer, enthusiasts from the club enjoyed the opportunity to ride through and explore the company’s site and surrounding areas. The bicycle tour through the surrounding areas attracted more than 300 members of the cyclist community.

Alma Gudaitienė, a resident of Kėdainiai who participated in the tour, said that the company’s annual open-day event invites to explore and learn – and to come back again for more. Mrs. Gudaitienė came to the open-day event for the second time and could see for herself the progress the company made in the intervening years with respect to the goals of the European Green Deal.

The biggest surprise for Mrs. Gudaitienė, however, was the electric scooter she won in Lifosa’s first-ever open-day lottery draw. She said she’ll definitely try it out herself and also let her family members to take a ride or two.

‘The invitations to the bicycle tour, the electric scooter, a modern EV charging station – all of these are sign of the changes we can chose to be part of every day. As one of Europe’s largest and most modern fertilizer producers, we bring positive change into the industry and implement solutions in line with the European Green Deal, which help reduce CO2 emissions. The solar power plant, for example, provides a source of renewable energy for us: this energy can never be depleted and is completely environmentally friendly,’ says Rimantas Proscevičius, CEO at Lifosa.

The 1MW solar power plant became operational at start of this year. The production plant purchases from it an additional 18GWh of electrical energy a year, with nearly 6% of it produced in an environmentally friendly way. In addition, a new modern EV charging station has recently been installed on the site. Lifosa now has two of EV charging stations, one of which can be used by the public. A charging point for employee electric scooters and bicycles will be operational very soon, too.

According to Proscevičius, the company’s employees view the environmentally-friendly changes very positively and actively support them, because they understand that through its modern solutions and investments the company seeks to make its operations more efficient, productive and sustainable. By using electricity from renewable sources, he says, Lifosa contributes to making a positive impact on the environment and achieving the goals of the European Green Deal.

Proscevičius hopes that the examples of sustainable solutions will become an inspiration to the company’s visitors, who never miss the chance to explore the plant site from up close and see one of the most unique landscapes in the region, the plant’s phosphogypsum stack.

Tours of the plant’s surrounding areas have been organised since 2008, when the plant launched a company museum and started holding open-day events, attracting Kėdainiai residents and visitors to learn about the company’s history, all new solutions and the progress it continues to make.

Lifosa has been attracting ever-greater interest from the general public, with greater numbers of people expressing their desire to see one of Lithuania’s largest plants each year. In 2019, more than 2,000 people visited the company.

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