heo is growing, and so is our sense of responsibility towards the environment and society.
In the mid-2010s, it became clear that we needed a new base if we were to realise our plans and ideas.
So we commissioned plans for a modern and sustainable home for 300 heonauts, and building work finally began in May 2019.
After all the noise and the dust, and the remarkable feats of brainpower and craftsmanship, the heo Campus was completed in April 2021. Hurrah, we could finally move into our new home!
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Looking to the future.
And ensuring we all still have one.
A flagship project
Can both humans and animals feel at home in an industrial complex? We certainly think so.
Once we had ensured that our plans were sustainable in terms of energy consumption, we turned our attention to internal fixtures and fittings and outdoor facilities.
Natural, sustainable materials are more environmentally friendly, and they make our internal spaces feel warmer and more welcoming, much like we are used to at home.
Guided by a biologist and landscape architects, we ensured that our outdoor areas were as wildlife-friendly and natural as possible.
Large areas of orchards and wild meadows for pollinators were created and are maintained to provide the right habitat. Since then, the Campus has been a welcoming hive of activity for our heonauts, and a buzzing haven for insects, birds and lizards.
heo logistics are the green heart of the heo Campus
The goods-to-people approach of our logistics saves a significant amount of energy.
Most of our items can now be picked without workers having to drive up and down long aisles, for example in a forklift truck.
We use a number of automated storage and retrieval systems, the largest of which is AutoStore from Norway.
The bulk of our goods are stored in more than 100,000 containers, which are moved around by 65 robots.
Goods are retrieved by automated robots using the just-in-time approach.
The savings in terms of time and energy are huge, making our cutting-edge intralogistics the green heart of the heo Campus.
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There’s always another way.
“You’re mad, that doesn’t make any financial sense!” was something we often heard during the planning phase.
And while occasionally we’re not happy that we stayed true to our often unconventional vision, in most cases we are. And it was no different with the heo Campus.
Apart from the odd bit of cash here and there, we hate burning anything. Which is why the buildings, equipment and electric vehicles on the heo Campus are powered solely by green electricity.
We generate this mainly through our own photovoltaic system, which has a power output of 1 MW peak. Plans are in the pipeline to increase this to 1.6 MW peak. We generate far more electricity than we consume ourselves, which helps us to reduce carbon emissions.
We paid particular attention to the energy efficiency of systems and equipment, and we invested heavily in insulating the floors to save on energy for heating.
From the outset, we wanted to make using electric vehicles as easy as possible, and that has been even more fun in combination with our PV system.
Everything is super-resilient thanks to emergency power systems and four transformer stations.
And no, we’re not talking Optimus Prime here!