We all experienced the pandemic in different ways. It has been a tough road with some difficult stories along the way. We wanted to share our story with you, this time from a different perspective. In fact, as we operate in the LPG market, we want to give an insight in to how we saw LPG play an important part during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Covid-19: ‘humanizing’ LPG
Cavagna Group is an international company with 16 manufacturing entities, spread over the 5 continents. However, our ‘heartbeat’ is based in Lombardy (Italy), where there was the largest initial outbreak of Covid-19 outside of Asia.
We had to rapidly adapt our production lines, in regards to the new rules, to continue certain essential production lines. In fact, while some of our products had to cease production, we were of course a vital part in supplying valves for oxygen therapy and LPG equipment.
As we were one of the first to experience the pandemic, we realised that there was a true sense of fear around it. The situation that was occurring around us was completely unknown. Therefore, we started to increase our communication to all of our employees. Having a consistent and joint message across all of our units was key to overcoming a difficult period. We also wanted to create a sense of unity.
Quickly being able to adapt and prepare for new situations is a good example of resiliency.
That message of resiliency continuously reiterated helped our colleagues to come to work during a difficult period and with an added motivation to do so. Understanding how we all play an important part throughout the pandemic is a way of ‘humanizing’ LPG.
LPG was quickly considered an essential fuel during the pandemic
When the decision was to be made, there was no hesitation that LPG had to continue. LPG was immediately recognized as important and essential to everyday life .
Outside of the urgent demand for oxygen equipment, we also noticed an increase in the LPG market during the pandemic. Could this be due to the infrastructure of the LPG network being more easily accessible? Probably that’s one of the main reasons. We realised that LPG had and has a place in the ‘new normal’ following COVID-19.
We experienced the pandemic from all of our facilities, including of course Brazil, USA and China. It was impressive to see how they used their knowledge to create new and useful uses for LPG despite the situation.
Cavagna do Brazil, for example, cooperating with Copagaz and Greengear, set up temporary LPG powered containers for the hospital staff.
This is a message that we deem important: keeping our shared experiences in regards to the path for LPG open. Everyone plays their part in being sustainable and sending that joint message amongst our industry far and wide. Even in the face of an emergency, LPG companies were able to utilize and grow the LPG network.
The digitalization of the LPG industry
Alongside this emergency approach, we continued our R&D in terms of digitalization.
We all saw how important online communication was and the need for less physical human interaction, which is made possible by some of our latest IoT developments.
The extraordinary conditions that we have found ourselves in, in the last year, have made it clearer that the future will be increasingly characterized by digital technology and online communication.
Digitalization makes the industry more efficient in logistics, which is important for being resilient. As a matter of fact, digital technology lowers the overall carbon footprint, limits waste and makes supply chains more adaptable.
That is what we tried to explain during the e-LPG Week 2020, the first virtual event we attended.
So, our final question is…
Is the pandemic the event that is going to finally drag the LPG industry into the digital age?