The starting situation and challenges
Following the announcement of the CBAM regulation in May 2023, the Böllhoff Group quickly recognized its relevance, as a significant portion of imported fasteners fell under CBAM due to their customs tariff numbers. Given the complex organizational structure, with 13 CBAM-affected locations across Europe, a solution was sought from summer onwards to effectively address these challenges.
The goal was to find a specialized digital solution to fully digitize the process towards CBAM compliance and proactively address the issue of CO2 costs within the supply chain.
The decision-making
Following an introductory and demo session, the collaboration between the Böllhoff Group and kolum began in January 2024, just in time for the first CBAM reporting period. What particularly convinced the Böllhoff Group was kolum's well-thought-out end-to-end approach, which not only addresses immediate reporting obligations but also includes long-term supplier communication and certificate management.
The software solution
In mid-January 2024, the Böllhoff Group's onboarding onto the kolum software took place. All companies within the Böllhoff Group were given shared access to the software but were able to manage their own CBAM shipments in separate areas. This ensured full transparency across the organization while also guaranteeing that each company could effectively meet its individual reporting obligations. As a result, all Böllhoff companies were able to submit their first CBAM reports on time and without any issues at the end of January.
What we have achieved
90% time savings
through intuitive data collection and report generation with one click
The intuitive kolum software allows all Böllhoff companies to fully capture their supplier and import data digitally, thus initiating a future-proof process. The automatic CBAM report generation with just one click enables all Böllhoff companies to save more than 90% of the time compared to manually entering data in the EU Commission's CBAM portal.
>70% response rate
through end-to-end mapping of the emissions chain
The simple integration and onboarding of producers of precursor products onto the kolum software ensures that the CBAM emissions chain can be fully and easily represented. This allows for 100% assurance of CBAM compliance.
100% CBAM Compliance
through active supplier management
Structured workshops and training sessions on CBAM, along with the provision of detailed informational materials, ensure that all suppliers are fully informed and supported. The subsequent supplier onboarding to the kolum software enables fully digital emissions data sharing and prevents file chaos from separately sent Excel files and/or email threads. The guided CBAM emissions data calculation directly in the kolum software is a significant relief for suppliers and results in response rates of over 70%.
Thinking ahead
The Böllhoff Group and kolum will continue to collaborate on the topic of CO2 costs in the supply chain in the long term. Specifically, the focus will be on optimally forecasting CO2 costs with software support and enabling an optimized CBAM certificate management system for all companies within the Böllhoff Group.