Climate action

We want to do our part to preserve the climate and achieve the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. In 2020, we drew up new objectives: By 2030, we intend to lower our direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scope 2) greenhouse gas emissions by 50% compared with 2020. This is to be achieved by reducing process-related emissions, implementing energy efficiency measures, and purchasing more electricity from renewable sources. We are also aiming to cover 80% of our purchased electricity with renewables by 2030.

Moreover, we plan to lower our indirect emissions along our entire value chain (Scope 3) by 1,500 metric kilotons of CO₂ equivalents (CO₂eq) by 2030. By 2040, we intend to have achieved climate-neutral operations throughout our entire value chain, a target that covers our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

In November 2021, our company decided to join the Science Based Targets initiative. In becoming part of this effort, we have committed ourselves to taking concrete steps to reach the Paris Agreement targets.

Roles and responsibilities

Corporate Sustainability, Quality, and Trade Compliance is responsible for overseeing all climate action efforts throughout the Group, with our individual sites and business units worldwide implementing the necessary measures at the local level.

Our commitment: Standards and legal frameworks

We have three EHS standards in place to manage energy and process-related emissions consistently across the Group, specifically “Energy Management”, “Emissions”, and “Emissions of Refrigerants”. We utilize an internal audit process to randomly check compliance with all EHS standards.

Emissions reduced

In 2021, we emitted approximately 1,843,000 metric tons of CO₂ equivalents (CO₂eq) (2020: 2,028,000 metric tons). Our direct emissions (Scope 1) totaled 1,522,000 metric tons of CO₂eq, with process-related emissions accounting for 1,261,000 metric tons of CO₂eq and fuel use accounting for the remainder. Indirect emissions (Scope 2) totaled roughly 321,000 metric tons calculated according to the market-based method (approximately 385,000 metric tons according to the location-based method, which does not specifically take renewable energy sources into account). Greenhouse gas emission intensity (Scope 1 and 2) amounted to 0.09 kg of CO₂eq per € of net sales in this period.

In 2020 and 2021, we focused on creating more transparency on our Scope 3 emissions. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol defines 15 categories for Scope 3 emissions from upstream and downstream activities. In 2021, our emissions totaled 5,716,000 metric tons of CO₂eq. Categories 1 and 2 (Purchased Goods and Services and Capital Goods) accounted for the lion’s share, representing 68% of our total Scope 3 emissions in this period.

Energy efficiency

In 2021, a variety of energy efficiency initiatives helped us save around 1,700 metric tons of CO₂eq at our global headquarters in Darmstadt. For instance, we updated heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, implemented energy-saving lighting concepts.

As part of the energy and water efficiency program of our Life Science business sector, we rolled out new tools in 2021 to help us assess projects for saving energy and water. In addition, we trained 40 employees from sites outside of Germany on energy management.

Slight rise in energy consumption

We consumed 2,454 gigawatt hours of energy in 2021, versus 2,374 gigawatt hours in 2020. Our energy intensity relative to sales totaled 0.12 kWh/€ in 2021.

In 2021, we increased our focus on purchasing electricity from renewable sources. In this period, we sourced 30% of our purchased electricity from renewable energies (2020: 27%). Renewables represented 13% of our total energy consumption.