Focus Topics – Environment
Climate action
Significant reduction of greenhouse gases that are harmful to the climate
Management approach: We aim to further reduce CO2 emissions in the production of our products and packaging. Installing photovoltaic systems and purchasing green electricity are easy measures to implement. However, we also aim to significantly increase energy efficiency within the company. This is achieved, for example, by replacing energy-intensive equipment and lowering the temperature at certain process stages along the value chain without compromising product quality. We also intend to make our company more resilient and adaptable to climate-related risks and natural disasters. We have established SBT as a long-term future goal for Zehnder Group.
Implementation: Systematic measures to save energy and reduce CO2 are being pursued with a view to achieving a sustainable reduction in the greenhouse gases emitted by Zehnder Group. During the reporting year, we have made progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, the total carbon footprint of Zehnder Group (Scope 1+2, market-based approach) was 23,373 tonnes of CO2e (32,125 tonnes of CO2e in 2021). This is equivalent to a reduction of 27% compared to the previous year. This reduction is mainly driven by substantially increasing our green energy purchases in our operations in Lahr (DE) and Manisa (TR). In addition, our production site in Zwolle (NL), Buffalo (US) and Graenichen (CH) use photovoltaic systems to generate electricity from solar energy. This is fed directly into the production processes and serves to reduce our CO2 footprint and consumption of fossil resources. In autumn 2022, we started to analyse our Scope 3 emission categories, and in spring 2023 we finalized our scope 3 emission estimation resulting in 4’917’348 tonnes of CO2e. By far the largest emissions stem from the use of sold products (87.52%). Other categories included were purchased goods and services (8.18%), downstream transportation (2.13%), end of life treatment of sold products (1.73%), as well as business travel, employee commuting, generated waste and upstream transportation (all <1%).
Outlook: By applying highly efficient heat recovery, Zehnder ventilation systems help our customers save considerable amounts of heating energy. Although, our heat recovery units use electrical energy (Scope 3), they at the same time save a much larger amount of heating energy throughout the entire product lifecycle time compared with ventilation without heat recovery. These energy savings from sold products are not accounted for under Scope 3. Therefore, together with a scientific institute, we plan to verify and report the amount of energy saved through heat recovery for our products.
We aim to systematically forge ahead with our commitment to climate protection and pledge to follow the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Beginning of June, Zehnder Group's commitment letter has officially been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative Board. In a next step, Zehnder Group will develop and submit its emissions reduction target for validation. The Science Based Targets initiative is a collaboration between the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature. The SBTi is an approach for companies to establish science-based, ambitious and effective emission reduction targets, that are in accordance with the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Climate Change Convention.
GRI 305: Emissions 2016
GRI 305-1: Direct (Scope 1) GHG emissions
GRI 305-2: Energy indirect (Scope 2) GHG emissions
|
GRI |
tCO 2 e |
2021 |
2022 |
|
305-1 |
Gross direct (Scope 1) GHG emissions in metric tons of CO 2 equivalent |
11,943 |
12,161 |
|
305-1 |
Biogenic CO 2 emissions in metric tons of CO 2 equivalent |
n/a |
3 |
|
305-2 |
Gross location-based energy indirect (Scope 2) GHG emissions in metric tons of CO 2 equivalent |
25,389 |
23,585 |
|
305-2 |
Gross market-based energy indirect (Scope 2) GHG emissions in metric tons of CO 2 equivalent |
20,182 |
11,212 |
In this calculation, all gases are included based on IPCC.
The base year is 2022 (reporting year), as this is the first year in which emission sources from all three Scopes (1-3) are accounted for.
Sources for the emission factors are ecoinvent v3.8 calculated with IPCC 2021 GWP100a and UK Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs 2022 version 2.0. Global warming potentials specifically for cooling agents were taken from IPCC AR6.
Data is consolidated according to the operative control approach. New acquisitions in the reporting years 2021 and 2022 were consolidated on a pro rata basis.
Methodology based on GHG Protocol. No specific tools used.
GRI 305: Emissions 2016
GRI 305-3: Other indirect (Scope 3) GHG emissions
|
GRI |
tCO 2 e |
2021 |
2022 |
|
305-3 |
Gross other indirect (Scope 3) GHG emissions in metric tons of CO 2 equivalent |
n/a |
4,917,348 |
All gases are included based on IPCC.
Biogenic CO2 emissions are not calculated separately but are included in total emissions.
Out of the 15 Scope 3 categories from the GHG-Protocol 8 are considered in this calculation (purchased goods and services, upstream transportation and distribution, waste generated in operations, business travel, employee commuting, downstream transportation and distribution, use of sold products, use of downstream leased products, end-of-life treatment of sold products). Capital goods are excluded as the inclusion without depreciation over time would distort the result and make it hard to compare as a base year. Emissions from fuel and energy related activities are considered as non-significant considering the other Scope 3 categories accounted for. Emissions from upstream leased assets are already included in Scope 1 & 2 emissions. As Zehnder does not manufacture intermediate products emissions from the processing of sold products are not applicable. There are no franchises and no investments.
The base year is 2022 (reporting year), as this is the first year in which emission sources from all three Scopes (1-3) are accounted for.
Emission factors are from ecoinvent 3.8 calculated with IPCC 2021 GWP 100a, DEFRA 2022 v2.0, GWPs from IPCC AR6.
Assumptions:
– For emissions of the treatment of generated waste the cut-off approach was applied excluding emissions from preparation for reuse, recycling and other recovery operations.
– Waste for the end-of-life of sold products only contains non-recycable parts as it was assumed that what is recyclable will be recycled.
– Considering emissions from the use of sold products over their lifetime, consumables like filters were not considered as it is unclear whether there would be a double counting if first-party filters produced by Zehnder would be used.
– The emission factor for electricity used by sold products over their lifetime is assumed to be the emission factor of the country of the business unit which sold it, not calculating for a change in emissions per kWh over the time.
– For the calculation of emissions from downstream transportation and distribution, the tkm were calculated using the average distance to the client. This could lead to a distortion of emission values from downstream transport from the real emissions.
– Emissions from the production of purchased goods were only calculated for production business units as those were identified as significant.
– Purchased services like outsourced activities were not considered in this calculation.
GRI 305: Emissions 2016
GRI 305-4: GHG emissions intensity
|
GRI |
tCO 2 e/Tsd. EUR |
2021 |
2022 |
|
305-4a |
GHG emissions intensity ratio for the organization |
n/a |
6.1 |
Organization-specific metric (the denominator) chosen to calculate the ratio was net sales (812'500 TEUR) in 2022.
Direct Scope 1, energy indirect Scope 2 (market-based), and indirect Scope 3 emissions were included in the intensity ratio.