Greenhouse gases are distributed evenly in the atmosphere. It therefore makes sense to avoid emissions where the costs are lowest. In addition, projects in developing and emerging countries contribute to improving the economic, social and ecological situation and support the realization of the sustainability goals of the United Nations. For emerging and developing countries, emissions trading is a key driver for the transfer of clean technologies and sustainable economic development.

Why we do this? Because we have understood what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes: Avoiding emissions costs only 0.6% of the annual value added, while repairing the damage if we continue as before costs many times more.

We are aware of our special responsibility as a company towards future generations and have acted accordingly. The climate impact associated with our company was determined for us by Fokus Zukunft GmbH & Co. KG: The CO2 footprint of our company is approx. 20 tons of CO2-equivalent pollutants per year. Accordingly, we have already offset our company's emissions for 2018 and 2019 by purchasing 40 climate protection certificates.

 

 

This makes our company one of the first in our industry to voluntarily offset its emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.

 

 

What is a CO2 footprint or a carbon footprint?

The carbon footprint is the measure of the amount of greenhouse gases (measured in CO₂ equivalents) that arise directly and indirectly from an activity of an individual, a company, an organization or a product. It includes the resulting emissions from raw materials, production, transport, trade, use, recycling and disposal. The basic idea of the CO2 footprint or carbon footprint is therefore to create a basis on which influences on the climate can be measured, evaluated and compared. This allows necessary reduction potentials to be identified, measures to be developed and their effectiveness to be evaluated.

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Which greenhouse gases are included in the calculation?

The calculation of greenhouse gas emissions includes the seven main greenhouse gases defined by the IPCC and the Kyoto Protocol: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) and sulfur hexafluoride ( SF6) included.

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What are CO2 equivalents?

Not all of the seven main greenhouse gases are equally effective. methane is e.g. B. 21 times as harmful to the climate as CO2, nitrous oxide 310 times and sulfur hexafluoride even 14,000 times. In order to compare the emissions with each other, all greenhouse gases are therefore converted to CO2. One then speaks of CO2 equivalents. The consumption data collected (e.g. electricity consumption or fuel consumption) are converted using emission factors that indicate the emissions per unit (e.g. per kilowatt hour of electricity or liter of petrol). The emission factors come mainly from DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), but also from the GEMIS database (Global Emissions Model of Integrated Systems, IINAS) and from the Ecoinvent database and are updated regularly.

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What are the basic principles for calculating the footprint?

A CO2 calculation is performed according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standards (GHG Protocol). It is internationally the most widespread and recognized standard for the carbon accounting of organizations. The following five basic principles are observed when preparing the carbon footprint:

• Relevance: Selection of organizational boundaries (company components/sites and subsidiaries) and operational boundaries (emission areas)

   

• Completeness: Recording of all relevant emission sources within the selected system boundaries

   

• Consistency: Use of calculation methods and selection of system boundaries that allow comparability over the years

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• Transparency: Clear presentation of the data, emission factors, calculations and results used that is comprehensible for external third parties

   

• Accuracy: Distortions and uncertainties should be minimized in order to have a solid basis for decision-making through the results

 

What do we report under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol?

Within the GHG Protocol, emissions are divided into Scopes 1, 2 and 3, each of which includes different types of greenhouse gas emissions: Scope 1 includes direct emissions from our own energy systems. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions that arise from providing energy to the company. Scope 3 emissions are other indirect emissions that occur throughout the value chain.

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Which emissions are included in Scope 1, 2 and 3 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol?

Scope 1 includes all greenhouse gas emissions that occur directly in the company. These include, for example, emissions from the combustion of stationary sources (e.g. boilers) or mobile sources (e.g. company-owned vehicle fleet), greenhouse gas emissions from production or chemical processes, and fugitive greenhouse gas emissions.

Scope 2 includes all indirect greenhouse gas emissions that arise from the provision of energy by an energy supply company for the company (electricity or district heating).

Scope 3 includes all other greenhouse gas emissions that are related to the company's activities (outsourced company areas, waste disposal, recycling, business trips, employee commuting, intermediate products, etc.).

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What happens to the data and the insights?

This greenhouse gas balance provides a transparent overview of our company's greenhouse gas emissions. The report is therefore an important building block in our climate protection commitment. On the basis of the determined values, our company was made climate-neutral by purchasing a corresponding number of climate certificates.

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What is climate change and what are its consequences?

Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time. It is not only an environmental issue, as too many people still believe, but it is an all-encompassing threat, as it will radically change production and living conditions. Greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and refrigerants are responsible for climate change and have been emitted in large quantities into the atmosphere since the beginning of industrialization. The main cause is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil. As a result, the earth has already warmed up by around 1.2 degrees Celsius. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the earth's surface temperature will warm by an additional 4 degrees Celsius on average by the end of the century unless we act more decisively. The world community has agreed that global warming must be limited to below 2 degrees Celsius in order to prevent catastrophic consequences. However, the commitments of the individual states are only sufficient for 4 degrees. Closing this ambition gap requires additional and significant commitment from companies and citizens. The impacts of climate change are far-reaching, affecting ecosystems, economies and health through temperature extremes and changing precipitation patterns. Another impact of climate change is rising sea levels, as water expands as it warms and more water flows into the oceans as glaciers and ice sheets melt. Not all regions are equally affected by climate change. Coastal areas and poor regions that have little opportunity to adapt to impacts such as B. to adapt to increased drought or heavy rainfall and floods. The result is increased poverty and flight from such areas.

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What can we do against climate change?

“Solutions to climate change are not only found in research centers and laboratories, but also emerge through the innovative spirit of those people who are most affected by this change. Many communities and companies, as well as local and national governments, including in developing countries, are already showing us the way to a carbon-neutral world. These efforts must now be scaled up on a global scale. Climate justice also requires that those wealthier countries, which are largely responsible for the increase in greenhouse gases and have also reaped the associated benefits, help poorer nations to adapt to climate change.” [Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General ]

Citizens, companies, regions and cities are demanding and increasingly implementing solutions to climate change. For this purpose, an internationally binding agreement was created in 1997 with the Kyoto Protocol, which regulates the greenhouse gas emissions of some emission-intensive sectors in industrialized countries. It was updated in the Paris Protocol, which came into force on November 7, 2016.

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How are emission certificates generated?

The greenhouse effect is a global phenomenon because the distribution of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is roughly equal. Therefore, it does not matter where in the world greenhouse gases are saved or stored. The Kyoto Protocol, which is binding under international law, therefore stipulated that so-called climate protection projects that avoid or store greenhouse gas emissions should take place where they are most economical. Accordingly, there are many projects in emerging and developing countries, because the potential for savings through new technologies is still very high here and these can be used much more cost-effectively. In addition, the conditions for renewable energy systems (sun, wind, water and biomass) are often significantly more advantageous there. The initiators of the climate protection projects - mostly renewable energy projects - receive emission credits for their commitment, which can be traded in the form of climate protection certificates. The height is measured z. B. by comparing it with the emissions that would have resulted from the construction of a coal-fired power plant. In this way, emission reductions are realized where the costs of avoiding one tonne of CO2 are lowest. In addition, emissions trading makes a significant contribution to the transfer of clean technologies to emerging and developing countries and to sustainable economic, ecological and social development in the region and to the achievement of the sustainability goals of the United Nations.

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What are the advantages of climate neutrality for our company?

1. Contribution to the goals of the government, the European Union and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations.

2. Awareness raising among employees, suppliers and customers regarding the use of finite resources. This positively changes the use of energy and other resources in the company and in people's everyday lives.

3. Entry into the growth market of “sustainable companies”. The "climate-neutral" status allows us to distinguish ourselves in our market segment.

4. Currently, this enables a pioneering role and thus our company positions itself as progressive, innovative, cooperative and forward-looking.

5. Promotes awareness of the energy transition.

6. Due to the status as a climate-neutral company, the company becomes a partner to its customers in the above-mentioned topics.

 

What happens to the CO2 certificates after they have been sold?

The purchased number of CO2 certificates have been decommissioned. This is significant insofar as this decommissioning is a prerequisite for the design and marketing of CO2-neutral companies. Without decommissioning, a CO2 certificate could possibly continue to be traded in the voluntary market, which would not result in any additional reduction in emissions.

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Which project is supported by the purchased emission allowances?

We particularly believe in the opportunity for sustainable growth, especially in developing countries. That's why we invested in a local solar energy project in India.

 

We have received the "climate-neutral company" award for offsetting our greenhouse gases.