CO2 Footprint in Companies

The goal of reducing #CO2 emissions is now anchored in many corporate strategies. This is also urgently necessary, as the extreme weather conditions all over the world already show.

Climate change is no longer a theory or a future scenario. We are in the middle of it, and it depends on the industry how it develops further. igus GmbH also has the goal of becoming climate neutral and wants to achieve this by estimated 2025.

In 2021, igus had produced 31.2% less CO2 emissions at their German headquarter and production site in Cologne than in 2020. This figure relates to Scope 1 and Scope 2. To those who are interested, these terms will certainly mean something, but probably not to most.

With this article I want to give a short explanation of the term "scope" and show as an example which emissions fall into which scope and are considered direct or indirect.

Do you know your CO2 Footprint?

If you don’t, you can check it for free with the following link carbonfootprint.com - Carbon Footprint Calculator.

Of course, you can also simply reduce your CO2 consumption without this knowledge: travel smaller distances by car, consume less or even no meat, heat your apartment or house smartly, buy regionally. As a private person, it's relatively easy to reduce your carbon footprint. But what about companies and industry?

Scope - 3 areas for the comparability of emissions

With the Paris Agreement, almost all countries have committed to reducing the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees by 2100.

In 2011, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol developed a template for this, together with several #NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and with scientific support. The Greenhouse Gas (#GHG) Protocol divides emissions into three areas: Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3.

Scope 1 - direct emissions

Includes all #emissions that a company or organization causes directly. Scope 1 direct emissions include company vehicles, combustion processes, coolant and steam generation, and leakage, e.g., from air conditioning systems. Combustion processes can be those from production, e.g., firing ceramics, or others such as the sweeper's combustion engine, emergency generator or building heating.

Scope 2 - indirect emissions

Indirect emissions include heat, electricity and steam purchased by companies from external suppliers. The decisive factor for a company's carbon footprint is how "green" this purchased energy is produced.

Scope 3 - indirect emissions in the supply chain

Includes all emissions that come from external independent sources but are a consequence of the company's activities: Routes to work for all employees, waste generated during production and everyday work, transport materials, water consumption by employees and production, fuel consumption by suppliers and during delivery of products to customers, waste from products disposed of by customers, and many more.

Due to the diversity of Scope 3 emissions, the calculation is very complex and is currently still largely based on estimates.

Here are a few examples what #igus already does.

• In production, energy-intensive, older injection molding machines are gradually being replaced with new, more energy-efficient ones.
• The lighting in the production halls is currently being converted to LED.
• In the product area of plain bearings, the ECO product line has now been created, which are plain bearings made from regranulate from our own production waste.
• Since 2019, we have been taking back old plastic energy chains from companies and recycling them in our Chainge platform - recycling made easy by igus? program. We don't care whether they are energy chains from igus or competitors.
• Our environmental management system is certified by ISO 14001 and the corresponding energy management system is certified by ISO 50001:2018.
• And: employees and customers can charge their e-cars at 20 charging points on our company campus.

Source: igus GmbH