CO2 Neutrality at BOSCH: Responsibility for the environment is everyone's business @raul lopez sobrino

Interview with Raúl López Sobrino, Director Facility Management Robert Bosch Espa?a S.L.U

Last week the International Day against Climate Change took place. Bosch, aware of the importance of protecting the environment, has set the goal of being carbon neutral worldwide since 2020. This was announced by Volkmar Denner during the annual press conference last May. Our more than 400 locations will no longer leave a carbon footprint from next year.

To achieve this goal, Bosch has established four fundamental pillars: increasing energy efficiency, increasing the share of renewable energies, buying more green energy and balancing unavoidable carbon emissions from sources such as natural gas or diesel.

To learn more about this Bosch strategy, we have talked with Raúl López Sobrino ), responsible for the CO2 neutrality project for Bosch in Spain and Portugal. In this interview, he details his responsibility in this project and what tasks need to be developed to carry it out.

What are the measures that will be taken to achieve this environmental goal?

To quickly achieve carbon neutrality, Bosch will buy more green electricity in the short term (from renewable sources) and balance the unavoidable CO2 emissions with carbon offsets. We will also gradually increase our own energy efficiency, as well as the proportion of renewable energy which we generate and purchase.

As a result of these actions, how many tons of CO2 will be reduced globally?

Bosch currently releases about 3.3 million metric tons of carbon annually. However, by 2030, the company plans to save additional energy worth approximately 1.7 terawatts per year. This represents more than a fifth part of the company's annual consumption. To understand this magnitude, this consumption would be above the electricity consumed by all households in the city of Valencia.

What will be the total investment in this initiative?

In the remaining years to 2030, the company will incur additional costs of one billion euros by buying green electricity, participating in carbon offset programmes and deriving energy from renewable sources. During the same period, one billion euros will also be invested to drive internal energy efficiency.

Bosch has been promoting CO2 reduction for several years. What has been achieved so far?

We haven't started from scratch. The company has already reduced carbon emissions in relation to value added, by nearly 35 percent since 2007. As a result, we have consistently exceeded our relative carbon emissions targets.

In Spain, what has already been achieved in terms of CO2 reduction?

In Spanish locations, absolute CO2 emissions have already been reduced by 10 percent in the last two years, despite the fact that capacity in working hours has increased by more than five percent during the same period. By 2019, Bosch Spain plans to invest around two million euros in different measures to further reduce CO2 emissions at its sites. Special attention will be paid to LED lighting projects in production as well as in office areas. Bosch has also signed an agreement with an utility provider in the autumn of 2018 for the electricity supply to all its Spanish and Portuguese locations between 2019 and 2021 will come from 100% renewable sources. However, we already purchase electricity from renewable sources in 2017 and 2018.

Specifically, in the location of Madrid, in 2014, we already achieved the target of reducing CO2 emissions that we had set for 2020, being above 20 percent.

What specific activities will be carried out in Spain to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020?

In all locations in Spain and Portugal, we will first have a list of CO2 emission projects through energy saving solutions. Also, in the locations of Portugal, photovoltaic energy projects have been proposed. In addition, we are evaluating, together with our head office in Germany, the purchase of carbon credits.

What does this energy platform consist of?

It is a project led by our head office in Germany, the central department of Real Estate management. It is a platform that will be implemented worldwide. It is a Bosch tool that will be used in our Industry 4.0 for the management and control of production, as well as for the monitoring of energy consumption. Therefore, this platform has its origin in Bosch Energy and Building Solutions.

Our Madrid location will be a pilot plant for the installation of this energy control platform, which will help to understand these solutions. Then, it will be developed in the remaining locations in Spain and Portugal.

Therefore, could we say that the central idea of this platform is to control all energy consumption and optimize its use?

The idea is to designate the figure of the Energy Manager for Spain and Portugal. They will be able to analyse each of the consumption of the locations in the region to compare it with the productivity, and check if it is possible to obtain any kind of synergies, to look for savings and to take this into account when buying energy. It will also be possible to find out about consumption habits, peaks and other interesting data.

We want to be the first region in the Bosch world to be digitalized. To have the platform implemented in all locations in our region as our main objective.

Nowadays, what energy sources are used in the different Bosch locations?

In most locations we still use natural gas. There are some that use diesel for heating because these are emissions that we cannot avoid right now. We can eliminate emissions from electricity consumption, but not from natural gas and other forms of energy.

On the other hand, we have considered improving the isolation of buildings. Obviously, we cannot control climatic conditions as the outside temperature. What we can do is to improve the effect that these external conditions have on us, something that is achieved by insulating the walls of buildings, their glazing...

If all the electricity we consume has zero emissions, why don't we just use electricity from renewable energies?

Right now, it is not a matter of switching the whole system to electricity just because it is a renewable energy source. Not in all locations and in all cases it is economically viable. Although gas has a lower price than electricity, the electricity has a lower efficiency. We would have to do certain numbers to know if the power that the gas gives us is equal to the power that we would have to consume in electricity. Surely, the consumption of electricity would be greater than that of gas, which is not economically viable.

How can a Bosch employee contribute to individual neutrality?

Our habits at Bosch are probably different from the ones we have at home.

A direct measure is to reduce energy consumption. How? For example, by looking at how we maintain office lighting. In the mornings, we can make better use of the light we have outside and turn off the lighting. In addition, natural light is better than artificial light. We can also turn off screens and computers when we go home, which is, in the end, a residual consumption that has no effect on the production or productivity of the center.

Another example would be opening windows in offices to ventilate, a counterproductive effect in summer and winter, because it leads to more energy consumption. In winter, because it gets cold from outside and we have to spend more gas to compensate for it, and in summer, when more heat comes in, we have to spend more electricity, even though it is renewable.

Responsibility for the environment and emissions is everyone's business. Habits and actions aimed at maintaining a world or planet in which to live must starts from Bosch and each one of us.