All our manufacturing operations around the world are to become carbon neutral by 2030. This is one of many actions we have to take in order to stay on course of successful eco-economic decoupling.
In June 2020, we announced the target to achieve carbon neutrality for all our manufacturing, warehouses, and research centers by 2030. So how are we doing? Well, we are working in two dimensions in parallel: reducing the demand for energy by deploying energy efficiency measures, improve material efficiency, reducing scrap, eliminating waste, and generally working lean and smart.
These measures decrease both CO2 emissions and cost, driving down the carbon intensity of the energy (mainly electricity) that we buy. We also need to think about the CO2 from on-site combustion processes, district heat, and so on, and here we will need to reduce the demand and find alternative, non-fossil energy sources.
Carbon neutral manufacturing – where are we so far?
We work to reduce CO2 emissions from our production facilities in several ways: material, energy, and CO2 waste are reduced in the Group and up the supply chain by assuring stable and capable processes and optimizing material usage.
- 40% reduction in CO2 since 2006
- 2021 ~50% of SKF electricity is green
- Target 5% p.a. improvement in energy efficiency
With a systematic focus on energy efficiency, we are implementing more energy-efficient technologies and eliminating energy waste, associated costs, and CO2 emissions. Purchased electricity represents 70–80% of energy use and CO2 emissions from the factories. Our ambition is to buy or generate energy from renewable sources whenever this is practically and commercially viable.
The focus on climate is not new, SKF has been driving several initiatives to understand and reduce the environmental and climate impact for more than 30 years. The graph shows some of the milestones on our climate journey, for example:
- 2000 – when we first started to report and set targets on CO2.
- 2012-2016 – Beyond Zero portfolio, an ambitious climate campaign
- 2015 – the adoption of the ISO 50001 energy management standard.
- 2019 – when we issued the Green bond.
- 2020 – committed to carbon-neutral operations goal 2030.
SKF
www.skf.com/us
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