ALTANA recently announced that it will reduce its carbon dioxide (CO₂) impact from production and energy procurement worldwide to zero by 2025. In 2020, the company’s entire power supply will be converted to renewable energies. ALTANA reports that it will compensate for the unavoidable use of natural gas until 2025 by financing equivalent climate protection projects in the regions where CO₂ emissions are generated. The same applies to offsetting CO₂ emissions arising from necessary business trips, company cars, and the transport of goods.

“We want to leave our footprint on innovations, not on emissions,” said Martin Babilas, CEO of ALTANA AG. “With our CO₂ neutrality program up to 2025, we are fulfilling our responsibility for climate protection and consistently pursuing our sustainability course.”

In 2017, ALTANA reportedly achieved the goal it set itself in 2007 of reducing CO₂ emissions by 30% in relation to gross value added by 2020. In order to further reduce its CO₂ emissions, ALTANA is relying on greater energy efficiency, as well as heat and electricity generation, at its worldwide sites. In the long term, renewable energies should also replace natural gas as a source of energy. In addition to the existing solar energy systems at ELANTAS in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, and at BYK in Deventer, the Netherlands, a further photovoltaic system went into operation at ELANTAS in Pune, India, which covers the electricity requirements of the new research center at this site. In Collecchio, Italy, ELANTAS is currently constructing another photovoltaic system for a new production and laboratory building.

In addition to the measures at its own sites, ALTANA is setting up a program in close cooperation with its suppliers to consistently further improve the CO₂ balance of purchased raw materials. Thus, ALTANA will consider the CO₂ emissions of its entire value chain.

“The more companies that commit themselves to climate neutrality and create the relevant facts, the faster we can achieve the Paris climate protection targets,” said Babilas. However, he added that policymakers should create an indispensable framework to achieve this. The climate protection targets cannot be achieved without sufficient electricity from renewable energies at competitive prices and the corresponding grid infrastructure. Based on current calculations by the VCI, the German Chemical Industry Association, the annual electricity needs of the German chemical industry on the way to greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050 will increase to more than 11 times the current value (628 TWh compared to 54 TWh today).

“We are therefore calling on policymakers to promote renewable energies much more strongly and swiftly,” Babilas said. “Incentives must be created to ensure that sufficient electricity and heat capacities from CO₂ neutral sources will continue to be available in the future. New procedures must be accelerated by public subsidies and barriers to use and own production must be eliminated. Furthermore, policymakers should create comparable competitive conditions for the industry with internationally uniform CO₂ pricing.”

ALTANA has been a member of the UN Global Compact initiative for responsible and sustainable corporate management since 2010. The group’s corporate goals for environmental and climate protection have been factored into the calculation of the variable income of top management since 2007. The goal of climate neutrality by 2025 that has now been formulated will also be integrated into the individual target agreements.

For more information, visit www.altana.com/climateneutral2025.