Environmental Performance Assessment

In 2004, WACKER developed a system to simplify the assessment of our sites’ environmental performance. A site’s total emissions are converted into environmental units, which take both the absolute emissions and so-called weighting factors into consideration. The weighting factors take account of four criteria: environmental impact, safety of treatment/disposal, public acceptance, and requirements imposed by environmental legislation and corporate policy. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, for example, have a high weighting due to both their public significance and international climate-protection agreements.

Our German sites in Burghausen, Nünchritz and Freiberg, together with our Portland site (Oregon, USA), account for 96% of WACKER’s environmental units. Despite increased production volumes, we were able to keep our environmental units stable throughout the period under review.