Air

In 2008, the second European emissions trading period began. WACKER participates in trading with its Burghausen and Nünchritz CHP plants. The two plants account for 82% of the Group’s total carbon dioxide emissions. The necessary emissions certificates were allotted to us free of charge for the 2008 – 2012 period.

In 2008, WACKER emitted some 976,000 metric tons of CO₂ groupwide – 6% more than in 2007. This is due to higher, production-related energy demand.

Carbon dioxide accounts for 98.7% of WACKER’s greenhouse-gas emissions (expressed as CO₂ equivalents). The remaining 1.3% comprises nitrous oxide, fluorocarbons and other greenhouse gases. In 2008, WACKER emitted some 989,000 tons of greenhouse gases groupwide (2007: 936,000 tons).

Climate protection is not only influenced by production, but also by the traffic load caused by employees. We encourage our employees to leave their cars at home. At our largest site, Burghausen, we provide commuter buses for shift workers. Siltronic’s Portland site (Oregon, USA) uses diverse measures to encourage its employees to be environmentally conscious in their travel behavior, e.g. subsidized tickets for local public transport.

During the reporting period, we replaced all the cars in our vehicle pools at our German sites with the fuel-efficient Passat TDI Bluemotion. For commercial vehicles such as fork-lift trucks, we are testing alternative fuels (e.g. natural gas and electric drives).