Air

WACKER participates in European emissions trading with its Burghausen and Nünchritz CHP plants. The necessary emissions certificates were allotted to us free of charge for the 2008–2012 trading period. So far, WACKER has not been adversely affected by emissions trading.

In 2010, WACKER emitted 986,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide groupwide – 1.7 percent more than in 2009 (968,000 metric tons). This slight increase is due to higher, production-related energy demand. Our captive power-generation plants, subject to the emissions trading program, account for 83 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.

Carbon dioxide makes up 98.5 percent of WACKER’s greenhouse gas emissions (expressed as CO₂ equivalents). The remaining 1.5 percent is made up of nitrous oxide, fluorocarbons and other greenhouse gases. In 2009, WACKER emitted some 985,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases groupwide, and – excluding the new Norwegian plant in Holla – around 1 million metric tons in 2010 (2008: 989,000 metric tons). The fall in 2009’s emissions can be explained by reduced capacity utilization as a result of the economic downturn.

When it comes to climate protection, production is not the only factor – our employees’ carbon footprint is also significant. We encourage them to leave their cars at home. We provide commuter buses for shift workers at Burghausen, our largest site. At our Chinese sites in Nanjing, Shanghai and Zhangjiagang, we offer shuttle buses from residential areas to WACKER. Siltronic’s US site in Portland (Oregon) provides incentives – such as subsidized public transportation – to encourage employees to commute in an environmentally aware fashion. In Singapore, Siltronic has arranged for shuttle buses to travel from the site to various parts of the city. Employees at Siltronic in Japan have two car-free days a month, when they walk, bike, car share or use public transport to get to work.

At our German sites, we have replaced all the cars in our vehicle pools with the fuel-efficient VW Golf BlueMotion – 60 vehicles are available to employees without company cars who need to make work-related journeys. This new vehicle pool saves us around 127 metric tons of CO₂ per year.

We use electric drives for commercial vehicles, such as forklift trucks. Groupwide, we are switching to energy-saving electric motors for other equipment as well, including pumps and compressors. Over two thirds of the materials-handling equipment (trolleys, forklift trucks and cranes) at our Burghausen plant now have electric motors. Many of our service providers use hydrogen power; we are currently testing that source for our own vehicles.