Environmental Performance Assessment

Wacker Chemie AG - Sustainability Report 2015/16

WACKER has a system in place to assess its sites’ environmental performance. This system is used to convert a site’s total emissions and consumption of resources and energy into environmental units, which also include the use of water and amount of waste generated.

The environmental performance assessment incorporates both absolute quantities and weighting factors, which take account of four criteria:

  • Environmental impact
  • Safety of treatment/disposal
  • Requirements imposed by environmental legislation and corporate policy
  • Public acceptance

Energy consumption – electricity and heat consumption included in the environmental units – is very important to WACKER due to public awareness of the significance of greenhouse gases and international climate-protection agreements. Emissions of (CO2) and other greenhouse gases are largely energy-related at WACKER. The number of environmental units increased by 2.5 percent between 2014 and 2016. In terms of production volumes, we improved by 6.5 percent relative to 2014. At the Burghausen site, we have lowered the specific environmental units (which are measured against production volumes) by 41 percent since 2008.

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Environmental Units for Chemical Production Sites

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

 

  

2016

  

2015

  

2014

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

1

Waste that was generated as a result of construction or investment activities (such as rubble, scrap steel and paper) rather than specifically due to production was recorded at the Burghausen site during the 2015 reporting year. The amounts of waste and the EPAS calculations (Environmental Performance Assessment) were corrected retroactively, resulting in altered figures for 2014.

 

  

 

  

 

Environmental units1

  

141,269

  

135,321

  

137,816

Gross production volume in 1,000 metric tons

  

16,522

  

16,236

  

14,972

Environmental units per 1,000 metric tons of gross production1

  

8.6

  

8.3

  

9.2

 

  

 

  

 

Accounting for environmental performance indicators has included consolidated reporting on the new pharmaceutical site in Halle, Germany, since 2015. The Charleston site, USA, which officially came on stream in 2016, reported environmental performance indicators for 2015 from the commissioning phase and the first figures from production for 2016. Wacker Systems (Wuxi) Co. Ltd, China, was closed down in May 2015.

Carbon Dioxide
Chemical name: CO2. This gas naturally constitutes 0.04% of air. Carbon dioxide is generated during the combustion of coal, natural gas and other organic substances. As a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, it contributes to global warming. Since the start of industrialization in 1850, its concentration in air has risen from approx. 300 to 390 ppm (parts per million). This value is increasing by around 2 ppm every year. Other greenhouse gases are represented as CO2 equivalents (CO2e) based on their greenhouse effect.
Polymer
A polymer is a large molecule made up of smaller molecular units (monomers). It contains between 10,000 and 100,000 monomers. Polymers can be long or ball-shaped.