Explanation of Environmental Indicators

In 2018, direct of carbon dioxide (Scope 1 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol) declined by 3.6 percent year over year, mainly due to lower steam consumption at our Burghausen and Nünchritz sites. As a result, groupwide nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions fell by 2.9 percent.

Maintenance and project work at the Holla site’s baghouse caused total dust emissions to rise by 2.4 percent year over year in 2018. We still reduced our specific dust by 48 percent, already nearly achieving our target of halving them from 2012 to 2020.

The very warm summer of 2018 meant we had to increase the throughput of cooling water to keep process temperatures in our Burghausen production plants at the required levels. That led to a 15-percent increase in water consumption. By optimizing waste water treatment at Burghausen, we achieved a reduction of around 6 percent in chemical oxygen demand (COD) and of 14 percent in halogenated organic hydrocarbons (AOX).

The groupwide 13-percent increase in waste resulted from higher volumes of nonhazardous waste due to, for example, construction activities at Burghausen and the León, Spain site’s inclusion in the report.

Higher output at Burghausen and Nünchritz entailed the procurement of additional third-party electricity, thus raising CO2 emissions. This was more than offset by reduced energy consumption at the Charleston site. The electricity to CO2 emissions conversion factors for power generation in Germany and the USA fell further (data as per CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion, 2018 Edition, International Energy Agency). Overall, these effects reduced indirect CO2 emissions from procured energy (Scope 2) by 8 percent.

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Environmental Indicators

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20183

 

2017

 

2016

1

CO2 emissions are measured on the basis of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol: “A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard”), published by the World Resources Institute and World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Scope 1: direct CO2 emissions. Scope 2: indirect emissions from purchased energy (converted into CO2 for purchased electricity, steam and heat). Conversion is based on emission factors of the International Energy Agency (electricity) and from the GEMIS database (steam and heat).

2

The amount of electricity supplied by the affiliate Alzwerke GmbH is included in indirect CO2 emissions in a climate-neutral manner – because it is not fed into the public grid.

3

The Amsterdam and León production sites were included in the reporting of environmental indicators in 2018 for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Air

 

 

 

 

 

 

CO2 emissions1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct (kt)

 

1,194

 

1,239

 

1,277

Indirect (kt)2

 

1,478

 

1,606

 

1,588

NOX nitrogen oxides (t)

 

1,810

 

1,860

 

1,970

Non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) (t)

 

860

 

880

 

890

Dust (t)

 

284

 

278

 

515

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Water

 

 

 

 

 

 

Water use (thousand m3)

 

227,510

 

197,430

 

207,930

Chemical oxygen demand (COD) (t)

 

1,230

 

1,310

 

1,210

Halogenated organic hydrocarbons (AOX) (t)

 

2.2

 

2.6

 

3.1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waste

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disposed of (t)

 

49,690

 

41,400

 

38,640

Recycled (t)

 

133,060

 

120,420

 

114,080

Hazardous (t)

 

77,070

 

75,800

 

73,660

Non-hazardous (t)

 

105,680

 

86,020

 

79,060

Measuring the Group’s carbon footprint is an important tool for improving climate protection. That is why – in addition to tracking our indirect greenhouse gas emissions from procured energy (Scope 2) since 2011 – we have been measuring, since 2012, all WACKER-relevant emissions along the value chain (Scope 3), generated, for example, by procured raw materials or by waste disposal and the transport of products.

In 2018, we once again forwarded our emissions data to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which WACKER joined in 2007. In the CDP’s Climate Change Report for the chemical sector, Wacker Chemie AG achieved a B (Management) on a scale from A (Leadership) to D (Disclosure). Registered CDP users can download the details.

Emission
Substance outputs, noise, vibrations, light, heat or radiation emitted into the environment by an industrial plant.
Emission
Substance outputs, noise, vibrations, light, heat or radiation emitted into the environment by an industrial plant.

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