Actions

Own operations

Compliance with all legislation at national and local level in relation to water use constitutes the basis for all actions to keep our impacts through water withdrawal, water consumption and water backflow as low as possible. Furthermore, environmental protection is regulated throughout the Group by WACKER standards containing specific requirements relating to water withdrawal and water backflow for all production sites and technical competence centers.

Each site has an obligation to organize environmental protection locally to ensure compliance with environmental regulations, the safe operation of plants and to carry out environmental monitoring. A standardized environmental management system enables us to record our corresponding water volumes at all our sites and to ensure that legal conditions, volume limits and WACKER’s environmental standards are complied with.

As part of an ABC analysis that every site must carry out once a year, we analyze and assess material environmental aspects including relevant site-specific water volumes and types. Site-specific targets are established if necessary.

We have introduced a water stewardship system (known as WACKER Water Stewardship) at all our production sites to take account of local conditions and requirements in the respective areas. This enables us to identify site-specific impacts and risks relating to water use in good time and to define any actions necessary.

We use the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) Water Risk Filter to analyze our groupwide water risks every year. In 2024, our production sites in drainage basins scored a maximum 3.3 (Global Basin Risk) on a scale of 1 (no risks) to 5 (high risks). The indicators cover physical, regulatory and reputational risks. Our analyses of water use take these classifications into account. For sites in water risk areas, including areas with high water stress, we did not identify any substantial risks. As a result, no additional measures are required.

We are always striving to close our water circuits and to reduce water withdrawal and water consumption. As a rule, we endeavor to minimize our water use and also to reuse and retreat water several times.

For this reason, we have established actions to:

• Optimize efficiency of water consumption
• Improve energy efficiency across all process chains to cut the thermal loads to be conveyed into the cooling water
• Identify relevant bodies of wastewater and reduce mass loading by modifying processes or through suitable pretreatment
• Assess the impacts of climate change and regulatory requirements on bodies of water used and prepare any adjustments necessary

All production sites are required to identify potential for savings and implement them if necessary. At our largest production site in Burghausen, we implemented systematic water monitoring in the year under review to explicitly record specific consumption volumes and the effectiveness of any relevant water-conservation actions. WACKER will then build on this over the next few years to establish further measures.

Our site in Tsukuba, Japan, saw us launch a project for efficient water use in the year under review, which involves any wastewater produced being reused for cooling purposes, helping to cut the amount of fresh water required by around half.

Specific training about environmental protection for production employees is also an important action to guarantee plant operation that ensures legal certainty.

Upstream value chain

We address the upstream value chain in our environmental provisions governing water use; we have anchored these provisions in our general terms and conditions and in our Supplier Code of Conduct. Further details can be found under ESRS 2 – General Disclosures.