Actions and Resources
Individual concrete actions can be found in the topic-specific sections E2 (Pollution), E3 (Water and Marine Resources) and E5 (Resource Use and Circular Economy).
Own operations
Environment-related actions are often implemented in ongoing production processes. Information on operating expenses (OpEx), capital expenditures (CapEx) and timeframes is provided if any major individual actions (action plans) are involved.
To be able to operate sites and facilities safely, continuously reduce emissions, and dispose of waste/waste gas, the following operating expenses and capital expenditures listed were made specifically for environmental protection in the year under review:
|
|
2024 |
|
2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating expenses in € million |
|
108.3 |
|
98.2 |
Capital expenditures in € million |
|
26.4 |
|
24.0 |
Areas covered by capital expenditures and operating expenses for environmental protection include water-pollution control, waste management, emissions control, climate change mitigation, noise reduction, soil remediation and preservation of the natural landscape.
A significant amount of our capital expenditures on environmental protection was allocated to our central disposal facilities with the aim of reducing water and air emissions through improved plant engineering in the long term and of ensuring the availability of our disposal facilities.
Key projects in the year under review were expansions of wastewater treatment facilities at our sites in Burghausen, Zhangjiagang and León.
Upstream value chain
With production sites in Europe, the Americas and Asia, WACKER procures goods and services from numerous countries. As a member of the United Nations Global Compact and the chemical industry’s Responsible Care® initiative, we have long required that our suppliers comply with generally accepted sustainability principles. This involves topics such as environmental protection, conscious handling of local resources such as water and energy, and safety standards. These principles are anchored in our general terms and conditions and our Supplier Code of Conduct. Furthermore, we ask all new suppliers whether they use a management system that meets the requirements of ISO 9001 (quality) and ISO 14001 (environmental protection) or those of certifications that exceed these standards, such as GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice).
As part of the Together for Sustainability (TfS) initiative, WACKER assesses its direct suppliers in audits and assessments on the basis of uniform and transparent standards (see ESRS S2 for details). During the reporting year, WACKER was actively involved in implementing a common TfS standard for calculating product carbon footprints and specifically collected product carbon data from our suppliers in line with this standard.
Downstream value chain
As part of our environmental management system, WACKER provides regular and transparent information to its stakeholders, such as customers and investors, on its progress.
To this end, during the year under review, we once again forwarded our emissions data to CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), which WACKER joined in 2007. Registered CDP users can download the details.
In CDP’s Climate Change Report for the chemical sector, WACKER achieved a score of A in 2024 (previous year: A, on a scale from A to D, representing the levels Leadership (A), Management (B), Awareness (C) and Disclosure (D)).
We have been disclosing our water data as part of the CDP since 2018. As in the previous year, we scored an A- in CDP’s Water Security Report.
We took part in CDP Forest for the first time in 2023, and once again achieved a score of C in the reporting year.
