96 Environment
Some ALTANA sites already generate their own energy
from renewable sources. ELANTAS operates its own photovoltaic
systems in Ascoli, Collecchio, and Pimpri, and BYK in
Deventer. ECKART in Güntersthal additionally generates electricity
from a hydroelectric generator, and BYK in Denekamp
uses biogas to generate energy. In total, ALTANA already generates
and uses around 3,000 MWh / year from renewable
energies.
ALTANA switched to purchasing electricity from renewable
sources worldwide back in March 2020. To this end,
the company acquired so-called certificates of origin for electricity
from renewable sources (for about 247,000 MWh)
in accordance with the recognized quality standards (for example
CoO for Europe, IREC for China, and GREEN-E for
the U.S). As a result, CO² emissions were cut by approximately
51 % compared to the previous year. In parallel, ALTANA
is working intensively on further possibilities, such as direct
procurement from sustainable energy generation plants.
In the reporting year, ALTANA launched several global
initiatives with the aim of replacing natural gas as an energy
source in the long term with renewable energies such as biogas,
green electricity, biomass, and in the future also “green”
hydrogen. ALTANA will compensate for the unavoidable use
of natural gas by 2025 by financing equivalent climate protection
projects in the regions where the CO² emissions
occur.
Responsible Usage of the Resource Water
Water plays an important role in many of the ALTANA Group’s
production processes, and so the specialty chemicals
group is making various efforts to use this resource sparingly.
Water is used in the chemical industry as a raw material,
as a cleaning agent, and as a coolant. ALTANA aims to keep
its water consumption as low as possible and to use it as
a cooling medium in closed loop systems.
In the year under review, we were able to significantly
reduce water consumption at several sites. ACTEGA began
operating a new water treatment plant in Vigo. ECKART
optimized the cooling supply in Güntersthal and installed a
new closed-circuit water cooler in Painesville. ELANTAS
implemented a recirculation system for cooling and condensate
water in Zhuhai. In all, these projects saved around
10,000 cubic meters of water.
Environmental performance indicators ALTANA
2017 2018 2019 2020
CO² equivalents specific (Scope 1 + Scope 2) ¹ (kg / kg ) 0.35 ² 0.34 ² 0.35 0.18
Energy consumption (kWh / kg) 1.30 1.26 1.28 1.28
Drinking water (l / kg) 2.32 2.43 2.38 2.19
Hazardous waste (g / kg) 36.26 33.45 34.38 34.06
Hazardous waste for disposal (g / kg) 7.17 6.16 5.72 4.74
Non-hazardous waste (g / kg) 22.00 20.23 18.17 16.37
Non-hazardous waste for disposal (g / kg) 9.60 9.36 7.60 7.03
The key performance indicators are calculated from the absolute values in relation to the quantity of produced finished goods.
¹ Scope 1: direct emissions; Scope 2: indirect emissions
² CO² emissions specific