Environment
As stated by the United Nations, climate change is a emergency that goes beyond national borders. It is an issue that requires international cooperation and coordinated solutions at all levels.
Our overarching goal is to reach net-zero green house gas emissions across the value chain by 2050 from a 2020 base year. We will achieve this through managing our energy efficiency in production and further measures.
Emissions explained
A big majority of our emissions are generated upstream or downstream in the value chain. Monitoring and taking steps to reduce these scope 3 emissions is therefore vital for making progress on our climate-related goals. To develop a comprehensive inventory of our scope 3 emissions, we have followed guidance developed by the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, which categorizes greenhouse gases under the following:
Scope 1
Emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the organization, e.g., through the combustion of fuels needed for production processes.
Scope 2
Emissions from the generation of acquired and consumed electricity, heat, steam or cooling (consumed by the organization, but generated elsewhere).
Scope 3
Emissions that occur as a consequence of the operations of the organization but are not directly owned or controlled by the organization.
Production by the numbers
In 2022, we reduced our scope 1 and 2 emissions by 23 percent from 2021 relative to net sales. The most significant proportion of our scope 1 and 2 emissions (67 percent) comes from our electricity consumption and district heating, while fuels and combustibles account for 33 percent. CO₂ emissions from fuels and combustibles fell by 18 percent in absolute terms, to 9,624 tons in 2022. CO₂ emissions from electricity and district heating fell by 26 percent, to 19,361 tons. Our goal for 2023 is to achieve a further 5 percent reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions relative to net sales.
CO₂ emissions
Emissions across our value chain
In 2021, we began mapping our scope 3 inventory across our entire product value chain, together with other scope 3 emissions from employee commuting and business travel, and we have calculated baseline data for these emission sources. These include materials and supply, products’ resource efficiency, measuring CO₂ emissions across product usage, and end of lifecycles for products. With the major share of our CO₂ emissions being generated outside of production, there is a vast opportunity to reduce our total emissions by focusing on our complete value chain.
Progress tracking
One of our goals is to continuously improve measurements of the CO₂ emissions linked to our production, to the use of products we sell, to the goods and services we purchase, as well as transportation and distribution necessary to make it all happen. This data is key to determine and monitor emission reduction activities both upstream and downstream in our supply chain, ensuring our emissions reduction roadmaps are up-to-date and in line with our targets.
Water and wastewater
Franke mainly uses drinking water from the public mains system and groundwater for production. The water consumption of our production sites does not represent a significant burden for water sources as defined in the GRI guidelines, although there are challenges due to a lack of water meters to help us measure our water use across all facilities.
In 2022, there were no unplanned wastewater discharges at Franke. During the planned discharges, 335,954 m3 of wastewater was released, 20 percent less than the previous year, and 19 percent less relative to net sales. We have no current targets in place for our water consumption and discharge levels, but we are looking to set targets for these in the future.
Contact the Sustainability Team
Do you have questions or suggestions for sustainable solutions? Just send us an e-mail.