Climate Targets Reached Ahead of Time
ALTANA controls the Group’s environmental protection
performance with the help of self-defined environmental key
figures that set the company’s energy and resource con-
sumption in relation to gross value added and specify upper
limits for consumption for each reporting period. The data
on CO² emissions, water consumption, and waste volumes,
which have been collected since 2007, document the
Group’s continuous progress.
In 2017, the ALTANA Group’s energy consumption
amounted to around 697,200 megawatt-hours after 638,900
megawatt-hours in the previous year. Nevertheless, ALTANA
achieved an important climate goal three years earlier than
planned. The specialty chemicals company reached its
long-term goal of reducing its specific CO² emissions from
2007 to 2020 by 30 % to 0.21 kg / €. The Group achieved
this aim through its selection of electricity providers. Nearly
all of our German sites now obtain around half of their
electricity, amounting to 310 g / KWh, from renewable energy
sources. In addition, projects to improve energy efficiency
were implemented at various sites (see the following pages).
As a result, absolute CO² emissions were reduced by 7 %
to 187,500 tons.
In 2017, the ALTANA Group further improved its record
regarding the volume of hazardous waste it produced in re-
lation to gross value added. At 19,300 tons, the amount of
hazardous waste was not only below the targeted upper
limit, but also slightly under the previous year’s level (around
19,400 tons). The amount of non-hazardous waste rose
from 8,700 to 11,700 tons, thus exceeding the target value
for 2017. The triggers are process changes and warehous-
ing measures, such as the disposal of products and raw ma-
terials that have passed their sell-by date.
ALTANA’s water consumption record was also positive
in 2017. The drinking-water consumption was below the
upper limit set for the year, decreasing by 3 % to 1,239,600
cubic meters.
In the period under review, ALTANA increased its produc-
tion of finished goods to 534,800 tons, needing 601,800
tons of raw material. Of the latter amount, 441,700 tons were
fossil raw materials, 23,500 tons renewable raw materials,
and 136,600 tons non-fossil and non-renewable raw mate-
rials. 48,100 tons of water were also used as raw material.
Detailed information on the Group’s resource and energy
consumption (differentiated based on electricity, natural
gas, and oil) and on ALTANA’s environmental key performance
indicators can be found in the document “Sustainability
Key Performance Indicators and Management Approaches”
on our website www.altana.com/sustainability_perfor-
mance_indicators_2017.
In 2017, 81 % of the Group’s 48 manufacturing sites
fulfilled the ISO 14001 standard. New sites are not yet certi-
fied in accordance with ISO 14001 and have three years
to become certified. But these sites are already included in
the total number of 48 manufacturing sites.
And ten sites have energy management systems that
have been certified in accordance with ISO 50001.
Significant Progress in Climate Protection
The optimization of manufacturing plants has made an
important contribution to the ALTANA Group’s good climate-
protection development. This progress will enable us to
further reduce our energy consumption – and thus CO² emis-
sions – in the coming years. For example, ACTEGA pre-
pared a comprehensive package of measures to improve en-
ergy usage at its Bremen site.
At the center is the control of the cooling tower with
its eight pumps, which supply the various product lines for
thermoplastic elastomers, as well as the laboratory, with
86 Environment