Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 89
Improvements in Environmental Performance
ALTANA controls the Group’s environmental protection performance
with the help of self-defined key performance
indicators that set the company’s energy and resource consumption
in relation to gross value added. ALTANA specifies
upper limits for energy and resources consumption for
each calendar year. The data on CO² emissions, water consumption,
and waste volumes, which have been collected
since 2007, document the Group’s continuous progress.
In the 2018 fiscal year, the ALTANA Group’s energy consumption
amounted to around 708,000 megawatt-hours
after 697,200 megawatt-hours in the previous year. The specialty
chemicals company had already reached its long-term
goal of reducing its specific CO² emissions related to gross
value added from 2007 to 2020 by 30 % to 0.21 kg / €
in the previous year. This aim was achieved through the selection
of electricity providers. Nearly all of our German sites
now obtain around half of their electricity, currently amounting
to 280 g / kWh, from renewable energy sources. In
addition, projects to improve energy efficiency are implemented
at various sites. For example, another solar facility
went into operation, increasing the amount of electricity from
regenerative sources (see next page). As a result, specific
CO² emissions related to finished goods produced were cut
from 0.35 kg / kg in the previous year to 0.34 kg / kg (a reduction
of 3 %).
In 2018, the ALTANA Group reduced the volume of
hazardous waste it produced from 19,300 tons (in the previous
year) to 18,800 tons, although the production volume
increased in the year under review. The key performance
indicator in relation to gross value added also improved,
from 21.24 g / € (in the previous year) to 20.27 g / €. The
amount of non-hazardous waste also decreased in absolute
terms, from around 11,700 to 11,400 tons. The key
performance indicators related to gross value added and
produced finished goods also showed a positive trend (details
can be found in the online document “Facts and Figures
on Sustainability 2018”). The reasons for the improvement
of the waste volume record include optimizations of production
processes and reuse of byproducts.
In terms of water consumption, ALTANA could not
achieve its target in 2018. The company’s drinking water
consumption was above the upper limit set internally for
the year, increasing to around 1,370,000 cubic meters. This
was due among other things to temporary technical disturbances.
In the period under review, ALTANA increased its production
of finished goods to 562,600 tons, needing 545,400
tons of raw material. Of the latter amount, 418,100 tons
were fossil raw materials, 25,500 tons renewable raw materials,
and 101,800 tons non-fossil and non-renewable raw
materials. 47,100 tons of water were also used as raw material.
Detailed information on ALTANA’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 at www.altana.
com/facts_figures_sustainability_2018.
Again in 2018, 81 % of the Group’s manufacturing
sites fulfilled the ISO 14001 standard. In addition, the
energy management systems of ten sites are certified in
accordance
with ISO 50001.
Progress in Climate Protection
Within the framework of the Keep Changing Agenda, numerous
lighthouse projects were identified that can push
forward sustainability at ALTANA. Of the 26 projects submitted,
16 were selected to be implemented with a higher
priority. 14 of the projects selected concern the optimization
of energy efficiency, one project supports waste reduction,