Protecting the Environment Means Protecting People
We use renewably sourced electricity, continuously reduce our own CO₂ emissions, keep waste to a minimum and recycle. Beyond our production activities, too, we make an environmental statement by switching to electric company cars, for example, because by protecting our environment, we protect our home.
Reducing CO Emissions
Since 2016, we have succeeded in reducing our own CO₂ emissions (Scope 1 + 2) by 55 percent. We compensate for the remaining, currently unavoidable emissions by investing in climate protection projects with internationally recognized Gold Standard certification. Our goal is to continue bringing down our CO₂ emissions. By 2025, we aim to increase the reduction to two thirds against the base year 2016.
In addition to this, we are working to reduce the emissions in our value chain (Scope 3) – by a total of 20 percent by 2030 (base year 2021).
Green Energy
Transitioning to renewable energies is one of the most important tools we have for implementing our climate protection targets. At our three production sites, we use 100 percent green energy of guaranteed origin. At all other Vorwerk sites, we are steadily increasing the amount of green electricity we use. We also require the same from our main suppliers and business associates.
In addition to this, we are investing in installing our own photovoltaic systems at sites around the world. In 2022, we generated electricity totaling some 386,180 kWh with our photovoltaic systems.
Expansion of Electromobility
The future of mobility is electric. That’s why we have revised our company car guidelines, resulting in the Vorwerk fleet of company cars in Germany currently being 60 percent electric (not including field services). We plan to make the convert our company vehicle fleets to electromobility and also to establish alternative and future-proof mobility concepts.
Climate Protection Worldwide
Since July 2022, the Vorwerk Group compensates for our remaining emissions that cannot yet be avoided through Gold Standard-certified climate protection projects. Last year, in one such project, we distributed energy-efficient cookers in Kampala, Uganda. The optimized cookers help to reduce logging and also the amount of harmful smoke. Compared with the traditional open fires, the new metal cookers are 35- to 50-percent less fuel-intensive. So far, more than 500,000 households have been equipped with the efficient stoves.
In Uganda, almost 99 percent of the population is dependent on wood fuels, which are generally not sustainably produced. Logging for procuring or producing fuels is one of the key reasons for the country’s ongoing deforestation.
The second project sponsored by Vorwerk is concerned with the construction and operation of 100 wind turbines each with an output of 2MW in the village of Poovani in Tamil Nadu, India. The turbines have a hub height of 106 meters and a rotor diameter of 114 meters. The wind park at the southernmost tip of India is expected to generate an annual average of well over 600 GWh of clean electricity.
An estimated 240 million people in India have no access to electricity. The country relies above all on coal, of which it consumed 571 billion tons in 2013 alone. The generation of electricity from fossil fuels is one of the main causes of air pollution in the country. The Indian government recently committed to promoting renewables as a new source of energy.