Bertelsmann publishes its fourth Carbon Footprint - Greenhouse gas emissions reduced
On Monday Nov 30, the UN Climate Change Conference begins in Paris. 195 member states of the UN Framework Convention on Climate will strive for a new agreement with binding climate targets. In the run-up to the conference, it is becoming clear that ever more countries have set increasingly ambitious climate targets – with increasingly specific implications for companies such as tighter regulation, higher energy prices, and taxes on CO2 emissions.
Against this background, Bertelsmann published its fourth carbon footprint and the key environmental indicators of the year 2014. 274 Bertelsmann companies at 165 locations around the world supplied information on their energy and water consumption, and paper and waste volumes for the carbon footprint.
Immanuel Hermreck “Environmental and climate protection is an important element of our corporate responsibility,” says Immanuel Hermreck, Chief Human Resources Officer and Chairman of the Corporate Responsibility Council at Bertelsmann. “Our carbon footprint documents the successes we have achieved together since 2012 in matters of energy efficiency and environmental awareness.”
Improved data quality
Bertelsmann’s “be green” experts, a group composed of representatives from all divisions, coordinated the data collection. Compared to the last carbon footprint, the data quality has significantly improved once again. “This year we are primarily focusing on key indicators such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy and water consumption, paper and waste, and explain special developments in the divisions to readers,” says Mark Fabisch from the Department of Corporate Responsibility & Diversity Management, which coordinates Group-wide environmental issues.
In 2014, Bertelsmann companies emitted a total of 700,200 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2 eq) of greenhouse gases. CO2 eq is the measure by which emissions of various greenhouse gases are weighted according to their climate impact. At Bertelsmann, greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane largely arise from the energy used in printing and distribution operations as well as the group’s data centers. The electricity and heat used at the television, publishing and administrative sites is also not insignificant, accounting for over 18 percent of emissions.
Reduced emissions
The environmental data surveyed very clearly reflects the transformation of Bertelsmann. The 36-percent decrease in emissions in 2014 compared to 2012 is largely due to the sale of energy-intensive printers in the United States, Spain and Italy. But even excluding the sold business units, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by about six percent due to increasing digitization and numerous measures to improve energy efficiency.
