Tackling the emissions that we create as a company is a challenge for any manufacturer, but one that we’re determined to face. The first step, of course, is a sustainability strategy. The second step is measurement. You can’t plan a journey unless you know your starting point, so we have just carried out our first emissions measurement, and we’d like to share the results with you.
How many greenhouse gases did we emit in 2022?
To help us calculate this important sustainability data, we referred to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the world’s most widely used greenhouse gas accounting standard. It classifies emissions into three scopes:
- Scope 1: Emissions from sources that we own or control directly (e.g. air conditioning units and manufacturing processes)
- Scope 2: Emissions from the energy that we buy from utility providers (e.g. the electricity we consume to power our machines or run our EVs)
- Scope 3: Emissions from all other sources not in scope 1 or 2 (e.g. when we buy, use and dispose of products from suppliers)
The emissions we’ve measured fall under Scope 1 and 2, which is where most companies start their reporting. Scope 3 is incredibly difficult to calculate and monitor, so we’ll come to that later. Here are the results:
VRR’s greenhouse gas emissions for 2022
Greenhouse gas emissions are reported as metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). This covers not only carbon dioxide (CO2) but other gases that drive global warming, such as methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Basically, the amounts of other gases are converted into the equivalent amount of CO2.
The chart above shows our CO2e for 2022. You can see, for example, that we emitted 115 tons of carbon dioxide equivalents using diesel to run our manufacturing processes and more than 39 tons to heat our offices and production areas. We did not include in these measurements the carbon emissions we offset by planting trees through the Trees for All foundation.
Counting CO2e is an important first step in reducing our carbon emissions. We now know our starting point. Our aim is to reduce our emissions by next year for each of the five areas measured (electricity, natural gas, petrol, diesel and EVs), and we’ll be setting clear goals in the next few weeks.
Interested in our sustainability goals?
Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up to date with our efforts to incorporate sustainability into all that we do at VRR. This time next year we’ll be reporting back on our 2023 goals, and you’ll discover whether or not we achieved them.
