Vitesco Technologies has set itself an ambitious climate protection target: By 2040 at the latest, the company, headquartered in Regensburg with around 50 locations worldwide, wants to achieve carbon neutrality along its entire value chain. Vitesco Technologies is thus going well beyond its direct environmental impact (scopes 1 and 2), which the company seeks to make completely climate-neutral by 2030. This objective is to apply to all business processes along the entire value chain (scope 3) by 2040 at the latest – specifically, all supplier products and subsequent use of Vitesco Technologies components and systems in vehicles.
“We’re already on the right track in this regard,” explains Ingo Holstein, CHRO responsible for sustainability at Executive Board level. “By 2030, we will be shaping our own corporate activities worldwide in a CO2-neutral way.” Vitesco Technologies already sources 100 percent of its purchased electricity worldwide from renewable energy sources.
As a result, the company has already reduced emissions from its own processes by 89 percent compared to the base year 2019. “For the remaining energy still procured from fossil-fuel resources, we will create ecologically viable alternatives in the near future, such as heat from biogas, and systematic electrification.”
Besides covering its electricity needs exclusively from renewable energy sources, Vitesco Technologies is also working on reducing its overall energy consumption. “We want to save a total of 80 GWh of energy by 2030 with the help of energy efficiency programs at our locations,” explains Dr. Hans-Jürgen Braun, head of Operations at Vitesco Technologies.
In order to achieve complete climate neutrality, Vitesco Technologies has covered not only product added value, but also activities that are not product-related, such as business travel, investment, and leasing. Added to this are the CO2 emissions from the upstream supply chain and subsequent use of its products in the vehicle. These two phases each make up more than 40 percent of the company’s total emissions. The company is therefore working closely with its suppliers, business partners and customers, who support transparency in reducing their environmental impact. Vitesco Technologies benefits greatly from its expertise in life cycle engineering to improve the life cycle assessment of individual products, which is expected to be rolled out shortly to all processes within the company.
Vitesco Technologies is set to publish its first comprehensive sustainability report in spring.
