Environment

Management approach
A major lever for reducing our ecological footprint lies in our products and solutions. We therefore strive to develop machinery and systems that enable our customers to improve their environmental impact without having to compromise on customer benefits. Ecological considerations relating to our products are an integral part of the research and development phase and take account of the entire life cycle of the products, from their manufacture to their daily use and right through to their disposal.

Precautionary actions and measures
Protection of the environment and natural resources is embedded in our Code of Conduct and in the Human Rights Statement. Our Group-wide Environmental Policy is the basis for our environmental management activities and specifies our shared values, principles and standards in this area. We are a signatory of the UN Global Compact and fully endorse the environmental principles enacted therein. We support efforts to mitigate climate change through our measures to reduce CO2 emissions. We continuously develop and optimise our offering in line with our customers’ needs and prevailing regulatory requirements. We strive to make our products and solutions more efficient and precise through electrification or efficiency gains in order to reduce our consumption of energy and resources and through electronic control systems for fertilisers, crop protection products and road salt. These efforts are helping to reduce CO2 emissions and the use of natural resources and chemicals.

Information on the financial year 2023
The divisions again developed new products and solutions that will enable their customers to reduce their environmental impact without compromising on user-friendliness, functionality and cost-effectiveness. These can be summarised in the following four strategic initiatives: solutions for conservation and precision farming, electrified mobile equipment, electrohydraulic components and systems, and automation and artificial intelligence in glass container manufacturing.

Management approach
We have set ourselves the goal of reducing the CO₂ emissions generated by our own activities in proportion to value creation.

Precautionary actions and measures
We are taking action at various levels: by optimising buildings, by making efficiency gains in production, and by generating energy from renewable sources.

Information on the financial year 2023
In the year 2023, we planned, developed and in some cases also implemented a wide variety of measures to reduce CO₂ intensity in relation to Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. These were complemented by measures from the previous year, which took full effect in the reporting period. One reason for the reduced energy consumption noted in the reporting period was the switch to more energy-efficient production equipment. The volume of self-generated solar power was more than doubled compared with 2022 and this was due to new or expanded photovoltaic installations at locations in China and the USA. The installed solar capacity totalled 5’708 kWp. The rise in services resulted in higher mileages and therefore also higher fuel consumption.

There was a decrease of nine percent in CO₂ emissions by nine percent during the reporting period. This was mainly due to reduced emissions associated with electricity consumption, achieved through the shift to renewable energy and the increase in self-generated solar power. Overall, the reduction in CO₂ intensity, measured as CO₂ emissions in proportion to value creation, was equivalent to between 10% and 20% of the emissions seen in the 2021 base year.

In 2023, there was one case of non-compliance with environmental laws and regulations at the production sites and the damage was repaired immediately.