One climate story follows another: typhoons in Asia, floods in the Sahara, hurricanes in the United States, and heavy rains in Germany. But other issues dominate the media: wars, elections, economic difficulties. As is so often the case, our planet takes a back seat.
Emissions
Emissions from the manufacturing and logistics of our products increased as expected in the third quarter, accounting for almost 98% of our total emissions of just under 114 tonnes of CO2e. Compared to the second quarter, total emissions increased by more than 224% due to higher order volumes and increased delivery capacity. Compared to the third quarter of 2008, emissions have only decreased by 37%. It is not yet possible to calculate emissions accurately as we do not have the internal resources to do so. However, we are committed to keeping the figures up to date.
All emissions are reported according to the scope concept of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. The proportion of indirect emissions from purchased energy (Scope 2) and direct emissions (Scope 1) has increased by 29% due to the increase in the number of employees and accounts for 2% in Q3.
Compensation
Unfortunately, computers cannot be manufactured in a carbon neutral manner. Part of our corporate philosophy is to offset the emissions that cannot be avoided at this time in order to be carbon neutral, at least on our balance sheet. To offset our emissions, we invest money in sustainable projects. Offsetting makes our products carbon neutral. You can find out who receives these funds and how they are used in our quarterly climate report. We make sure the projects are certified by the Gold Standard Foundation. This organization certifies sustainability projects and is one of the best certifiers in the industry; similarly vetted projects can only be found in projects certified directly by the UN. However, financial participation is not so easy there.
In the third quarter, we selected a renewable wind power project from the developer Wind World (India) Ltd. The 29 MW wind farm is located in Rajasthan, India. The project consists of 37 wind turbines with a capacity of 0.8 MW each, for a total installed capacity of 29.6 MW. The electricity generated will be fed into the Indian grid and improve the power supply in Rajasthan.
This wind power project serves as a catalyst for sustainable development in the region by promoting development. The project has not only improved infrastructure and created jobs, but has also increased local energy security. Wind energy is a sustainable resource and its use helps conserve finite resources for future generations. The project contributes to a cleaner environment with minimal negative environmental impact.
Progress
Moving the company’s infrastructure to new, more modern servers not only doubled its computing power, but also cut its actual power consumption by about half. Since all of the electricity for the servers comes from a hydroelectric plant anyway, and the actual emissions are not as high, that electricity is now available for other uses.
One of our partner factories was so enthusiastic about our idea to optimize packaging and plastics that it has made it the standard for all projects, even with other customers of the factory. The factory no longer uses foam to hold the product in the packaging, and the usual plastic film used to wrap the products is now made from compostable corn starch.
Setbacks
We are also pleased to report that there were no new sustainability setbacks in the third quarter. By consolidating some shipments, we were also able to slightly reduce the rate of transport damage from Asia to Europe.
Outlook
The fourth quarter is off to a strong start. We expect greenhouse gas emissions to remain roughly the same as in the third quarter.
Please continue to join us on our journey to do even more for the environment.
You can join us. Equip your employees with durable and robust devices from WEROCK. This will provide you with climate-neutral, modern technology that will increase the efficiency of your company. At the same time, we can use our profits to do even more for climate protection. We look forward to hearing from you!
