We are reducing our own footprint by running efficient operations all around the world.
Electrolux will continue to reduce its environmental footprint by shifting to renewables, and optimizing the use of energy and other resources throughout its operations.
Our efficiency promise applies to everything we do. We aim to run resource-efficient operations as an integral part of our work by applying industry-leading practices. This reflects our values and what we stand for as a company – being part of the solution is important for both our employees and consumers.
We have been reducing energy, water and waste throughout our operations for many years through the Green Spirit program – which benefits the environment and crucially reduces our carbon footprint, and makes financial savings.
Operational resource management – including energy, water and waste – is coordinated globally with a common process and strategy wherever in the world we operate. Best practice is shared among manufacturing sites through our Green Spirit program.
Action plans include energy management, technological investments and employee awareness raising and behavioral change. Every facility reports energy and water consumption data on a monthly basis, and this data is aggregated on a regional and global level against monthly performance indicators. We have both relative and absolute targets for energy consumption.
All Electrolux sites are evaluated and certified annually according to the Green Spirit program criteria, which include energy performance, management, engagement and implemented actions. The program criteria are reviewed on an annual basis.
In addition, our renewable energy target is tracked on an annual basis and reviewed on a Group level. We are raising our level of ambition with renewable energy sources, such as hydro, solar, wind and biomass. We also learn from existing onsite renewable installations and explore new projects around the world.
Our Zero Landfill program has the objective to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill or incinerated without energy recovery. To achieve this, we work to reduce the waste we generate, and identify opportunities for reusing waste materials.
Following a decade of prioritized investments with good payback periods, it is becoming increasingly challenging to realize new savings with acceptable payback periods
Electrolux will continue to reduce its environmental footprint by shifting to renewables, and optimizing the use of energy and other resources throughout its operations.
| The roadmap to 2020 | Next steps |
|---|---|
| Improve the energy efficiency of manufacturing sites and warehouses by 20% by 2020 (baseline 2015), engaging all facilities worldwide. |
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| Reduce water consumption in manufacturing by 5% every year in areas of water stress, until the site has reached optimal levels of efficiency |
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| Attain energy management certification for our operations around the world. |
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| Increase our proportion of renewable energy |
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| Implement a Zero Landfill program at all manufacturing sites by 2020. (On track) |
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On track
Additional effort is required
Off track
Work has not yet begun
Efficiency improvements in recent years, together with a shift to renewable electricity, has reduced energy consumed at our manufacturing sites per product by around 40% and absolute CO2 emissions by 59% compared with 2005, which equates to an annual financial saving of over SEK 450m. Over this period, the Group’s revenue has increased, which illustrates that Electrolux has decoupled revenue growth from CO2 emissions.
Following the successful implementation of hundreds of energy efficiency projects around the world in recent years, new projects have increasingly longer payback periods. In addition, as the amount of energy used to produce a product also decreases, other factors we cannot influence, such as extreme outdoor temperatures and the production volume mix increasingly affects our energy performance.
In 2017, our progress with energy efficiency was relatively flat – mainly due to external factors such as weather and changes in production mix compared with 2016. During the year, we continued to focus on improving our climate footprint, and we reduced our CO2 emissions per unit by more than 15% compared with 2016.
Electrolux has again been identified as a global leader in responding to climate change by CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project). The CDP Climate A list includes an exclusive group of companies, with only 5% of corporate global leaders making the list in 2017.
This year, we have focused on investments to further improve our energy and climate footprint. For example, we have started a project to install almost 2,800 solar panels at our Juarez factory in Mexico, which are estimated to annually generate around 1,500 MWh of electricity and avoid over 700 tCO2e. We also formulated an investment strategy for energy efficient equipment and optimization of our IT solutions.
We made good progress on water efficiency during the year as we renewed our focus – particularly on factories in water scarce regions. The water targets are based on the WWF tool, the Water Risk Filter, which helps us to identify which of our factories are located in water scarce areas. Decisions around our water targets are based on the tool, and the factories are divided into two groups – Water Risk and Water Management factories.
In 2017, we responded to the CDP Water program for the first time and were rated A-.
The ISO 50001 energy management system has been implemented at 8 (3) Electrolux sites to date, and several more are in the process of certification. These include sites in Thailand, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Romania and Poland.
In 2017, 17 Electrolux manufacturing sites and offices in Europe and North America procured 100% of their electricity from renewable sources, which contributed toward our 50% renewable energy target by 2020. By end of 2017, 22% of the energy purchased origins from renewable energy sources. The shift to renewable electricity has contributed toward a reduction in our CO2 emissions per unit by 35% since 2015, together with energy efficiency.
The Zero Landfill program has developed and was further expanded in 2017. Five factories were chosen to pilot the Zero Landfill program in 2017 – Siewierz (Poland), Solaro (Italy), Kinston (US), Sao Carlos (Brazil) and Adelaide (Australia). The program focuses on the re-use of materials and waste reduction by identifying waste generation points and opportunities for material re-use.
The Group's total energy consumption, CO2 emissions and water consumption. Energy per standard unit from factories producing Major Appliances.
Fugitive emissions included. These are derived from use of HFC gases for cooling in facilities, refrigerants in products and as foaming gases.