Siemens Cuts C02 Output by 20%, Expects Large Cost Savings

German engineering company Siemens lowered emissions of carbon dioxide at its facilities worldwide from 2.2 million tons in FY2014 to 1.7 million tons in FY2016 – a 20% reduction – as part of an effort to move the company’s sites to carbon neutral status by 2030, the Munich-based global firm announced Thursday.

“Decarbonization is absolutely essential in order to halt climate change and its dramatic consequences,” said Roland Busch, a member of Siemens’ managing board who is in charge of sustainability, in a statement. “The Paris Agreement on climate change has gone into effect, and the commitments now have to be fulfilled by taking concrete action. The global economy must consistently drive this process and demonstrably reduce CO2 emissions in all sectors.”

The reduction of 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide were accomplished at Siemens sites in Germany during the period. Using its carbon reduction solutions, Siemens helped its customers to reduce its CO2 output by 521 tons in FY2016, an amount, the engineering company said, “equivalent to more than 60% of Germany’s annual carbon dioxide emissions.”

Siemens launched an effort in September 2015 to half its carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 and to achieve carbon neutral status by 2030. The engineering company said it is focusing on four areas to achieve its carbon neutral goal: Using its Energy Efficiency Program (EEP) to verify energy consumption reductions at Siemens’ sites, ramping up use of distributed energy systems (DES) to optimize costs, deploying low-emission vehicles and e-mobility solutions in its car fleet globally, and working to acquire its energy from sources that do not significantly contribute to CO2 emissions like wind power or hydroelectric sources.

“Investments in environmentally friendly technologies pay off because they are usually amortized within a few years. Siemens, for instance, expects that an investment of €100 million in improving the energy efficiency of its own buildings and production facilities will lower energy costs by about €20 million a year beginning in 2020,” a Siemens press release said.

In FY2016, Siemens said its environmental portfolio brought in revenue of €36 billion, or 46% of the company’s total revenue.

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