We accept responsibility 2023
Sustainability is a central element in our purpose "Leading Beyond Chemistry". Evonik is the one providing innovative solutions that help to make our lives more sustainable, more healthy, and more comfortable.
As a specialty chemicals company with a presence throughout the world, Evonik sees sustainability and long-term business success as two sides of the same coin. That is reflected in the rising demand from our customers for products and services that demonstrate a good balance of economic, ecological and social factors. Sustainability has long since developed into a growth driver for Evonik.
With our innovative strength and leading technology positions, we offer our customers numerous solutions that demonstrably contribute to improved resource efficiency in applications. Examples include amino acids for animal nutrition, additives for hydraulic oils, silica/silane system for green tire technology, and fumed metal oxides for lithium-ion batteries. We already generate 43 percent of our sales with products and solutions that have a distinctly positive sustainability profile. We aim to increase the share of sales from these Next Generation Solutions to over 50 percent by 2030.
To reduce Evonik's carbon footprint still further, we are continuously optimizing our processes along the entire value chain. We use alternative raw materials and biotechnological methods wherever this is possible and makes sense.
Sound sustainability management does not begin with our own products and production processes. Our purchasing volume has a significant impact on society and the environment. As a founding member of the industry initiative “Together for Sustainability”, we are driving forward transparency and sustainability along the supply chain.
Sustainable management and responsible action are among the cornerstones of Evonik's business model and are essential for the company's future viability. We drive our sustainability activities along the value chain in close dialog with our stakeholders: In addition to our own production processes and the products we market, we always consider our supply chain and the product benefits for our customers and their customers. We are seeing growing demand for products that strike a balance between economic, ecological and social factors. This opens up a diverse range of promising business opportunities for Evonik.
Against this background, we are systematically implementing our sustainability strategy. Key elements are the integration of sustainability into strategic management processes, a carbon price for all investments, ambitious targets for reducing CO2 emissions, and the introduction of a water policy.
In the year under review, SBTi successfully validated the climate targets submitted by Evonik. In doing so, SBTi confirmed that the level of ambition of the Scope 1 and Scope 2 targets is suitable for helping to reduce global warming to well below 2°C. Our overarching Scope 1 and
The Scope 2 target envisages a 25 percent reduction in the corresponding emissions between 2021 and 2030.
In addition, Evonik has committed itself to reducing all other Scope 3 emissions from all upstream categories and the downstream category "Transportation and Distribution" by 11.07 percent over the same period.
We are committed to comply with and implement numerous internationally recognized standards, initiatives and programs. We augmented them with own guidelines and principles of conduct.
In order to harmonize with its existing environmental targets, Evonik has adjusted its previous energy target and is now focusing on the implementation of energy efficiency measures.
The goal is to achieve total savings of 1,200 GWh of energy from implemented energy efficiency projects by 2030 (reference year 2021).
Evonik continues to strive for significant energy savings as part of the energy management system (EnMS) in accordance with the international ISO 50001 standard.
The following tables provide an overview of Evonik's most important company-specific key figures. They are structured along our six fields of action. The fifteen key topics of Evonik are highlighted in color.
Dialogue with our stakeholders is a central part of our sustainability management. By exchanging views with our stakeholders, we understand their perceptions better and utilize this to challenge our own positions and actions.
At Evonik, the Executive Board has overall responsibility for sustainability and all climate-related aspects. The responsible member of the Board of Management is the Chief Human Resources Officer. The most important bodies for sustainability in the Group are the Sustainability Circle and the Sustainability Council. The Sustainability Circle brings together the functions and departments relevant to sustainability. The Sustainability Council ensures close cooperation with the businesses. The member of the Executive Board responsible for sustainability is chairman of both committees. The Sustainability Council is co-chaired by the member of the Executive Board responsible for chemistry and innovation. We have defined responsibilities and responsibilities for sustainability management in a Group policy.
In view of the increasing relevance of sustainability in the management of the company, we integrated further sustainability aspects into our governance framework in the year under review. The Finance and Investment Committee of the Supervisory Board will also deal with sustainability in the future and has therefore been renamed the Investment and Sustainability Committee.
Our sustainability strategy takes up the growth markets identified in our corporate strategy and defines areas of action geared to balanced management of economic, ecological and social factors. Sustainability has developed into a growth driver for many of our business activities.
We have set ourselves ambitious sustainability goals. Below you will find an overview of the top 10 goals we focused on during the financial year.
Evonik set itself a new waste target in the year under review: In the period 2021 to 2030, the specific volume of production waste is to fall by 10 percent in relation to production volume.
We save water wherever possible and endeavor to achieve a further reduction in our emissions. In the reporting period, Evonik adopted a water policy and published it on its website. Our aim is to reduce specific freshwater intake by 3 percent relative to production volume between 2021 and 2030.