Preface

Our highlight in respect to sustainability

As Arbonia we are making the commitment to substantially reduce our CO₂ emissions in Scope 1, 2, and 3 by 2035, to contribute to effectively limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The starting point for this are the emissions of the financial year 2020, with the reduction path additionally taking into account an increase in emissions from an average business growth of 5% per year until 2035. We will compensate for this increase in CO₂ emissions with additional measures.

Our performance in the past year

In the two divisions Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and Doors, we not only have the vision of an environmental policy that wants to reduce CO₂ emissions to a very large degree but we also defined ambitious medium-term goals over the course of the past year 2021 to protect our planet through the responsible use of resources. For this purpose, we are orienting ourselves to the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTI). We are convinced that this behaviour will secure, if not even increase, the competitiveness of Arbonia. The following examples of a few ESG measures show the importance and the value of sustainability within the Group.

At the beginning of the year, we announced that Arbonia was returning to corporate governance with separate mandates after the radical reorganisation since 2015. The adaptation of the previous organisation, in which I perform the function of Chairman of the Board of Directors as well as CEO, will be replaced by a holding structure without a dual mandate as of the General Meeting 2022. The Board of Directors proposes to the 2022 General Meeting that I hold the office of the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.

In the past year 2021, we started the process of joining the UN Global Compact and are thus committed to observing and promoting the ten universal principles. In addition, we strengthened our internal ESG team by supporting our employees with further training (e.g. in corporate responsibility) on the one hand and additionally recruiting new employees for the sustainability team. The Group has also called for and mandated the acceleration of efforts to conserve resources, in particular regarding water and waste. For this reason, Arbonia has enacted a water policy and a waste policy in the reporting year.

The highlights of our divisions

The HVAC Division is developing a sustainable, non-degenerating, resource-conserving storage system for the electricity generated from solar energy. The division thereby rounds off its product portfolio with the energy store: It can now offer a complete, coordinated system of products for the heat and energy management of living space. This energy store also contributes to the energy transition in general and the energy self-sufficiency of houses in particular.

In addition to the installation of photovoltaic systems at some sites, the renovation of the welding line cooling as well as the heat recovery in the welding fume extraction in the steel panel radiator production at the major production site of Plattling (D) led to a considerable reduction in the energy consumption of Arbonia in the reporting year.

The Doors Division is reducing CO₂ through two new combined heat and power plants (CHP) at its two production sites in Germany. With the planned CHP plants that are being implemented, the Prüm and Garant doors companies are pursuing the following goals:

1. Own production and use of CO₂-neutral electricity,

2. Own production and use of CO₂-neutral heat and

3. 100% use and pollution-free disposal of wood-type residue

The new plant at Prüm will cover approx. 60% of the entire power requirement of the door plant and also heat an area of around 24,000 m².

Since 2015, Arbonia has invested several hundred million Swiss francs in sustainable manufacturing. This includes energy-saving and -optimised sites with more efficient machines and the use of Industry 4.0 technologies in the entire product lifecycle. This leads to less harmful energy sources, materials, and chemicals as well as optimised energy efficiency at less cost. At Arbonia, every site is to contribute to preserving the regenerative capacity of the environment.

Our goals related to the Paris Climate Accords

To achieve the "1.5 °C" scenario of the Paris Climate Accords, companies are required to reduce their operating emissions (Scope 1 and Scope 2) by more than 4% and reduce indirect emissions (Scope 3) by over 2.5% (in relation to the reference year). We are committed to this. We have set ourselves the goal of reducing the intensity of our Scope 1-3 emissions based on the Science Based Targets Initiative by 2035 so much that we will contribute to the global climate target despite further organic growth.

In this sustainability report for 2021, we have also defined goals and ambitions on the Group, division, and company level to improve our sustainability performance. We will measure and evaluate these as well as report on our progress each year.

Dear readers, Arbonia will do everything in its power with regard to climate protection to counteract global warming and minimise its impact.

Alexander von Witzleben
Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO