Preface
Dear Readers,
Arbonia has been pursuing ambitious goals such as reducing its CO2 emissions and striving for healthy and sustainable growth for many years. Nowadays, the concept of sustainability is unquestionably part of this ambition. This no longer only means the economic stability of a company. Its contribution to ecological, social, and ethical justice in the world is also becoming more and more important.
Our consistent orientation towards becoming a more sustainable company has brought about great changes for us as Arbonia in recent years. In the process, we have learned to focus on the key issues for the future. We now use this culture of transformation to actively contribute to reducing global warming.
The construction sector is a major producer of CO2 emissions in Europe, with a share of over 30%. The potential for reducing greenhouse gases in buildings is also therefore immense. Accordingly, there is a very great demand for products that reduce the energy consumption in buildings and have an at least equally high functionality and performance. Buildings can be supplied with renewable energy in a self-sufficient way when they have their own electricity generation, for example, from a photovoltaic installation and an electricity and heat storage system.
We identified this trend early on and substantially contribute to it with our products. Heating and ventilation systems as well as insulated interior doors can achieve significant improvements in new buildings and renovations. We have also made it our task to lower energy consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions along our value-added chain and especially in our production processes.
Our achievements and initiatives in the financial year
With the past financial year we have continued to create the conditions for combining financial and non-financial goals in our strategy. Suitable incentives are an important instrument for this. We have therefore decided to integrate sustainability criteria such as effective climate protection in the variable compensation of Group Management starting in financial year 2023.
An important factor for better climate protection is above all the expansion of renewable energies. We were able to improve further in this regard and now cover 47% of our total requirements with renewable sources. The share of green energy has increased to 43%, whereby 13% is now supplied through our own electricity production from photovoltaics, wind energy, as well as combined heat and power (CHP) systems. In total, this has further reduced our greenhouse gas intensity to 0.050 CO2 equivalents (Scope 1 – 2) per net revenue.
Our long-term strategy is based on the principle of an integrated CO2-free system that allows energy to be efficiently generated, transferred, and stored. For this purpose, we are investing in state-of-the-art CHP systems, for example. In Opočno and Stříbro (CZ), modern energy standards have been taken into account in the new construction of a heat pump plant and in the investment in compressors.
In addition to our own greenhouse gas emissions, we also intend to take indirect emissions more strongly into account. We have therefore taken initial steps to record the emissions of our upstream and downstream value-added chain (Scope 3). We will use these measurements to derive reduction targets and corresponding measures.
Our ESG agenda is also in competition with other companies facing the same challenges. For this purpose, we have had ourselves assessed by the rating platform EcoVadis since 2022. We immediately achieved the bronze status there. This means that we are among the top half of the assessed companies. In the future, we want to score even better with targeted measures. At the same time, we also use EcoVadis to assess our suppliers and include this in our supplier assessment.
Our obligation towards political frameworks
In all our efforts, we follow scientific model calculations and global agreements. For this reason, we support the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. Since 2021, we have been a signatory of the UN Global Compact and are committed to the ten universal principles of sustainable and responsible corporate governance. As Arbonia, we furthermore endorse the "European Green Deal" as a European sustainability project.
With this sustainability report, we create transparency regarding our goals, measures, and their associated effects. We also give an outlook on projects in the coming years that will continuously increase our sustainability performance.
In the name of the Board of Directors and Group Management, I would like to thank all employees who are helping to shape our exciting transformation process and have been involved in this report. Our dedicated team makes me optimistic about the future, in which we will continue our sustainability agenda.
Daniel Wüest
Group CFO
