HeidelbergCement has published its Sustainability Report for the 2020 financial year. The company’s 12th Sustainability Report provides detailed information about the company’s path to climate neutrality, and its strategy and activities in the areas of environment, social responsibility and governance.
The report is based for the first time on the disclosure recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which has officially supported since September 2020.
In the report, HeidelbergCement shows the results of its climate protection policies. The company has been able to reduce its specific net CO2 emissions to 576kg CO2/t of cementitious material in 2020 from 589.4kg in 2019 and 598.6kg in 2018. This represents a 23 per cent drop in specific net CO2 emissions with the company on its way to reduce Scope 1 emissions by 30 per cent in 2025.
In addition, it has increased its use of alternative fuels to 25.7 per cent of total fuel input, up from 24 per cent in 2019 and 22 per cent in 2018. The company has set a target of a thermal substitution rate of 43 per cent by 2030.
HeidelbergCement has also reduced its clinker ratio to 74.3 per cent in 2020, down from 74.5 and 74.7 per cent in 2019 and 2018, respectively. It aims to reduce clinker content in cement to 70 per cent by 2025.
In terms of dust emissions, the company reduced emissions by 89 per cent in 2020 when compared with the reference year of 2008, achieving its target of an 80 per cent reduction by 2030. Nitrogen oxide emissions were down 22 per cent and sulphur dioxides by 37 per cent in 2020 with further progress to be made to achieve the 40 per cent reduction target for both NOx and SOx by 2030.
