Three steps to climate neutrality
The STIHL climate strategy sets out a solid framework for short-term, medium-term and long-term action for climate protection. We know that we need a detailed and considered plan to achieve our ambitious goal; for the STIHL Group to one day leave no CO2 footprint worldwide.
We are committed to climate protection and want to be part of defining how it happens. STIHL recognizes the Paris Climate Agreement and acknowledges the target to limit global warming to 1.5°C. With this in mind, in 2020 we set ourselves the long-term goal of operating in a way that is calculable as climate-neutral. Our guiding principle here is that reducing emissions is more important than carbon offsetting.
In the first instance we will focus on the direct Scope 1 emissions as set out in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, i.e. emissions from energy consumption that we can control ourselves. At STIHL these are mainly produced by burning natural gas and heating oil for building heating systems, as well as in production, assembly and development. We use fuel in our vehicle fleet and experience coolant losses during operations. We are also looking at our indirect Scope 2 emissions, associated with the purchase of electricity and district heating.
Our locations in Germany have been offsetting their calculated carbon impact for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by acquiring compensation certificates since January 2021. All our international manufacturing companies followed suit in 2022 and the international subsidiaries in 2023.
Long-term climate goals – Scope 3
STIHL on its own is not able to influence emissions from upstream and downstream value chains (Scope 3). Nonetheless we want to help to reduce these in line with the aims of the Paris Climate Agreement and German targets. The upstream value chain includes factors such as business travel, goods and services, waste, logistics, our employee commutes, and the upstream chain of our fuels. Downstream value chains relate to the use of our products and their disposal, distribution logistics, and packaging.
Our path to a positive climate contribution
In order to achieve our targets, we have defined concrete measures to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
clean eNergy
Since January 2021, STIHL's German sites have been purchasing electricity exclusively from renewable sources. With an average annual electricity purchase in Germany of around 67,500 MWh, we can reduce our energy-related CO2 emissions in Scope 2 in Germany by around 63 percent by purchasing green electricity.
In the meantime, all STIHL production companies and most of the sales companies have also converted to purchasing green electricity. Through the use of renewable energies, we can significantly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions at the same time.
To reduce its ecological footprint, STIHL also relies on regenerative power generation.
Defossilization
Internally, STIHL has set itself the goal of reducing the use of fossil fuels by 40 percent by 2030 compared to 2019. This is also in line with the targets in Scope 1 validated by the SBTi. Fossil fuels used at STIHL are primarily natural gas, but also fuels. With more than 100 individual measures already planned, which include technological innovations such as optimized use of process heat, around 80 percent of the targeted reduction is to be implemented.
Improved energy efficiency
In addition, we want to reduce our energy consumption overall and thus further improve our energy intensity. For a long time now, we have been pursuing a resource-saving approach to production. Efficient use of metal, the economical use of water, electricity and heat, as well as forward-looking building and space planning are among the cornerstones. Many of our production companies are certified according to the ISO 14001 environmental management system. The ISO 50001 certification for energy management systems, which has been in place at the STIHL headquarters since 2013, is to be extended to all production companies of the STIHL Group in the future.
With our continuous measures to improve energy efficiency, we have been saving energy for a long time – despite higher production volumes. The focus is on the implementation of new technologies, such as optimized process heat use and distribution as well as energy control and distribution, but also energy storage, renewal and optimization of our distribution grids for energy, energy-efficient drives and low-consumption lighting systems.
