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Environment

As stated by the United Nations, climate change is a emergency that goes beyond national borders. It is an issue that requires international cooperation and coordinated solutions at all levels.

person working on a laptop while sitting on a bench in a green environment

Our overarching goal is to become net CO₂ neutral in production and our entire value chain by 2050. We will achieve this through managing our energy efficiency in production and further measures. While water consumption is not classified within any emissions scopes outlined by the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, it is directly related to production and is a material environmental topic for Franke.

Emissions explained

A big majority of our emissions are generated upstream or downstream in the value chain. Monitoring and taking steps to reduce these scope 3 emissions is therefore vital for making progress on our climate-related goals. To develop a comprehensive inventory of our scope 3 emissions, we have followed guidance developed by the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, which categorizes greenhouse gases under the following:

Scope 1
Emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the organization, e.g., through the combustion of fuels needed for production processes.

Scope 2
Emissions from the generation of acquired and consumed electricity, heat, steam or cooling (consumed by the organization, but generated elsewhere).

Scope 3
Emissions that occur as a consequence of the operations of the organization but are not directly owned or controlled by the organization.

Production by the numbers

In 2022, we reduced our scope 1 and 2 emissions by 23 percent from 2021 relative to net sales. The most significant proportion of our scope 1 and 2 emissions (67 percent) comes from our electricity consumption and district heating, while fuels and combustibles account for 33 percent. CO₂ emissions from fuels and combustibles fell by 18 percent in absolute terms, to 9,624 tons in 2022. CO₂ emissions from electricity and district heating fell by 26 percent, to 19,361 tons. Our goal for 2023 is to achieve a further 5 percent reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions relative to net sales.

CO₂ emissions

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Emissions across our value chain

In 2021, we began mapping our scope 3 inventory across our entire product value chain, together with other scope 3 emissions from employee commuting and business travel, and we have calculated baseline data for these emission sources. These include materials and supply, products’ resource efficiency, measuring CO₂  emissions across product usage, and end of lifecycles for products. With the major share of our CO₂  emissions being generated outside of production, there is a vast opportunity to reduce our total emissions by focusing on our complete value chain. 

Products by the numbers

One of our goals in 2023 and beyond is to obtain accurate measurements of the CO₂ emissions linked to use of sold products, purchased goods and services, capital goods as well as transportation and distribution. We can then use this data to determine emission reduction activities upstream in our supply chain, and additionally as a baseline for setting future reduction targets.

Water and wastewater

Franke mainly uses drinking water from the public mains system and groundwater for production. The water consumption of our production sites does not represent a significant burden for water sources as defined in the GRI guidelines, although there are challenges due to a lack of water meters to help us measure our water use across all facilities.

In 2022, there were no unplanned wastewater discharges at Franke. During the planned discharges, 335,954 m3 of wastewater was released, 20 percent less than the previous year, and 19 percent less relative to net sales. We have no current targets in place for our water consumption and discharge levels, but we are looking to set targets for these in the future.

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