MAN's Climate Strategy:
Mandatory Targets
Climate change is one of the most important global challenges faced by governments, businesses, and society. And anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions — those generated by human activities — are among the primary causes. Today the transportation sector is responsible for approximately 15% of global CO2 emissions, a figure that is expected to reach 22% by 2020.
By now, many nations have set mandatory climate protection targets. At the same time, many European Union member states are applying increasingly stringent Euro emissions standards for trucks and buses, while the United Nations has issued Tier III standards for marine engines. Our CO2-efficient product and service portfolio facilitates compliance with climate protection targets and regulatory requirements — and resource efficiency has long since become a competitive factor.
MAN is aiming to make a significant contribution to cutting CO2 emissions while using the associated business opportunities to its advantage. With this in mind, we commissioned an internal team of experts to draw up a climate strategy. The resultant strategy was approved by the Management Board of MAN SE in September 2011 and presented to MAN Group managers at the MAN Summit. It now forms part of the MAN CR strategy and supports the attainment of our corporate goals.
Cornerstones of our Climate Strategy
As a globally active corporation in the
fields of transportation and energy,
MAN bears responsibility for its production
processes and for its products.
Sites: MAN has 31 production sites in 13 countries. These facilities consume raw materials and electricity and use resources to generate energy, which causes CO2 emissions.
Products: MAN develops products and services for the transportation of passengers and goods, as well as for energy generation. These are high-growth sectors, which implies rising CO2 emissions.
We can make an important contribution to climate protection, not only at our sites, but through our products and services as well. MAN takes this responsibility seriously. As a first step, we have set ourselves the goal of cutting CO2 emissions at MAN sites by 25% (baseline: 2008) by 2020 — a target we intend to meet by implementing the core initiatives developed by our Climate Expert Team and launched in 2011.
| Core initiatives for Climate Strategy implementation | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. | 25% reduction in CO2 emissions at MAN sites by 2020 (baseline: 2008) | We will reduce CO2 emissions at MAN sites by improving energy efficiency, using renewable energy sources (solar, wind, geothermal), generating energy using combined heat and power (CHP) plants, and through integrated energy-management technology and organization. |
| 2. | Consistently Efficient product portfolio | We position ourselves in the commercial vehicles and power engineering sectors with sustainable products and services. |
| 3. | Customer involvement and dialog | We involve our customers and talk to them about ways to reduce the global carbon footprint. After all, many of our customers have already set themselves ambitious targets for cutting CO2 emissions. |
| 4. | Potential for reducing CO2 emissions along the product life cycle | To identify potential for reductions, we measure CO2 emissions along the entire product life cycle. |
| 5. | Climate strategy management | We manage the implementation of our Climate Strategy and have defined KPIs that are regularly measured and published. |
Our sites
Our climate goal for our production
sites will be met by making them more
energy efficient and improving the
energy-management technology and
organization in our buildings and production
halls. In 2012 we will analyze
the feasibility of using our own MAN
combined heat and power (CHP) plants
to generate electricity at the sites with
the highest energy consumption levels.
In the coming years we will also investigate
the potential for using CHP at all
our sites. In addition, we will step up our
efforts to use renewable energies such
as geothermal, biomass, wind, and solar
energy at all our sites. This will allow us
to cut our CO2 emissions and keep our
energy costs from rising, sharpening
our competitive edge.
Our products
In order to reduce the carbon footprint of
our products, we analyze the product life
cycle — from the procurement of raw
materials to recycling — to determine at
what stage they produce the most CO2
emissions. As we found in the fourth core
initiative of our Climate Strategy, up to
90% and more of emissions are generated
during the service life of the products.
This means that the most effective
way for us to cut CO2 emissions is by
using energy-efficient technologies in
our products. This objective is part of our
second and third core initiatives. By
optimizing the way in which they use
our products, our customers can cut fuel
consumption even further, a process we
support by offering training courses for
professional drivers and operators of
large-bore diesel engines. Reducing carbon
dioxide emissions during the service
life of our products goes hand in hand
with cutting the total cost of ownership
for our customers.
Lowering the CO2 emissions of our products by 20% or more is one of MAN’s largest undertakings, one in which we must take due account not only of the regulatory environment but also of the pressures of international competition. However, we believe this is a realistic goal and we will be doing our utmost to meet this challenge — not least by making our Climate Strategy an integral part of our managers’ annual performance reviews and defining a specific reduction target for our products in 2013.
