Emissions

Emissions
GRI 103-1,2,3; GRI 305-1,2

Reducing Consumption and Emissions
Oerlikon supports customers who are equally committed to achieving carbon neutrality and count on our innovations to support them toward reaching their environmental goals. The products and services that we bring to market are aimed at minimizing their environmental impact over the entire life cycle and along the value chain, encompassing direct and indirect customers.

We are equally aware of our own environmental obligations, and we have committed to achieving climate neutral operations (consisting of Scope 1 and 2) in 100% of our operations at relevant sites by 2030. In service of this goal, we strive not only to optimize sustainable practices in our R&D and operations, but also to engage in practices that reduce our carbon footprint in sales, shipping, maintenance and service. This is one of our reasons for locating Oerlikon sites in close proximity to customers – an approach that strengthens customer service capabilities and at the same time helps to reduce emissions.

We also encourage individual employees to embrace sustainability through measures such as providing secure parking for those who choose to commute by bicycle and charging stations for those who drive electric or hybrid cars. Leading by example, we have started to modernize our fleet by switching to electric and hybrid vehicles for both our sales team and for pickup and delivery of customers’ tools.

Presently, we report on our Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as the GHG emissions intensity levels. Our Scope 1 emissions are direct GHG emissions from owned or controlled sources of the Group, excluding emissions from small offices whose emissions are negligible, while GHG Scope 2 emissions are indirect GHG emissions from electricity, steam, heat and cooling purchased by the Group. Our GHG emissions intensity level are measured in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂ eq/t) per million of sales in Swiss francs for total Scope 1 and 2 emissions in the data tables here. 

In 2021, emissions data from 157 (out of 160) operational sites were consolidated. The difference is attributed to an in-house site at a customer location and two office sites with negligible emissions.

Our Scope 1 emissions have increased in 2021, compared to 2019, due to the addition of newly opened sites and a new production line at a site in Shanghai, China. If we look at our GHG emissions intensity for Scope 1 and 2, we have slightly lowered the carbon intensity of our operations in 2021 (60.8) compared to 2019 (60.9).

Among our 157 sites, 66 of them are using the market-based method to report on their Scope 2 emissions, while 91 sites are using the location-based method as they do not have contractual information that meets the Scope 2 quality criteria.

Our indirect emissions are attributed mainly to electricity bought for all sites, heat bought at a few sites and cooling bought at a handful of sites. Our direct CO₂ emissions stem from the combustion of natural gas and oil for heating purposes, emissions from diesel and gasoline for vehicles (private use excluded) and hydrocarbon gases for specific production processes such as thermal spray. Gases like propane or acetylene that are used in the Oerlikon Balzers’ thin-film coating processes become part of the surface and are not combusted. Since these gases do not react with oxygen, they are not considered as a form of energy (but rather process gases) and therefore, do not generate CO₂ and are excluded from the emissions measurements for the environmental metrics reporting.

In measuring our CO₂ emissions, we follow the defined unit by the GRI Standards, which is the CO₂ eq/t. Compared to a number of other industrial companies, we do not use F-gases in our production processes. For example, we do not use sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas, which is an insulating gas for electrical equipment. These gases are considered much more damaging GHGs than CO₂ with a negative impact of about 22 000 times that of CO₂. Thus, our CO₂ emissions can be considered “real” CO₂ emissions and not CO₂-equivalent emissions (as SF6 would be classified).

In 2021, we took the first steps toward reporting on GHG Scope 3 and started the process of appointing an external partner, who will work with us on assessing the relevance of the 15 GHG Scope 3 categories. We will be performing an initial Scope 3 screening to identify the hotpots in our value chain and reviewing case studies and best practices from peers to help us determine focus areas that might need to be addressed. We will then begin mapping out the material categories across the value chain and identifying which suppliers and customers need to be involved in each category.

Following that, the data collection system and process will then be established. It will be important for us to determine what primary data from external sources will be available, when we will need to rely on estimations and which methodology or a combination of which methodologies such as location-based, supplier-specific, environmentally extended input-output (EEIO) or life cycle assessment (LCA) will be best suited. Considering that there are a lot of steps and parties involved, we will be implementing this systematically and intend to set the Scope 3 baseline in 2022 and report on it from 2023/2024 onward.