WE ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY

As a specialty chemicals company with a presence throughout the world, Evonik sees sustainability and long-term business success as two sides of the same coin. That is reflected in the rising demand from our customers for products and services that demonstrate a good balance of economic, ecological and social factors. Sustainability has long since developed into a growth driver for Evonik.

Through our innovative capability and leading technology positions we empower our customers to offer a broad range of resource-efficient solutions. Examples are amino acids for animal nutrition, additives for hydraulic fluids or functional silanes for surface protection of buildings. Around 50 % of the sales generated by our chemical segments come from products that make a measurable contribution to improving the resource efficiency of their applications.

To reduce Evonik's carbon footprint still further, we are continuously optimizing our processes along the entire value chain. We use alternative raw materials and biotechnological methods wherever this is possible and makes sense.

Sound sustainability management does not begin with our own products and production processes. Our purchasing volume has a significant impact on society and the environment. As a founding member of the industry initiative “Together for Sustainability”, we are driving forward transparency and sustainability along the supply chain.

Since we achieved our target for the reduction in specific greenhouse gas emissions ahead of schedule, the executive board introduced new environmental targets in February 2019. Our target now is a 50 percent reduction in absolute scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2025, compared with the level in 2008—the first full year after the establishment of Evonik. This affirms our commitment to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
At present, we assume an average reduction in climate-relevant emissions of 3 percent a year. The relatively short period up to 2025 reflects our view that it is not currently possible to predict technological and regulatory developments beyond this date with sufficient certainty. In addition to this, by 2025 we intend to
reduce the scope 3 emissions related to our raw material “backpack” by 15 percent (reference base: 2020).

We set ourselves ambitious non-financial targets, especially as regards work and process safety. A uniform, Group-wide safety culture that sets high standards has been established.