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SBTi Approves Hempel Emissions Reduction Goals
Global coatings company Hempel recently announced that its emissions reduction targets were approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) with levels required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. The company is aiming to half its value chain greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
The SBTi, with defines and promotes best practice in science-based target setting and independently assesses companies’ targets, is a collaboration between the CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature.
According to the emailed release, the targets covering greenhouse gas emissions from Hempel’s operations, scopes 1 and 2, are consistent with the reductions required to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which science says is reportedly needed to prevent damaging effects of climate change. For its value chain, or scope 3, meeting the SBTi’s criteria means they are in line with current best practice.
The carbon reduction goals are:
“We are putting sustainability at the heart of Hempel. Like all companies, we have a responsibility to reduce the emissions our operations create and the amount of resources we use,” says Katarina Lindstroem, Executive Vice President of Research and Technology and Chief Operating Officer. “Reaching our science-based targets requires that sustainability is integrated into everything we do. We are investing in training the entire company to engage all our employees on this ambitious journey.”
Scope 1 and 2 targets will reportedly focus on energy efficiency, buying renewable power and greening its transportation fleet. Lindstroem reports that Scope 3 emissions make up more than 95% of Hempel’s carbon footprint.
“To tackle these, we will strengthen our commitment to using suppliers that are also taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint, drive circularity to reduce the footprint of our packaging items and review our own formulation principles for existing and new products to identify how we can move away from more carbon heavy raw materials,” continues Katarina.
According to Hempel, many of its products and services across its Marine, Energy, Infrastructure and Decorative customer segments are “significantly” helping to reduce its customers’ carbon footprint. These savings do not count as part of its CO2 reductions, but the company notes it will continue to develop these sustainable products and solutions.
Hempel Sustainability Efforts
In November 2020, Hempel announced via emailed press release that it had been awarded the Sustainability Award 2020 by Vestas for supporting them on their journey to become carbon neutral by 2030.
While Vestas and Hempel have been involved in a long-term collaboration, the two recently extended their relationship in September to a strategic partnership focusing on developing innovative solutions for surface protection of wind turbines and aiming to reduce surface treatment costs and support sustainable coating solutions.
According to Hempel’s September release, initial calculations on the matter have predicted that in changing the processes surrounding how surface treatments are applied could reduce CO2 emissions by 60%, or 1,100 tonnes (1,212.5 tons) of CO2 per year.
Since announcing the extended partnership, Hempel has identified additional initiatives that can lead to the reduction of both CO2 and waste at the Vestas site in Pueblo, Colorado.
Then, in July last year, Hempel announced a similar strategic partnership with wind sector tower and flanges manufacturer GRI Renewable Industries for surface protection solutions on wind turbines.
According to the release, the new strategic partnership looks to further strengthen the companies’ long-term cooperation as they expand the scope to include research and development on potential innovative products, in addition to cost mitigation of wind turbine surface treatments while guaranteeing high quality.
The partnership is also reported to include the University of Sevilla, which will participate under the umbrella of the project Andalusia, Alentejo and Algarve innovation Centre (CIU3A). The project is co-financed 75% by the European Regional Development Fund, Program of Cooperation Interreg VA Spain - Portugal 2014-2020.
Eventually, the university plans to launch the Innovation Center to launch in the current mandate of Government Team, which will be complemented by three innovation centers in Aeronautics, Agri-food and Energy and Mobility.
For the task at hand, GRI, Hempel and Sevilla will focus on the sustainability and prolonging the lifetime of wind towers. The ambition is to reduce surface treatment cost by 10% and lower VOC by up to 50%.
The first steps in the new cooperation around research and development will take place between GRI’s R&D facility in Sevilla, and Hempel’s laboratories in Barcelona and Denmark. Once developed, the coatings solutions are slated to be further researched to define which coating solution will best match GRI Renewable Industries’ needs.
