Climate protection

GRI-Indicators

The KION Group fully intends to minimise its contribution to global warming and strives to continuously reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is why the KION Group has committed itself as part of its climate protection action field to setting a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target by 2018, and to establish the programme required to achieve this.

CO2 emissions can trigger adverse environmental and social impacts. Besides production related energy use these are generated predominantly during the products’ utilisation phase (see chapter Products and services), by service vehicles as well as by employee business trips. In addition, greenhouse gas emissions are produced in the upstream chain, such as during the production of materials and component products. Logistics and transportation activities also generate greenhouse gas emissions and lead to road-traffic growth.

To counter these effects, in the reporting year KION held targeted climate management workshops. Among other things, they examined the extent to which the KION Group can set itself a science-based climate target in line with the outcomes of the Paris Agreement and which helps limit global warming to below 2°C. A target was formulated as an ambition. Furthermore, the KION Group analysed its corporate carbon footprint in 2017; Scopes 1 and 2 were examined in full, whereas Scope 3 was only examined for relevance to the topic of products.

When identifying suitable measures to reduce greenhouse gases, the KION Group – just like almost every other industrial company – faces the challenge of technical restrictions. Among them, the coke required for the smelting process to produce counterweights cannot simply be reduced.

This is why all measures follow this priority ranking: the Company will constantly strive to achieve a reduction in its CO2 emissions. If it cannot go any further, it will endeavour to substitute fuels with lower-emission fuels. And once this measure does not deliver further reductions either, it will then counter the impact of its CO2 emissions through offsetting measures.

When procuring company vehicles, their CO2 emissions are a criterion. The regular sharing of experiences in the HSE network of experts, as well as measures to raise employee awareness such as the start of the Group-wide Climate Championship in 2018, also help the KION Group make further progress in the area of climate protection.