Despite the COVID-19, even though it was a storm that shook the world, and in spite of the humanitarian nightmare, climate change is considered the major challenge of the planet. And time, according to experts, is pressing.
Social, economic and business activity must persist, but the clock is ticking. Industrial development, decarbonisation and firm steps towards a more sustainable world are the key to compliance with the Paris Agreement, to limit the increase in global temperature to below 2°C, compared to pre-industrialization levels. They are, after all, the key to everyone's future.
In Gestamp we are not oblivious to this reality. In fact, it is in our DNA to work towards sustainable mobility; to help produce a lighter car so that it emits less emissions during its use; in other words, better for the environment.
Now, we have taken a crucial step forward. We have formalised our commitment to fight climate change by setting emission reduction targets for 2030, according to scientific criteria, which have been approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI). At Gestamp, we have thus become one of the few TIER1 companies in the world, and the first company in the automotive sector in Spain, with established and approved greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets.
As context, it should be noted that Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) is an international initiative, which evaluates and validates the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of companies, based on the Paris Agreement of 2015, in which the 195 countries committed themselves to limit global warming to below 2 degrees.
Based on 2018, at Gestamp, we are committed to reducing by 30% our direct emissions, associated with processes of combustion related with our activity, and those emissions resulting from the generation of the electricity consumed at our centers - activities included in what are called Scope 1 and Scope 2 of our Carbon Footprint respectively. In addition, we have also set ourselves the goal of reducing indirect emissions from our supply chain by 22% by 2030, as part of Scope 3 of our Carbon Footprint.
Gestamp’ s Carbon footprint
At Gestamp we have been calculating our carbon footprint since 2006. Since then, we have been monitoring the electrical consumption of the factories to carry out their activity. Since 2009, we have also been monitoring the consumption of fuels in the production plants.
To complete the calculation of our Carbon Footprint, in 2019 at Gestamp we computed our complete Carbon Footprint with data from 2018, since the direct and indirect emissions derived from our activity were added to the atmospheric emissions of the entire supply chain, from the production of the raw material to the end of life of our parts.
The full sum showed that by 2018 Gestamp's carbon footprint was 10,041,373 tons of CO2 equivalent (tCO₂e ). It should be noted that, of this total amount of emissions, only 6% were due directly to our production process (consumption of fuel in the factory and electricity to carry it out).
It is worth noting that the monitoring and degree of achievement of the objectives is carried out through the report of our Carbon Footprint and the performance in Climate change matter in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an annual publication of the organization with the same name, which is non-profit making and which collects and analyses the environmental impact of companies and other entities at a global level. Thus, annually, we provide detailed information on strategy, practices, performance and objectives in the fight against climate change. In 2019, at Gestamp we have raised our score to B, when the average for companies in the metal sector is a C, as a result of the implementation of various action plans.