The Schaeffler Group has announced it will be operating as a climate-neutral company from 2040. This objective covers the entire supply chain and is underpinned by ambitious mid-term sustainability targets. 

The company’s own production facilities will already be climate neutral from 2030, and by 2025 it aims to prevent as much as three-quarters of its production emissions. The emissions from intermediates and raw materials occurring in the supply chain will be reduced by 25% by 2030. The Schaeffler Group aims to achieve climate neutrality in this area as well by 2040. The base year for all calculations is 2019. To achieve these targets, the company will focus on tangible reduction measures, and only unavoidable emissions will be neutralised by means of carbon offsetting.

Klaus Rosenfeld, Chief Executive Officer of Schaeffler AG, says, “Sustainability plays a key role in implementing our corporate strategy. The decarbonisation of the Schaeffler Group by 2040 is a top priority for us. Through our defined targets and specific measures, we are doing our part to help achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement. In doing so we are strengthening our position as a preferred technology partner and supplier of sustainable solutions and products, for example in the electric mobility and renewable energy segments.”

Since 2020, 100% of the electricity purchased for all production sites in Germany has come from renewable sources. This also allowed around 260,000 metric tons of CO2 to be avoided last year. By 2024, all Schaeffler sites worldwide will purchase electricity generated from 100% renewable sources. Cumulative energy efficiency gains of 100 gigawatt hours will also have been realised by 2024. This is roughly equivalent to the annual power consumption of 28,500 three-person households in Germany. In 2020, more than 100 measures had already resulted in annual savings of more than 27 gigawatt hours.

With its new climate targets, the Schaeffler Group is also intensifying its relationships with sub-suppliers in the area of climate neutrality. Involving sub-suppliers will mean that in the future, Schaeffler will obtain raw materials and intermediates that have been produced using more climate-friendly processes. This is a major challenge in energy-intensive segments like steel and aluminium in particular. To this end, various aspects like the availability of green steel and other sustainably produced raw materials, and the optimization of the circular economy, are being developed and promoted within the context of partnerships.

The transformation in the markets that represent mobility and motion is fundamentally important for Schaeffler as a leading global automotive and industrial supplier. For example, in the fields of electric mobility, regenerative energy production or the production and use of hydrogen, Schaeffler and its partners are focusing on sustainable innovations, because the 1.5 degree Celsius target can only be met if all stakeholders work together. This is also why the Schaeffler Group is a signatory to the UN Global Compact and was chosen as one of the “50 Sustainability & Climate Leaders” by the United Nations in April 2021.