As a constantly growing company with a wide range of business areas, energy is continuously required within the Zeppelin Group. Zeppelin has defined strategic and operational objectives in the course of the efficiency concept in order to minimize the environmental impact of the energy consumption of our business operations and to improve energy and environmental performance.
- Carbon neutrality in ongoing business operations by 2030 at the latest (Scope 1 & 2)
The Zeppelin Group has set itself the target of being a net-zero carbon company in its ongoing business operations by 2030 at the latest. Greenwashing is rejected and compensation measures are the last option for offsetting CO2 emissions. CO2 emissions are therefore reported once in accordance with the Green House Gas Protocol, a globally recognized standard, including emissions from Scope 1 and 2. Since 2021, CO2 emissions have been calculated using the market-based and location-based method. For this reason, no CO2 emissions according to the market-based method are yet available for the 2020 fiscal year. The market-based method refers to the emissions of the electricity supplier or an individual electricity product, whereas the location-based approach refers to the average emission factors of the country where electricity consumption takes place. If there are specific emission factors of the respective energy supplier, these were used for the calculation of CO2 emissions.
The reduction in CO2 emissions by -5.5% (market-based) compared with the previous year can be attributed to the lower energy consumption within the Zeppelin Group. As part of renovation projects on existing buildings and other energy efficiency measures, Scope 1 & 2 emissions were also reduced. A detailed analysis of the energy consumption is given in this section.
The implementation of carbon neutrality by itself means investing heavily, for example, for energy-efficient renovation or construction of new sites, the installation of photovoltaic systems or the gradual conversion to more energy-efficient plant and equipment. To drive forward the goal of carbon neutrality, targets and measures were defined at SBU and national company level in 2021 to reduce CO2 emissions as part of the Group Call for Strategy. For example, a conversion to green electricity within the German companies by 2023 was defined. The measures will now be implemented step by step by 2030. A detailed description can be found in the Measures area.
| CO2 emissions | Unit | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 | to CO2e | 37,003 | 38,534 | 37,551 |
| Scope 2 (location-based) | to CO2e | 15,738 | 16,922 | 15,739 |
| Scope 2 (market-based) | to CO2e | n/a | 7,659 | 6,123 |
| CO2 emissions – Scope 1 & 2 (location-based) | to CO2e | 52,741 | 55,456 | 53,292 |
| CO2 emissions – Scope 1 & 2 (market-based) | to CO2e | n/a | 46,193 | 43,674 |
| CO2 emissions per SBU | Unit | 2020 location-based | 2021 | 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| location-based | market-based | location-based | market-based | |||
| Construction Equipment Central Europe SBU | to CO2e | 18,843 | 19,785 | 16,868 | 18,646 | 15,277 |
| Construction Equipment Eurasia SBU | to CO2e | 9,414 | 10,583 | 10,094 | 9,546 | 9,522 |
| Construction Equipment Nordics SBU | to CO2e | 4,236 | 4,244 | 3,762 | 4,770 | 3,613 |
| Rental SBU | to CO2e | 9,895 | 10,595 | 9,193 | 10,539 | 9,137 |
| Power Systems SBU | to CO2e | 3,368 | 3,271 | 2,531 | 3,122 | 2,413 |
| Plant Engineering SBU | to CO2e | 5,758 | 5,723 | 3,285 | 5,522 | 3,340 |
| Zeppelin GmbH (holding company) | to CO2e | 1,227 | 1,255 | 460 | 1,147 | 372 |
| Zeppelin Group | to CO2e | 52,741 | 55,456 | 46,193 | 53,292 | 43,674 |
A project will be initiated in 2023 to make it possible to also analyze the Zeppelin Group’s Scope 3 emissions in the future and identify new action areas. A relevance assessment of the sub-categories has already been carried out in advance in order to be able to derive focus topics from them. Initial calculations are then carried out. The focus topics include categories from both upstream and downstream processes.
- Reduce electricity and heat consumption by 1% annually between 2021 and 2025 (electricity, heat)
The total energy consumption is based on the individual consumption per Group company and stated in megawatt hours (MWh).1
In 2021 and 2022, absolute energy consumption was reduced by -2.7%. Electricity and heat consumption were reduced by -7.6%. Thus, the target of energy savings for the period from 2021 to 2022 was achieved. This is due to numerous energy efficiency measures and the energy saving campaign. The reduction in room temperatures in winter and the switch to LEDs are particularly notable.
The majority of energy consumption was due to the use of fuels: Around 59% of the total worldwide energy consumption in 2022 was caused by diesel and gasoline consumption. This includes the consumption of service vehicles for travel to the customer’s premises, to the construction site or to the plant, as well as the fuel consumption of company vehicles for employees entitled to use one.
The development of key performance indicators also shows a reduction since 2020. The total energy consumption and the CO2 emissions (Scope 1 & 2 – market-based) in relation to the number of employees and the revenue generated were used for the calculation.
| SBU | Unit | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction Equipment Central Europe SBU | MWh | 67,795 | 71,500 | 67,270 |
| Construction Equipment Eurasia SBU | MWh | 32,626 | 36,046 | 34,249 |
| Construction Equipment Nordics SBU | MWh | 18,653 | 18,694 | 20,777 |
| Rental SBU | MWh | 34,963 | 37,020 | 37,216 |
| Power Systems SBU | MWh | 12,047 | 11,830 | 11,186 |
| Plant Engineering SBU | MWh | 18,147 | 19,096 | 18,617 |
| Zeppelin GmbH (holding company) | MWh | 3,327 | 3,469 | 3,010 |
| Zeppelin Group | MWh | 187,558 | 197,655 | 192,325 |
| Energy consumption per energy source | Unit | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total heat consumption | MWh | 55,216 | 49,609 |
| Consumption of natural/liquid/propane gas | MWh | 43,541 | 36,402 |
| District/local heating consumption | MWh | 9,304 | 10,324 |
| Heating oil consumption | MWh | 2,372 | 2,878 |
| Diesel consumption (heating) | MWh | 0 | 5 |
| Total power consumption | MWh | 32,154 | 30,981 |
| Total fuel consumption | MWh | 109,502 | 110,853 |
| Diesel consumption (fleet) | MWh | 98,732 | 100,361 |
| Diesel consumption (other) | MWh | 1,105 | 614 |
| Gasoline consumption | MWh | 9,665 | 9,878 |
| Consumption of renewable energies | MWh | 783 | 882 |
| Total energy consumption | MWh | 197,655 | 192,325 |
| 2 No steam energy is consumed. Cooling energy is included in the power consumption, e.g. when air conditioning units are operated. No external energy is sold to third parties. Energy consumption is instead attributable to internal demand. |
Measures implemented in 2022
Implementation of the modernization strategy: As part of the modernization concept, in which our worldwide sites that we own will be renovated by 2030, the first projects were already implemented in 2022. The site in Villach (Austria) was thermally renovated and equipped with a photovoltaic system, LED lighting and electric charging stations. In addition, modernization work started in Ulm, Freiburg, and Rendsburg in the second half of the year. Furthermore, heat pumps have already been installed at six German sites. Photovoltaic systems have been installed at five sites, and 15 more are already being planned for 2023.
In addition, sustainability issues were already addressed in our new buildings at the start of the project. For example, a 130 kWh battery storage system was installed alongside a 24 kWp photovoltaic system in the new construction of the site in Bratislava, which also supplies energy for the air-to-water heat pump. In addition, an underground rainwater tank has been built to reduce fresh water consumption. The new Nordics SBU headquarters in Landvetter near Gothenburg is set to be certified by BREEAM for its energy-efficient and environmentally friendly design.
E-mobility at Zeppelin
On January 1, 2021, the Zeppelin Group added electric and hybrid vehicles to its fleet used by German companies. Vehicles with an electric or hybrid drive are significantly lower in emissions than those with conventional combustion engines. Zeppelin can therefore significantly reduce its CO2 emissions, which are largely caused by the fleet. Around 8% of Group-wide company cars were electric or hybrid vehicles in 2022.
A pilot project to convert service vehicles to electric drive was also initiated. However, due to the range requirements, the conversion is limited to the technologies currently available on the market. The electric vehicles can be charged via the charging network at Zeppelin, which is currently being built. In 2022, there were 201 charging points already built at 46 locations in Germany and other locations in Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Denmark. Other sites will gradually be equipped with charging stations in the coming years.
Energy-saving campaign “Be sustainable. Save sustainable.”
A worldwide energy saving campaign was launched in the reporting year. With the campaign “Be sustainable. Save sustainable” Zeppelin wants to make an active contribution to saving energy together with all employees. In addition to posters, tips on how to save energy in the company and in the private sector were also provided. With the help of an online pin board, further ideas were gathered and measures were exchanged across the Group.
In addition to the actions already mentioned, additional decentralized projects were carried out at the individual sites. For example, in the period from July 5 to July 14, 2022, the “Bike and collect kilometers” campaign took place, in which plant engineering employees were able to play sports together and reinforce the team spirit. The aim of these campaign weeks was to save CO2, reduce trips by car and at the same time improve general fitness. A total of 3,372 kilometers were covered by bicycle during the campaign.
1 The total energy consumption shown includes a small percentage of forecast consumption (less than 5%)