Aiming for a global climate protection policy through technological innovations, Bayer's process innovation in China is helping to set an example for the company worldwide.
Bayer and sixteen other international companies are original signatories of the global climate protection initiative "3C: Combating Climate Change", which was presented this week in Brussels in the presence of European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. With their specialist knowledge and experience, the participating companies want to help develop a successful global climate protection policy for the period following the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.
One example of process innovation in the Bayer Group is a method which has already been introduced in Germany and China that enables chlorine to be manufactured for plastics production using 30% less energy than before. Bayer materials are found in a wide variety of applications that influence our daily lives and have a direct impact on resource conservation and energy efficiency. Examples here include insulation materials in refrigerators and lightweight automotive materials that lower fuel consumption. Thermal insulation materials in buildings also harbor tremendous potential for energy savings and thus reduced emissions.
"Commitment to climate protection is a top priority with respect to Bayer’s sustainability strategy," says Dr. Wolfgang Plischke, Bayer AG Board of Management member responsible for Innovation, Technology and Environment, adding: "That’s why we helped found the 3C initiative, and we hope that as many companies as possible will join this campaign." Explains Lars G. Josefsson, President and CEO of Vattenfall and the main initiator of 3C: "Instead of being pulled by society, business leaders should be pushing and in a positive way integrate climate change issues into the world of markets and trade on a global scale."
To fight climate change, the 3C initiative aims to support the political community in establishing a global framework for emissions reduction that would offer fair competitive opportunities to all companies in the various regions of the world. A long-term goal of the initiative is to exhaust the potential of technological innovations between now and the year 2100. The 3C initiative is based on the principle that the industrialized nations should serve as an example to developing countries with respect to climate protection measures.
Since the early 1990s, the Bayer Group has reduced its direct greenhouse gas emissions worldwide by roughly 70%, thus already exceeding the goals of the Kyoto Protocol and the German parliament (25% reduction by 2005 and 50% reduction by 2020).
"We have made a lasting contribution to climate protection with this significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and we are maintaining these efforts," promises Plischke. More than half of the reduction was achieved through the use of modern technologies, the closure of old facilities and the procurement of energy from efficient power stations. The rest of the reduction was achieved through portfolio changes.
Explains Plischke: "As a manufacturing company, Bayer aims to use energy in as efficient and environmentally friendly a way as possible. The company’s climate strategy comprises not just production and energy procurement measures, but also the development of products that conserve natural resources and the reaction to changing markets."
The challenges of climate change also present new market opportunities, which Bayer identifies for example in the use of renewable raw materials and biomass. Furthermore, biotechnology and nanotechnology–two key areas of the future–can be used to more effectively exploit renewable energy sources.
