Archroma reduces scope one and two emissions

Textiles chemicals specialist Archroma used less energy in its manufacturing last year, reduced its scope one and two emissions, and launched 27 sustainable solution systems.

Textiles chemicals specialist Archroma used less energy in its manufacturing last year, reduced its scope one and two emissions, and launched 27 sustainable solution systems.

The company outlined its achievements in its 2019 sustainability report, prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, and outlining progress on its priority sustainability topics, such as human health and environmental safety, and resource efficiency.

“As our industries navigate through the Covid-19 pandemic, the temptation for some will be to push back on the urgent need to address the climate crisis,” says Heike van de Kerkhof, CEO of Archroma. “We cannot allow that.”

Highlights of Archroma’s sustainability report:

The total amount of energy consumed in 2019 was 1,146 TJ, which represents a 15% decrease in comparison to FY2018. This equates to an average of 2.56 GJ per tonne of production; a 9% decrease over the previous reporting period. The company’s medium-term target for 2023 will be to reduce energy intensity to 2.39 GJ per ton of production.
From a total withdrawal perspective, the water intensity use during the reporting period equates to an average of 19.63 m3 per tonne of production. This represents a 6.4% increase over the previous reporting period. The company’s medium-term target for 2023 is to reduce the water intensity to 16.6 m3 per ton of production.
During the reporting period, Archroma discharged a total of 6.88mn m3 of water. 83% of this was discharged to surface water after suitable treatment to ensure conformity to local requirements. The remainder is discharged to third-party effluent treatment sites for further processing before being discharged to surface water. The total discharge represents 78% of total water withdrawn for operations.
Total waste generated during 2019 was 17,714 metric tonnes, of which 50% was classified as hazardous. Of the total waste, 37% was disposed by incineration, 43% to landfill, and 20% was reused, recovered or recycled. Of the hazardous waste, 64% was disposed by incineration, and 7% was disposed in appropriately licensed landfill sites.
Scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions for FY2019 amounted to 88,985 tCO2e. This represents a 4.2% decrease compared to FY2018. The target is to achieve carbon neutrality for scope 1 and scope 2 emissions in 2023, defining intermediate annual targets to reduce emission levels, with the objective to off-set the remaining absolute GHG emissions. Archroma said Scope 3 emissions have not been calculated or estimated for the reporting period, due to the complexity of raw material supply distributed between global and local vendors to the sites and the distribution to the industries which it serves. “This will be an area of focus for the future and positively impact the results.”