Altana to be CO2-neutral by 2025

Altana has announced plans to reduce its CO₂ impact from production and energy procurement worldwide to zero by 2025. This follows achieving its 2020 goal of reducing emissions in relation to gross value by 30% from 2007 levels.

The company will complete sourcing all of its power from renewables this year. It will finance “equivalent climate protection projects” to offset natural gas consumption where it is unavoidable and will also offset CO₂ emissions arising from necessary business trips, company cars, and the transport of goods.

Among other things, Altana has installed photovoltaic energy systems at the Elantas site at Ascoli Piceno, Italy, and Pune, India, and at BYK in Deventer, Netherlands. Another is going up at a new Elantas building at Collecchio, Italy. In addition, the company is working with suppliers on a programme to improve the CO₂ balance of purchased raw materials.

CEO Martin Babilas (above) said that industry can play a decisive role in driving forward global climate protection but such targets “cannot be achieved without sufficient electricity from renewable energies at competitive prices and the corresponding grid infrastructure”. The VCI has calculated that the German chemical industry’s electricity needs on the way to greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050 will increase eleven-fold.

“New procedures must be accelerated by public subsidies and barriers to use and own production must be eliminated. Furthermore, policymakers should create comparable competitive conditions for the industry with internationally uniform CO₂ pricing,” he said.