Environmental footprint

Figure 2 shows how the various material and energy flows contribute to the total environmental impact of HUBER+SUHNER. Extraction, processing, and transport of the raw material copper accounted for 40 % and commercial goods for 37 % of the company’s total environmental impact. Other significant environmental aspects were the remaining raw, auxiliary, and process materials[1] (11 %), product transports to customers and between HUBER+SUHNER sites (6 %), paper and packaging material (2 %), electricity (1.4 %), and commuting (1.3 %).

The core balance includes those material and energy flows that the company can directly influence. As can be seen in figure 3, the significant environmental aspects were electricity (67 %), heating (12 %), and waste disposal (10 %), followed by direct emissions of chemicals[2] (7 %) and fuel (4 %). Consequently, most environmental targets of our production sites relate to the top three environmental aspects of the core balance.

Even in the core balance, the environmental impact of the company’s water withdrawal has a very low share (< 0.4 %). Therefore HUBER+SUHNER publishes its water withdrawal but not its water footprint.

The year 2022 saw a significant increase in the total environmental impact (+42 % year-on-year, Figure 4). This increase is mainly attributable to the expansion of the scope (inclusion of purchased commercial goods at all production sites as far as reliable data were available; data on refrigerants, energy consumption, and employee commuting at office locations).

Encouragingly, the downward trend in the intensity of the environmental impact (core balance) continued. It decreased by a further 12 % compared to the previous year (Figure 5).