At Beckers, we set high goals on our environmental performance, continuously exploring new opportunities for energy management and resource efficiency. We also believe it is important to understand the extent of our contribution to climate change and identify related risks and opportunities.
Climate action is an integral part of our business and we systematically work to reduce our carbon emissions as we acknowledge that climate change poses existential threats to our business and future generations. Using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a greenhouse gas inventory analysis at our facilities, we have determined that the biggest sources of emissions related to our operations are:
Our key emission intensity indicator is metric tons (MT) CO2e per metric ton product. In 2023 0.32 MTCO2e was emitted per metric ton of paint produced, which is a decrease of 5.9 percent compared with the previous year. This is a reduction of 20 percent compared with our base year 2013. The total decrease is a result of multiple energy efficiency efforts. The results for 2023 show a 51 percent absolute reduction in emissions in scopes 1 and 2 combined, compared to the base year 2013. We also continue to measure and target VOC emissions from all our production sites. Thanks to a combination of activities such as low-solvent cleaning systems, solvent recirculation and on-site distillation, we could reduce our air emissions in 2023.
Reducing the waste associated with the production and sale of our products remains a key area of focus. Our integrated and structured approach addresses all aspects of waste reduction, from product and packaging design to developing innovative methods for reusing or responsibly disposing of any waste produced.
Among the indicators we track to measure the circularity and waste in our processes, we monitor the absolute reduction percentage of incinerated waste without heat recovery. Progress in this area highlights the opportunities we’ve leveraged to improve waste management practices, enhance resource recovery, and minimize environmental impact
To find out more about our performance on waste and other environmental indicators, please read the 2023 Sustainability Report.
We respect water as a shared resource and take our responsibility to use it wisely at all our sites. It is used primarily in facility amenities such as showers, sanitation, and food preparation, but also as a minor component in manufacturing, such as cooling and cleaning. As the impacts from our direct water usage occur at a local level where we operate, our measures and initiatives are individualized for our sites. With ten of our 25 locations situated in water-stressed areas, we have several ongoing projects to reduce water consumption.
To find out more about our performance on water and other resource use, please read the 2023 Sustainability Report.
Energy intensity measured as energy used per ton of coatings produced is one of our pivotal environmental KPIs.
Since we started measuring our energy use, we have shown a consistent increase in the fraction of renewable energy consumption from the total energy we use. We aim to further advance this trend in the coming years, continuing the transition to renewable energy across our business, especially with renewable electricity. After the first installation of 300 solar panels at our Malaysia site in 2017, many other sites started producing renewable electricity with their own solar photovoltaic energy systems so that we already reached our 2030 goal of 70% renewable electricity in 2022, but we continued this positive trend in 2023 with 79% renewable electricity. Our new goal that was set in 2022, is now to reach 70% renewable energy by 2030, of which we reached 58% in 2023.
To find out more about our energy performance, please read the 2023 Sustainability Report.