Environmental contribution

Climate change is the most pressing issue faced by all life on earth. Bühler is committed to contribute to mitigating its impacts. With this commitment, we act in the interest of all stakeholders to take action before the effects become irreversible.  

Through the conservation of resources, reduction of waste generated and collaboration to decarbonize heavy emitting areas of its value chain, Bühler can contribute to the needed mitigation of emissions into the atmosphere. This reduces the impact on the industries which Bühler has served for the past 162 years and avoids a significant risk to its core business.  

With regard to Bühler’s scope 1 and 2 emissions at its 30 sites globally, which includes their factory and offices, and the scope 3 categories of purchased goods and services, capital goods, fuel and energy related activities, upstream transportation, waste generated from operations, upstream leased assets and downstream transportation, the responsibility falls under the COO and their department Manufacturing, Logistics & Supply Chain. The target set out is to be net-zero by 2030 and within this, to reduce emissions by at least 50% in the same timeframe against a baseline of 2019. The strategies to achieve the target are set out in the whitepapers drafted which provide a guideline to decarbonize and increase the efficiency of its operations, to reduce emissions and avoid additional emissions from future business growth. These whitepapers have been agreed upon and signed by all senior stakeholders.  

In 2019 we announced our target of having solutions ready to multiply by 2025 at the latest that will reduce energy, waste, and water by 50% in our customers’ value chains. We do this through improved solutions, technology and services and have committed publicly to have solutions ready by 2025. Focus is on services, including e.g., retrofits, energy management systems, yield improvements and upcycling of side streams, as well introducing new products and technologies. For more information regarding Bühler’s management of energy, water, and waste used and emissions caused from its products, please refer to the sub section Our impact on CO₂e.  

In relation to upstream and downstream transportation, the foundation of this year’s actions has been on building the quantification methodology and improving data quality. Validating and improving on assumptions and increasing the use of primary data will benefit Bühler in reporting with more accuracy and granularity and help scale the actions that have a significant impact.  

In both scope 3 subcategories, Bühler has engaged suppliers on the local and global level to set joint actions to decarbonize the transportation and packaging used. One area of action has been with already mature suppliers in the field and their availability to support Bühler in its emission reduction ambition. Internally, Bühler has also carried out several projects to reduce the need for subsequent deliveries and to minimize weight of packaging, resulting in lower transported weight and emissions in material production. In 2021, a pilot has been initiated with Ponera Group, with the intention to eliminate the use of wood pallets, replacing it with lighter, stronger, and reusable plastic pallets.  

Examples of actions to mitigate the emissions associated to Bühler’s sold products can be found in the section Our impact on CO₂e. 

The management approach and subsequent actions directly influence the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) 12, 13, and 17 and indirectly influence SDGs 7, 9, and 11.

Every day the food, feed and materials processed on Bühler technologies help to feed an estimated two billion people and provide mobility for one billion people. With this global reach comes responsibility. This is why Bühler has set goals to have viable solutions available to cut energy usage, water consumption, and waste by 50% in the value chains of our customers by 2025. This focus was selected as we have the capability to bring impact in these areas. By doing this, we seek to support our customers to reach their sustainability targets, minimize their greenhouse gas emissions, and mitigate climate change. We believe it is only through ambitious targets that we will be able to sustainably feed and transport a growing global population by 2050. 

To achieve these goals and to better understand our impact, Bühler launched the CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) Quantification Program in February 2020, where we quantify the CO₂e footprint of the products processed through our technology, and the impact of our solutions and services on the CO₂e footprint of our customers’ finished products. 

Mitigating climate change is complex and will not be achieved if we are unable to measure the impact of our actions. The purpose of Bühler’s CO₂e Quantification Program is to achieve just that. Measuring emissions is the priority in the emission’s hierarchy. A major focus has been placed on quantifying the emissions occurring in the entire value chain and identifying the carbon hotspots and then taking appropriate action to maximize avoidance and reduction of CO₂e through services for more efficient processing, new solutions, and renewable energy sources. For this, Bühler quantifies the impact of our new solutions compared to previous solutions, to track our progress toward our 50/50/50 goals as well as the corresponding CO₂e reduction potential (see examples in the energy, waste, and water section). Lastly, there is the need to draw down unavoidable emissions from the atmosphere in collaboration with companies such as Climeworks or Ecosystem Regeneration Projects from the Crowther Lab. This process aims at supporting our customers to actively and credibly compensate and/or neutralize their emissions. 

The measured and managed boundary of this management approach expands to all key products and the impact of all key technologies and services across the Group. 

The management approach and its boundary are under direct responsibility of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer). As a result, the respective team has been tasked to strategize and implement actions to mitigate the negative impacts which result from energy consumption.  

Over the last year, Bühler has continued its engagement with colleagues on the topic of sustainability and CO₂e quantification. Quarterly meetings took place with ambassadors in the regions to raise awareness of the topic and identify gaps in the quantifications. During these meetings, participants are encouraged to understand how we can further embed this in daily business activities to support our customers in reducing their carbon footprint.  

With targets comes the need for metrics. For our ambitions to be credible, we need to understand what impact we are having on our sustainability targets. Therefore, in February 2020 we launched the CO₂e Quantification Program, designed to map out and measure CO₂e emissions across our key value chains covering around 90% of the products processed on Bühler technology. The program is designed to calculate and/or measure emissions across our customers’ entire value chains, from the production of the raw materials to the manufacturing process and then on to distribution and retail. 

We developed the CO₂e quantification method that complies with ISO 14067 standards with an external partner, the sustainability consultancy Quantis. We have now assessed 13 value chains, 35 products/solutions, and 24 high-impact technologies and services. We have externally validated our CO₂e quantification methodology with Société Générale de Surveillance SA (SGS) for seven product/solutions. Bühler will continue to work with external partners to ensure all aspects of sustainability are considered. 

In 2021, Bühler started to quantify avoided CO₂e emissions. This is the amount of CO₂e that is not being pumped into the atmosphere because of the new Bühler technologies and services that efficiently process our customer’s products (compared to our benchmark year, 2017). This metric will help highlight the importance of retrofit technologies on existing processes and show that retrofit is one of the fastest ways to cut emissions.  

In 2021, Bühler has contributed to the newly released Pathfinder Framework. The intention of the framework is to revise previous existing standards to give a more comprehensive understanding to companies on the method to measure, verify and report emissions associated with a product over its life cycle. As a result of the work done with the WBCSD working group, it is the intention to use this framework for the assessment of its products’ life cycle emissions in the future, starting next year. 

Through its detailed knowledge of production processes, Bühler has been able to calculate how much CO₂e is emitted relative to any specific manufacturing activity. This is known as the emission factor. For example, a flour milling process is divided into eight phases, with an emission factor attributed to each phase. It reveals that the bulk of CO₂e emissions occur during milling, followed, to a far lesser degree, by the blending and screening phases. 

The Quantification Program has also made it possible to calculate an emission factor where Bühler technology is not being used. This enables the program to scale up the emission metrics throughout the whole value chain to give a sector or industry calculation. For example, the global average emission factor for wheat production is 700 kilograms of CO₂e for every metric ton of wheat. It also means that emissions can be broken down into geographical regions.   

To properly assess progress towards achieving its target of cutting energy, waste and water by half, the CO₂e Quantification Program can calculate emissions linked to the raw materials being processed on its technologies and services. Only by producing this sort of comprehensive data is it possible to not only compare metrics throughout the value chain but also between industries.  

To track progress towards meeting the 50/50/50 goals, the CO₂e Quantification Program can calculate CO₂e reduction in terms of the technology used by the customer, the emissions generated by the customer’s plant and the emissions embedded within the customer’s value chain.  

We quantify high-impact technologies and services at three scopes:

• Technology: to focus R&D and quantify impact and reductions of energy, waste, and water.
• Plant: to quantify the impact for our customers and support their journey to CO₂e neutrality.
• Value chain: to define the impact of technology and services up and downstream using CO₂e.

Bühler compares how a new technology will improve emissions relative to an older technology. For example, when the SWAKT-Eco industrial wafer baking oven was introduced, it reduced gas consumption by 20% relative to its predecessor. Bühler ensures that any research and development program will target the 50/50/50 goals as a priority.

This part of the program quantifies the impact of CO₂e reduction from the perspective of the customer. For example, the Mill E3 reduces CO₂e produced within the mill by 9%. This is an important calculation for our customers who are themselves under pressure to demonstrate to the market that they are taking steps to reduce their own carbon footprint. Many Bühler customers are already starting to commit to becoming net-zero. 

By calculating CO₂e emission reduction across the whole value chain it is possible to ensure the focus is on the carbon hotspots. For example, a technology that reduces 90% of waste gases may have a minimal impact on CO₂e emissions across the whole value chain. 

By combining these three areas of scope we can focus our R&D activities on maximizing the reduction of CO₂e concentration in our atmosphere.  

The management approach and subsequent actions directly influence the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) 9, 12, and 13 as defined by the United Nations. They indirectly influence SDGs 6, 7, and 15.