Duravit AG has announced they’ll be embarking on an ambitious climate effort: to be a climate neutral business by 2045. The company states that having begun with deep regional roots before evolving to become a massive global player, there is a special sense of obligation it has to sustainability in its practices.
“I believe that society as a whole shares responsibility when it comes to sustainability, and for me that explicitly also includes companies such as Duravit,” said Duravit CEO Stephan Tahy. The family-run company from the Black Forest, which operates in more than 130 countries, aspires to use CO2 offsetting as little as possible.
The company has already gone through great lengths to minimize waste in both resource consumption and emissions, such as using exclusively renewable energy at its manufacturing facility in Germany or adhering to PEFC-certified furniture production. Now, Duravit states its management board will be joining forces with a leading business consultancy in the sustainability arena to develop the capabilities to achieve climate neutrality.
Tahy has no doubts that ceramic that ceramic has a place in the climate-neutral future, having proven itself as a sustainable material over a millennium, as he puts it. However, he does recognize that modern day ceramic production can be a very energy-intensive business, and as such, a transformation in that process is needed. A key milestone for the company is to reduce CO2 by 20% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels.
Duravit to Explore Green Energy and Carbon Sequestering Solutions
Currently, the company is reviewing and evaluating a variety of measures they believe will help them achieve this goal, including sourcing electricity from renewable energies around the world, combining oxygen and green hydrogen to reduce emissions, as well as powering electric kilns with green electricity.
Additionally, Duravit is assessing how it can increase its use of recycled materials and is commissioning studies on binding CO2 emissions locally, just a small part of the sustainability package that Duravit is constantly reviewing and expanding.
The climate mission is a component of Duravit’s overarching sustainability strategy, which is aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Alongside the measures relevant to climate change, the core of the strategy is made up of the action areas “water”, “resources” and “people,” with Duravit reviewing the effectiveness of the measures initiated and adapts, expands and enhances them wherever expedient.
“At the present time, the move away from fossil fuels isn’t just an ecological concern, but also a conscious political decision,” said Tahy. “To quote the German finance minister, ‘Renewable energies free us from dependencies. Renewable energies are thus energies of freedom.’”
This story originally appeared on our sister publication KBB Online.