Environmental Responsibility

Long-term thinking and responsible action are two of SCHOTT’s guiding principles, which is why we are committed to environmental and climate protection. With our “Zero Carbon” strategy program, we are entering a new era of sustainable management.

Climate neutral by 2030
Environmental protection
EHS management system

Towards an ambitious goal

With our goal being climate neutral, we have embarked on a long and challenging journey. But we have already completed the first milestones.

Climate neutral by 2030

Our clear goal: Climate neutral by 2030

As a global specialty glass manufacturer, we are part of an energy-intensive industry with a large CO2 footprint. We want to meet this challenge.

First successes - Climate Neutral 2030

First successes - Climate Neutral 2030
Learn more about our environmental goals.

“Regarding climate change, it is high time to act. Everyone must take responsibility – politicians, companies and society. We are ready to play our part. We want to become climate neutral by 2030.”

Dr. Jens Schulte

Member of the Board of Management with responsibility for the “Zero Carbon” strategy program

"Reducing our carbon footprint is not only good for the environment and the climate. It also makes us an even more sustainable partner for our customers."

Anja Schlosser

Manager Sustainability, Coordinator of the "Zero Carbon" strategy program

"We need big and bold changes. We need to do it for our kids and our grandkids. I know we can do it."

Tania Meese

TCS Specialist

"I think it’s great that we’re encouraged to think more about environmental protection concerns. You know you are doing something good."

Markus Langer

Mechanical Services

"As part of our strategy to become climate neutral by 2030, we are working hard to adapt our melting technologies to use green electricity and hydrogen."

Michael Hahn

Head of Hot Processes

Our action plan

On our way toward climate neutrality, we act according to the principle "Avoid - Reduce – Compensate”. Our action plan comprises four fields of action.

Technology change

The goal of climate neutrality requires a massive upheaval in glass production. The greatest challenge is technology change, along with the time factor. In the long term, we want to completely abandon the use of fossil fuels as far as technologically possible. In developing new technologies, we are focusing on the most energy-intensive process step of glass melting. Here we are pursuing two main transformation paths: electrification and hydrogen technology. In both approaches, electricity from renewable energies plays a decisive role.

Using digitalization and artificial intelligence to improve melting processes

Improvement of energy efficiency

The continuous improvement of energy efficiency and the associated reduction of energy consumption has been an ongoing task for us for decades. As part of our proven energy management system, we are constantly working to identify and utilize energy efficiency potential. New impetus is coming from the digitalization of the melting process and artificial intelligence. With new types of sensors and technology in the field of big data, we can improve the structure of the mass data we collect at the glass melting tanks, analyze it automatically, and use it for process improvements.

100 percent green electricity

It is our goal to use electricity from renewable sources only. Since the end of 2021, we have been covering 100 percent of our electricity requirements worldwide with renewable energies with corresponding certificates of origin. In this context, we attach great importance to high-quality green power certificates that confirm a strong contribution to the energy transition. In the next step, we also want to procure green power via long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with operators of certain renewable energy plants.

Compensating residual emissions

We compensate residual emissions by investing in climate protection projects certified to strict standards. We made a start in 2020, and are now expanding our compensation portfolio step by step. In doing so, we are focusing primarily on nature-based solutions such as afforestation and reforestation. By 2030, we want to fully compensate the emissions that we cannot avoid through technology change, further improvements in energy efficiency, and the use of green electricity to become a climate-neutral company.

Corporate Carbon Footprint

Glass production is energy intensive

As a specialty glass manufacturer, SCHOTT is an energy-intensive company. Specialty glasses and glass-ceramics are melted in large melting tanks at temperatures of up to 1,700 ºC. Until now, we have been heating the melting tanks with the fossil fuels natural gas and heating oil, and in some cases with electricity. Glass processing also requires a lot of energy. Due to this total energy demand, our climate-relevant footprint in 2019 was around one million tons of CO2e.

Our calculations are based on the market-based method of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG). The exact location-based footprint was 641,081.0 tons of CO2e. To calculate our Corporate Carbon Footprint, we consider the emissions of all greenhouse gases. We currently include emissions from our own production (Scope 1 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol) and from purchased energy (Scope 2) in the calculation. For Scope 3, we also take into account business travel and employee commuting. In the medium term, we want to include the other Scope 3 emissions, which consider emissions in the supply chain. In order to establish comparability in terms of their climate impact, we report greenhouse gas emissions in CO2 equivalents (CO2e).

SCHOTT in Mainz_Climate neutral. (12).jpg

“Climate neutral by 2030” white paper

Our “Climate neutral by 2030” white paper provides deeper insights into our motivation and objectives for our journey to climate neutrality, as well as the challenges and solutions.

Download the white paper

Environmental protection

Since 1987, environmental protection has been an important corporate goal for SCHOTT

Setting standards

Through the use of state-of-the-art technology and continuous process improvements, we repeatedly set standards in the glass industry when it comes to environmental protection.

Hermann Ditz, Member of the Board of Management

“Protecting the environment and the natural resources are high-priority corporate goals to which we are clearly committed.”

Continuous process improvements to reduce emissions and energy and water consumption

Dust

Using filter technologies, we reduce dust emissions in the exhaust air from the glass melting process by over 99 %.

Nitrogen oxides

By introducing catalytic and non-catalytic processes, we have been able to reduce specific nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by up to 75 % since 1989.

Energy

Since the 1990s, we have been converting the melting tank heating fuel to oxy-fuel technology, and have succeeded in reducing specific energy consumption by over 30 %.

Energy management

Energy management systems according to ISO 50001 and the energy efficiency network EffiNet@SCHOTT ensure that energy consumption is reduced.

Water

With closed-loop and water treatment systems, we significantly reduce fresh water consumption.

EHS management system

Integrated EHS management system

Since 1995, we have been using an integrated EHS management system to ensure that high standards of environmental protection and health and safety are maintained at all our sites worldwide. It is based on the international ISO standards 14001 (Environmental Management Systems) and 45001 (Occupational Health And Safety).

In the meantime, the EHS standard for material compliance has also been added. These group-wide standards supplement national laws and regulations where it is important to SCHOTT to uniformly regulate relevant compliance topics and define a worldwide minimum standard.