#Interview
Climate strategy & accounting
“A climate strategy is not a one-off product that can be completed quickly, but rather a continuous process.”
As part of our focus month on climate strategy, we spoke with Christine Maderspacher, Senior Sustainability Consultant at Fokus Zukunft. She and her team support small and medium-sized enterprises on their path to implementing climate-conscious business practices, through CO₂ accounting, strategy development and concrete action planning. In this interview she explains what really matters in establishing an effective climate strategy, the important role energy efficiency plays, and how companies can systematically reduce emissions.
The first step is always to analyze the current situation. This involves compiling figures and data from all areas of the company in order to derive their corresponding CO₂ emissions. This assessment serves as the basis for a climate strategy. It is therefore extremely important that the assessment is based on valid data and also includes all areas of the company. Only then can you get a meaningful picture of the biggest emission drivers and thus the areas with greatest potential for reducing CO₂ emissions in your business.
Once data is collected, the next step is to define savings targets and develop associated measures. It is important to think and act with a long-term perspective. A climate strategy is not a one-off product that can be completed quickly, but rather a continuous process.
That depends very much on the industry. The manufacturing sector often consumes enormous amounts of electricity or gas to operate its plants and machinery. That is where the potential for savings is naturally greatest. The quickest way to reduce emissions is to switch to green electricity. However, electricity consumption will still remain high and optimizing operations through energy efficiency can save significant amounts of energy, and therefore money.
The situation is often quite different for service companies. Here, business trips or employee commuting can account for a large proportion of the company’s emissions. In this case, it is necessary to raise awareness regarding the importance of employee commuting in order to bring about change.
In addition to emissions from energy and fuel consumption, we also analyze upstream and downstream processes and their emissions as part of our carbon footprint assessment—in other words, emissions that arise outside the company’s direct sphere of influence. These include logistics, purchased goods and services, and emissions resulting from the use and disposal of sold products. For many companies, collecting data for carbon footprint calculations is not easy and can be quite time-consuming. We support our customers in this area by implementing our pragmatic approach to data collection.
The insights gained from the carbon footprint assessment are very valuable. For example, key CO₂ drivers can be identified on individual logistics routes, in specific raw materials, or even in the disposal of certain products. If a company wants to analyze and optimize the emissions of its products even more precisely, we offer options for this too.
CO₂ emissions are analyzed throughout the product life cycle, through an analysis called the product carbon footprint (PCF). A complete PCF begins with raw material extraction and ends at product disposal (from cradle to grave). Depending on the issue or boundary conditions, only a partial analysis, e.g., only up to the factory gate, may be carried out. Depending on the product, it may also make sense to include its function. For the defined boundary, all data on material and energy flows are recorded and the corresponding CO₂ emissions are determined.
If a company wants to calculate product variants itself, an individual CO₂ calculator can even be created for this purpose. This is developed with your specific requirements and constraints in mind, and can be used both in product development and in communication with end customers.
We are your constant companion and advisor throughout this process. We provide support right from the start by helping you define your goals and appropriate scope. Once it is clear which areas and categories of the company or product are to be considered, we help you collect the relevant data. Depending on the industry and size of the company, or even at the product level, this can be a real challenge. To address this, we provide practical advice and work with your company to find pragmatic approaches for the sometimes large and complex data volumes.
Once the assessment is complete, we analyze the results and make suggestions for further action. Sometimes, concrete indications of potential savings can already be derived and attacked at this stage through a jointly developed reduction strategy. We monitor success through regular re-assessments. In general, we are a constant point of contact for our customers for all questions relating to sustainability and climate protection, and we always try to find pragmatic and targeted solutions.
