Climate protection at Datwyler

At the end of September, the flag for sustainable development goals was raised worldwide. Datwyler IT Infra also supported the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by participating across Europe on this day. As a member of the UN Global Compact, Datwyler wants to draw attention to the 17 UN goals – and further intensify its own commitment to them.

Datwyler showed the flag
With various local actions the European Datwyler teams demonstrated that the company sees itself as part of this international campaign. A fifth school class visited the Swiss site in Altdorf. The pupils learnt of the measures Datwyler is taking to reduce environmental pollution and how the self-imposed target of CO₂ neutrality can be achieved by 2030. One example is that the factory in Altdorf relies on renewable energies, recycles waste and uses sustainable district heating in winter. At the end the children were given a board game on the theme of sustainability.

Under the slogan “playful school”, Datwyler employees and their families in Děčín, Czech Republic, also received a game containing information about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. In Hattersheim the German team went home with flower meadow seeds so that they could make a small contribution to more biodiversity.

CO₂ neutral by 2030
Datwyler IT Infra has set itself the goal of becoming climate neutral by 2030. The focus here is on the reduction of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. This means that the company wants to reduce direct emissions from fossil fuels which it uses itself (Scope 1). The release of indirect emissions which Datwyler buys in from the energy suppliers will also be reduced (Scope 2).

Clean energy from PV systems
Over the past four years Datwyler has reduced CO₂ emissions by more than 30 percent with a long list of measures. And not only in Altdorf, Switzerland. The plant in Taicang, China – to take another example – is also making a major contribution to this climate protection target. At the end of 2020 a photovoltaic system covering 19,400 square metres started operating on the roof of the Chinese plant. The system has a maximum output of 1200 kW and a service life of over 15 years.

The initial results are impressive: to date the power plant has already generated 3.6 million kilowatt hours of clean energy. This was supplied to the factory or to the national grid when power generation exceeded internal demand. As a result, annual emissions could be reduced by around 900 tonnes of CO₂ in each case. 150 hectares of woodland would be needed to “store” this amount of CO₂ and hence remove it from the atmosphere.

Further significant investment is planned for the coming years. This will bring Datwyler a great deal closer to its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2030.