Mitigating climate change and promoting the circular economy
We live in a world on the brink of collapse.
The climate crisis cannot be considered a subordinate priority, and at Ferrer we are well aware of this.
We are therefore committed to being a carbon-positive company as far as our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.
We have also publicly announced our decarbonisation targets through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi): Ferrer has committed to reducing its direct emissions by 50% and its indirect emissions (which account for 85% of overall emissions) by 25%.
In addition, the «Ferrer carbon-positive: one step beyond zero emissions» strategy is structured around 6 main commitments:
Liveable Planet Goals
At Ferrer we want to guarantee a habitable planet for everyone
Are you aware of our commitments?
Commitment 1: We make a commitment to science
In our firm commitment to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, validated and approved by Science Based Targets, in 2022, we have made progress as a company on several key aspects related to our climate strategy.
Some of our most noteworthy initiatives include:
For the second consecutive year, we attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, participating in numerous sessions of the summit, where experiences from the scientific community and best practices from other companies were shared, which provided us with an opportunity validate and align our climate strategy.
We have worked on defining our climate change governance model in order to improve our climate strategy and involve the necessary people from each department in the implementation of our Climate Transition Plan.
To ensure that Committee members have climate change skills, in 2023 we will run a training course for the entire leadership team on how to effectively implement a decarbonisation strategy in the company from an operational and financial perspective.
This year, we have also updated our analysis of climate risk impacts and opportunities in line with the recommendations set out by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
We have used the results of this analysis to identify the risks with the greatest impact and highest probability of occurrence in the short and medium term for inclusion in Ferrer’s corporate risk map.
We have also continued to work on raising awareness of the various issues associated with climate change and how these affect human beings.
A good example of this type of activity was the Agora Talk* held in July in collaboration with Oxfam Intermón to discuss the concept of Climate (IN)justice, a term used to draw attention to the ethical and political conflict derived from the negative effects of climate change on people, which goes beyond being an environmental or physical challenge in nature.
* internal chat open to everyone in our Agora space at the head office
As a result of all the initiatives we carried out in 2022, we have been able to greatly increase our performance in several of the categories analysed by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) index, a global benchmark in the processing of data on climate change management, which classifies companies according to their commitment to reducing their GHG emissions and measuring the environmental impact of their actions.
We have achieved a «B” or “Management» category in the CDP Climate Index, reflecting our internal efforts to review, plan and take coordinated action on managing the climate impact of our business.
For more information on our assessment you can see details of our 2022 result here.
For Ferrer, it is of vital importance to reduce Scope 3 emissions, which also accounted for more than 80% of our total GHG emissions in 2022.
In fact, as a result of all the efforts dedicated to the climate management of indirect emissions generated by our suppliers, in 2022 we obtained the category of «Leaders in the CDP’s Supplier Engagement Rating», which focuses on how effectively companies are engaging and working with suppliers to address climate change issues.
For more information on our assessment you can see details of our 2022 result here.
In the coming year, we will continue to work to improve our climate performance in order to become a leader and achieve “A” status in the global CDP Climate Index.
To this end, we will take the following actions:
Detailed economic study to prioritise the actions needed to achieve the objectives set out in the SBTi.
Implementation of an Internal Carbon Pricing system to decarbonise the investments to be made in the coming years.
We will continue to promote new initiatives in the programme to support suppliers in decarbonising their business activities, thereby reducing Ferrer’s Scope 3 emissions.
Evolution of GHG emissions in Ferrer
In 2022, we increased our carbon footprint compared to the previous year by 14%, which corresponded to a reduction in achievement of the SBTi target
This increase is mainly due to the investments made for the construction of two new production sites during 2022, and all the materials and machinery necessary for doing business in these two new locations.
It is worth noting, however, that, with respect to the base year 2019, we have reduced Ferrer’s overall carbon footprint by 10%, in line with our SBTi reduction targets, reaching 20% compliance with the target for direct emissions and 38% compliance with the target for Ferrer’s indirect emissions.
Likewise, the continuous increase in production at our chemical plant implies an increase in emissions derived from the consumption of Natural Gas, thus increasing our dependence on this fuel and the criticality of finding a more sustainable alternative fuel in the medium term.
For details of the evolution of our GHG emissions, please refer to the 2022 NFIS (non-financial information statement).
Commitment 2: Promoting the circular economy
In keeping with our commitment to the environment and to future generations, at Ferrer we are moving towards a production model based on the circular economy.
Our Packaging for Good programme
In the context of our commitment to the circular economy, since 2019 we have promoted various initiatives to encourage efficient consumption of the packaging materials we use in our products, in line with our sustainable packaging model, thus minimising their environmental footprint, in keeping with our Climate Change Policy, which aims to make us a carbon-positive company.
The goal is to reduce the carbon footprint of our packaging by 25% through eco-design and reduce that of the products we manufacture by 50%, by 2030.
The Sustainable Packaging model was implemented for the first time in 2020, and during 2022 we have carried out several initiatives to consolidate the project, the most noteworthy of which are:
We have trained more than 80 people at Ferrer who work in contact with our product so that they are familiar with the Sustainable Packaging Model and integrate it into their daily work.
In these training sessions, as well as being able to learn about the project in depth, participants were able to make proposals for improvement and initiatives to apply these sustainable packaging criteria to other products in the future.
Another of the aspects we worked on this year that is also key to the success of the project has been the co-creation of a process for the implementation of eco-design projects with all the areas involved in this process.
In this way, the roles and responsibilities of each area have been defined at the moment of executing a product eco-design,thereby integrating these tasks into the organisation’s existing processes.
In addition, to give continuity to the model and contribute to the strategic objective of ecodesigning 50% of our product portfolio by 2030, we have analysed the feasibility of implementing three new ecodesign projects in several of our products, carrying out an environmental, technical and economic feasibility analysis of the application of different ecodesign improvements.
The main strategies analysed for these three products are summarised below: