The Vaillant Group acknowledges its special responsibility towards the environment, the company’s employees and society as a whole. Sustainability is the foundation of our business activities. The SEEDS sustainability programme is therefore an important part of the overall strategic direction of the Vaillant Group and underpins the company’s sustainability activities.
SEEDS stands for “Sustainability in Environment, Employees, Development & Solutions and Society”. In these four focus fields, the company sets itself concrete, quantifiable targets. In 2020, ten years after its launch, the Vaillant Group relaunched the SEEDS programme.
Halving CO2 emissions by 2030 through:
reduced energy consumption within production processes and buildings
investment in an environmentally friendly vehicle fleet
100% of electricity from renewable energies
compensation of the remaining CO2 emissions through certificates and our own afforestation project
Diversity and inclusion: equal treatment and appreciation of all colleagues
Customised programmes for the further training and development of all employees
Preferred internal filling of management vacancies
Clear goal in occupational safety: zero accidents at work
Leading supplier of environmentally friendly heat pumps
6 green rules - Integration of sustainability criteria in product development
Preferred use of recyclable materials in product manufacturing
Comprehensive digital services for economical energy consumption
Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact as the basis of business activities
Mandatory environmental and social standards at our suppliers
Exclusive partnership with “SOS Children’s Villages worldwide” since 2013
* compared to the base year 2018
The Vaillant Group has been climate-neutral within its own area of business responsibility since 2020 (Scopes 1 and 2). In its climate strategy, the company is guided by the requirements of the Science Based Targets initiative. These scientifically sound requirements define the extent to which a company needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions – and the time frame in which it needs to do so – in order to limit global warming.
The Vaillant Group will gradually reduce its CO₂ emissions from the annual level of around 56,000 tonnes (as of 2018) to less than 28,000 tonnes by 2030.
By the end of 2020, the company’s CO₂ emissions had already been reduced by 35 per cent compared to the base year 2018. The remaining approximately 36,000 tonnes of CO₂ from 2020 were offset by certificates from a Gold Standard-certified afforestation project in Panama, in which the Vaillant Group has been participating since 2020. In April 2022, the company launched its first own afforestation project, in northern Costa Rica. The newly emerging forest on more than 1,000 hectares of land that was previously used for pasture will store more than 600,000 tonnes of CO₂ over the next 40 years.
As such, the Vaillant Group will contribute to achieving the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which include a target to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Gold standard
The Gold Standard ensures that a climate protection project makes a measurable and lasting contribution to the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere and contributes to sustainable development in the region.
A major factor in terms of reducing CO2 emissions is electricity from renewable energy sources. The company’s plants and branches in Germany have been running completely on green power since 2017, with the plants in the French city of Nantes and the British town of Belper following suit in 2018. Since 2020, all Vaillant Group sites have been using electricity from renewable energy sources.
A second key factor is reduced energy consumption within the production processes and buildings of the Vaillant Group. Efficiency measures in production and within buildings are designed to help lower gas consumption at the Vaillant Group and thus significantly reduce the associated CO2 emissions.
A third factor is the vehicle fleet. It is intended that its emissions will fall considerably by 2030 – thanks to a gradual switch to more economical vehicles and, wherever possible, electric vehicles. The plan is for electric cars to account for at least 25 to 30 per cent of the Vaillant Group vehicle fleet by 2030.
In the long term, the Vaillant Group will offset the remaining CO2 emissions by means of its own afforestation projects. Forests are able to capture the climate-damaging greenhouse gas CO2.
As part of long-term projects, the Vaillant Group will plant areas of forest in emerging countries. The company is a partner in new landscape and afforestation projects in Peru and Costa Rica. Until these planned new areas of forest capture all the company’s emissions remaining after the reduction measures, the Vaillant Group will continue to purchase CO2 certificates from an existing Gold Standard-certified afforestation project in Panama.
The report provides information on the progress of the Vaillant Group in the area of sustainability in 2021 / 2022.
The Vaillant Group is aware of its special responsibility towards the environment, employees and society. We are therefore committed to a socially just and sustainable society in partnerships with the “SOS Children’s Villages worldwide” and WWF.
The Vaillant Group has been calculating its carbon footprint since 2018 in order to gain a valid data set and understand how many greenhouse gas emissions are caused by specific activities. The provisions of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol – a globally recognised standard for the determination and accounting of greenhouse gas emissions – are decisive in this regard.
The Vaillant Group’s own reported CO2 emissions comprise greenhouse gases that occur through the use of gas and electricity in production, at our administrative locations and through the usage of vehicles.
In the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, these emissions fall within Scope 1 and Scope 2. In accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the Vaillant Group factors in all other relevant greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol alongside CO2. Emissions of these gases are converted into so-called CO2 equivalents and included in the calculation of the Vaillant Group’s carbon footprint.
In addition to those emissions for which the company bears sole responsibility, there are some over which the company has only indirect influence. They are classified as Scope 3 emissions and are caused in the upstream or downstream value chain. The Vaillant Group shares responsibility for these greenhouse gases with suppliers, employees and customers. These include emissions from purchased goods and services and those that are generated in connection with transport, business travel or commuting to work. In particular, they also include emissions that are caused by the use of Vaillant Group products. The extent of the emissions generated during the operation of a heating system depends on the energy source, the energy standard of the building concerned and personal heating habits. With highly efficient products and state-of-the-art control technology, the Vaillant Group enables its customers to save energy and CO2 emissions.
