Climate protection
Climate-related opportunities and risks
Climate change has a direct impact on various sectors of the economy, which could have direct and indirect consequences for NORMA Group over a long-term time horizon until 2030.
On one hand, both the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the adaptation to global warming offer opportunities for NORMA Group. These include, for example, new or growing market segments in the fields of e-mobility and water management, which can have a positive impact on sales development. At the same time, energy savings offer the potential to reduce NORMA Group’s operating costs. Last but not least, NORMA Group can benefit from the increasing relevance of this topic in the financial markets by positioning itself as a sustainable investment and thus reducing capital costs.
Conversely, risks can also result from these developments. For example, the increase in the production of alternative forms of drive leads to a decline in the market for conventional drives, a market in which NORMA Group is also active. Increased pricing of greenhouse gases may result in higher operating costs. On the capital market side, a changed reputation can lead to reluctance on the part of capital market players focused on sustainability and thus to higher capital costs.
NORMA Group meets these opportunities and risks with a clear strategy and active management in the areas of WATER MANAGEMENT, E-MOBILITY and RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. With regard to the risks arising from its own production processes, NORMA Group operates a structured environmental management system at all production sites, with clear targets for reducing greenhouse gases.
Progressive climate change does not only mean risks and opportunities for NORMA Group’s business. NORMA Group’s business activities also contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases. This applies in particular to emissions caused by the production of purchased materials and its own production processes.
Active management of e-mobility opportunities
NORMA Group is making an active contribution to e-mobility by developing new products such as quick connectors and thermal management systems. These solutions optimize the cooling and heating of batteries, as well as the complex power electronics, the drivetrain and other sub systems of electric vehicles. During product development, they are tailored to solve the main challenges faced by customers: weight savings, lack of space and the reduction of pressure drop in coolant systems. Minimized pressure loss ensures optimal performance of the thermal management systems.
In addition to providing solutions to these requirements, NORMA Group also guarantees the highest safety standards by applying its experience from the design of fuel transport systems to the demanding environment of batteries and cooling water.
NORMA Group manages its e-mobility efforts in a project-based organization including close collaboration between engineering and sales. Additional training serves to drive knowledge and know-how sharing between all internal stakeholders. By doing so, the company has the flexibility to react efficiently on emerging and very dynamic markets and to connect the new challenges to its current product portfolio and customer expertise. To ensure global alignment and steering, all projects are coordinated and supported by the Global Product Management team.
Marked decrease of production-related emissions (Scope 1 and 2)
NORMA Group is currently concentrating on the collection and management of its greenhouse gas emissions from gas consumption (Scope 1), as well as from purchased electricity and district heating (Scope 2) at its production sites. Regarding electricity and district heating, emissions are calculated using a combination of location-based and market-based methodologies: NORMA Group uses emission factors from specific suppliers wherever these are available (market-based). If this is not the case, NORMA Group uses country emission factors provided by the International Energy Agency (location-based). Values on emissions calculated according the location-based methodology can be found under CR PERFORMANCE INDICATORS.
In 2022, Scope 1 emissions amounted to 4,645 tons of CO2 equivalents (2021: 5,678 tons), while Scope 2 emissions were 234 tons of CO2 equivalents (2021: 37,771 tons). Overall, emissions from Scope 1 and 2 were thus 4,879 metric tons of CO2 equivalents, 88.8% below the previous year’s figure (2021: 43,449 tons). Since January 2022, NORMA Group has purchased electricity from renewable energies at all production sites. NORMA Group purchases "Energy Attribute Certificates" for this purpose. For each megawatt hour consumed at each production site, a certificate is available which proves that the electricity was obtained from renewable energies. The certificates all meet the requirements of the GHG PROTOCOL.
The corresponding energy consumption of gas, electricity and district heating (combined) was 126,532 megawatt hours or 101.8 kilowatt hours per EUR thousand of revenue (2021: 119.2 kilowatt hours per EUR thousand of revenue). The normalized energy consumption decreased by 14.5%, due to several initiatives, such as LED light installation, more efficient ways of heating at the plants as well as the installation of solar panels.
1_Estimate of emissions of Kimplas Piping Systems and Statek Stanzereitechnik, which were integrated into environmental reporting in 2020. Non-revised values: 2017: 52,145 t; 2018: 51,018 t; 2019: 51,374 t. On calculation methodology see GHG Protocol, Chapter 5.
1_In 2020, the acquired entities Kimplas Piping Systems Ltd. and Statek Stanzereitechnik GmbH were integrated into NORMA Group’s environmental reporting. In order to ensure comparability with previous years, historic energy consumption data was updated back to the time of acquisition. Detailed information may be found in the data chapter on page 67.
Target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Climate-relevant CO2 emissions are a significant non-financial performance indicator for NORMA Group. For Scope 1 and 2 emissions, NORMA Group has set itself an absolute reduction target. NORMA Group aims to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by at least around 19.5% compared to 2017 by 2024. In setting its climate target, NORMA Group followed the recommendations of the SCIENCE-BASED TARGETS INITIATIVE (Science-based target setting tool 1.1, Absolute Contraction Approach). The target does not consider emissions resulting from growth by acquisitions and forms part of the Management Board’s remuneration components. REMUNERATION REPORT
In order to achieve this goal, NORMA Group manages the energy consumption of all production sites and is integrating the energy reduction targets into its ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS. At NORMA Group, the individual plant management is responsible for the concrete measures taken to reduce energy consumption and thus greenhouse gas emissions.
Quantification of emissions along the value chain
In addition to its efforts to reduce emissions at its production sites, NORMA Group is also committed to managing greenhouse gas emissions along the value chain (Scope 3 emissions). This includes the supply chain, as large amounts of energy are often required to produce the materials and components that NORMA Group purchases. RESPONSIBLE PROCUREMENT
Last year, NORMA Group also quantified the resulting emissions for other Scope 3 categories (emissions from capital goods, waste, business travel and commuting by employees). An overview of all Scope 3 reporting categories can be found in NORMA Group’s public CDP REPORT.
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These contents are part of the Non-financial Group Report and were subject to a separate limited assurance examination.