Protecting and preserving the climate and environment
The environment and climate are a key action area with respect to sustainability. We want to protect and preserve the planet through responsible action and targeted measures. Our activities focus on the issues of energy and emissions.
These areas have a twofold potential for us:
We also want to contribute to environmental protection with a biotope on the outdoor grounds.
- Firstly, as part of the construction industry, we want to offer our customers environmentally-friendly products for forward-thinking buildings that help increase energy efficiency in buildings or improve indoor air quality.
- Secondly, as a company we want to do business in the most environmentally friendly and low emissions manner possible. With a focus on the three stages of transparency, reduction, and compensation, we prepare a balance sheet for all of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the company – including our supply chain. We are continuously reducing our own Co2e emissions and compensating for selected emissions, with the goal of being greenhouse gas neutral by 2045.
The Revo.PRIME revolving door drive delivers energy savings by opening the entrance to a building without creating draughts. © GEZE GmbH
Buildings are responsible for 35% of energy consumption. © maximalfocus / unsplash
Potential energy savings for buildings thanks to GEZE products
Energy-efficient buildings are an effective lever for a more sustainable future, since buildings make up around 35 percent of Germany's total final energy consumption. Many of our products and services are already helping to save energy. Our automatic door systems such as the Slimdrive or Powerturn, for instance, reduce the loss of hot or cold air through the door opening and closing reliably. The new Revo.PRIME revolving door drive also separates the indoor and outdoor climates, ensuring a steady, comfortable climate inside the building. Because it is possible to open the building entrance without draughts, energy losses are also kept low. Some of our window technology solutions, such as the Slimchain chain drive, also have a positive effect on the energy balance of buildings. Controlled opening of the windows is a very energy-saving approach to ventilation. In addition, our integrated consulting services early on in the planning phase offer operators and architects options for energy-efficient building operation.
Potential energy savings in the company
In addition to our diverse solutions that can help users save energy, we as a company want to do business in an energy-efficient way. To identify target areas and projects for reduction measures, we have calculated our global energy consumption through a global CO2e balance sheet.
It is essential to conduct a comprehensive assessment of both energy consumption and potential savings for each development project, in order to identify solutions that are both sustainable and energy efficient. This can be a challenge, but in the past we have seen that it also provides a breeding ground for unbelievably creative and innovative ideas.
Jörg Willmann, Director Product Management & IKAM at GEZE
We already cover 100% of our electricity needs within Germany from ecological sources. © Shutterstock
We use 100 percent green power
We already cover 100% of our electricity needs within Germany from ecological sources. In addition, our headquarters is supplied with district heating via our in-house cogeneration plant. We compensate for the natural gas used to operate the cogeneration plant with CO2 emission reduction credits. We have also implemented an energy monitoring system, in order to expand our energy awareness and gain a full overview of energy consumption at the Leonberg production site. It provides us with detailed evaluations of our energy consumption, allowing us to implement targeted measures to improve energy efficiency. We measure energy consumption per full-time employee (energy intensity), for example, as well as the energy consumption of electrified products sold. This key figure is high, due to the exceedingly long service lives of our products of approx. 10 to 15 years (for more information on these figures, see the sustainability report on pages 22 et seqq.
Download sustainability report (PDF | 3.23 MB)Bee paradise
We have adopted five beehives from beefuture - these actively contribute to the protection of bees and their habitats. © GEZE GmbH
Clean air and bee paradise
To improve the air on the company premises, the GEZE trainees created a spacious biotope several years ago, which has become a popular place for our employees to relax with its pond, wildflower meadow and trees, flowering bushes and shrubs. With two insect hotels, it is now also home to numerous wild bees, which are indispensable to our ecosystem as pollinators. Over 80% of native flowering plants depend on them for pollination. Supporting bee populations, which are under pressure worldwide, is therefore an important cause: this is why we have additionally adopted five beehives with their industrious inhabitants from a beekeeper in Ulm through our partner beefuture. In order not to endanger our wild bees in the biotope, we have deliberately placed the GEZE beehives outside the natural habitats of wild bees. In this way, we ensure harmonious coexistence and protection of our wild bee populations. Our new sustainability employees may not be able to plan door technology, but they are still super important and the heroes of our ecosystem.
With over 270 employees, GEZE Service helps ensure long-lasting functional products throughout Germany. © Karin Fiedler / GEZE GmbH
Our objective: greenhouse gas neutral by 2045
We calculated our global CO2 e-footprint for the first time for the 2021/22 reporting year. The value for greenhouse gas emissions associated with our business activities includes not only emissions from energy consumption, production, logistics and business trips. It also includes all emissions caused throughout our supply chain and through the use of our products. Over the next few years, we aim to further reduce our own emissions (scope 1 and 2) through targeted measures. Initial projects in this area are already ongoing. We have implemented a wide range of energy efficiency measures in our production in Leonberg in recent years, for instance, with our cogeneration plant. Overall, our goal is to continuously reduce our scope 1 to scope 3 emissions and make our business activities greenhouse gas neutral throughout the entire company by 2045.
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