Climate protection

Greenhouse gas emissions at the KION Group result almost entirely from the use of energy (Table 10). Reducing the amount of energy consumption is thus the Group’s key lever in minimising its impact on climate change – and also one of the key environmental cost factors. The smelting process in the foundries and the use of service vehicles at sales and service units are particularly energy intensive. By 2020, the 25 reporting entities with the highest energy demands are to introduce energy management systems in accordance with ISO 50001.

In 2018, the KION Group used a total of 2,367 terajoules of energy (Table 12), whereby direct energy consumption accounted for 1,603 terajoules, and 799 terajoules were accounted for by transportation. 764 terajoules of energy were used indirectly Group-wide in 2018, i.e. primarily through purchased electricity.

All KION Group organisational units continued to work on minimum energy standards in 2018. At various locations, environmental certifications provided the foundation for launching a continuous improvement process via the management systems (Table 6). Moreover, a coordinating KION function has access to all locations when it comes to planning building and plant engineering and can thus ensure that the minimum energy standards are considered.

To further reduce energy consumption, Group-wide measures were continued or newly implemented in 2018. These include optimisations in buildings (e.g. expansion of measuring networks, optimisation of lighting and heating systems, energetic refurbishment), renewals in the vehicle fleet and measures to raise employee awareness. 21 plants and 33 sales and service locations pursue their own energy-saving targets, which are tracked as part of internal sustainability reporting.

In the period under review, the effects of converting the electricity mix to renewable energies at the KION Group’s European sites were assessed.

26 units currently use renewable forms of energy, and 43 units have implemented green IT measures to reduce their energy consumption. A good example in this context is the Project Sunshine at the KION site in Summerville, South Carolina: A one-megawatt solar plant mounted on the roof of the building complex went into operation in 2018. The generated electricity equals on average about 80 per cent of the annual electricity consumption of the production at the site, offsetting more than 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions.

21 reporting entities have set specific emissions reduction targets, while 39 have made specific process optimisations, and 27 already use technologies to reduce GHG emissions.

Besides the production-related use of energy, the KION Group sees the greatest potential for reducing greenhouse gases in the use phase of its products. The company therefore plans to identify additional measures in the future (see section on Products and solutions). Product-specific lifecycle analyses and the evaluation of the entire LMH EMEA fleet have already been carried out. The areas of commuting, logistics and transport are seen as less relevant when it comes to the overall lifecycle assessment of the products examined. Nevertheless, the KION Group is trying to achieve improvements in these areas as well. For example, CO₂ emissions play a key role when purchasing new company vehicles. Furthermore, 56 reporting entities are working on specific measures to improve their transportation activities, including the optimisation of route planning and the use of GPS to avoid multiple trips.

All measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions follow clear principles. The company will constantly strive to achieve a reduction in its CO₂ emissions. If it cannot go any further, it will endeavour to substitute fuels with lower-emission fuels. And once this measure no longer delivers further reductions, it will then counter the impact of its CO₂ emissions through offsetting measures.

The regular sharing of experiences in the HSE network of experts, as well as measures to raise employee awareness such as the KION HSE Championship (see section on Employees), also help to anchor the climate protection goals in the mindset of the entire KION Group workforce. Activities in this field specifically involve KION Group executives who are briefed about the company’s climate protection measures and progress made at the KION Executive Summit. Relevant executive training courses were also continued in 2018. All in all, in 2018, the company’s comprehensive awareness-raising programmes on energy consumption and emissions already reached around 33 per cent of employees, particularly those at its production plants.