CASE STUDY

A Leading Chinese Equipment Manufacturer Moves Toward Carbon Neutrality

Decarbonization requires a roadmap

Nations all over the world have formulated targets to become climate neutral. In China, the plan – known as dual carbon policy – is to reach peak carbon use by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060. One effect that is being widely felt in the market is the need for products with a proven low carbon footprint. But for our client, the bar is even higher. Because the company has sustainability goals that are ever more ambitious that the national ones. They called on us to establish a roadmap for becoming carbon neutral while still protecting the bottom line and business development opportunities.

Support with planning and implementation

To reduce its corporate carbon footprint, our client required support in two areas. Firstly, as stated above, they asked us for a sustainable development roadmap. A requirement here was an end-to-end decarbonization plan covering everything from top-level strategic planning to implementation. Secondly, we helped our client to sort out, demonstrate, and establish practical and implementable carbon reduction measures for concrete technological use cases.

Eco-designs have the potential to reduce product carbon footprint by up to 50%.

A holistic view of what is and what can be

To start, our consultants went to work on decoupling the company’s own development path from the national dual carbon policy. They wanted to show that the two could coexist, debunking the misconception that carbon reduction could have a negative impact on development or KPIs. Then it was time to analyze the client’s operation data. The task was to catalog with high granularity its carbon emission activities and key energy-using equipment, and establish an enterprise carbon emission baseline model. With this information, a decarbonization roadmap was drawn up, complete with carbon neutrality targets and milestones.

Our consultants then looked at the environmental impact of individual products. They calculated the product carbon footprint from “cradle to grave." The result was a product carbon footprint analysis at a detailed level for among others raw material production, transportation, product manufacturing, and supply chain delivery. The team also made concrete recommendations to evolve the product design and manufacturing processes to reuse, reduce, and recycle to minimize the product carbon footprint. An essential tool here was Siemens' industry carbon reduction technology library.

Good for the environment, good for business

The decarbonization measures we helped identify lay a solid foundation for carbon reductions. For example, the eco-designs we propose for new products have a major impact on cutting emissions. Activities like these make a big contribution toward the company’s ambitious sustainability goals of adhering to the national dual carbon policy ahead of schedule and fulfilling the growing requirements from clients for lower-carbon products.

At the same time, the measures directly pay off in higher efficiency and reduced costs. An example is how product eco-design can reduce material costs by up to 5 percent, which in turn makes a positive impact on company financials. In another case, design adjustments cut a product’s carbon footprint in half. Eco-designs also have the potential to improve brand reputation in the eyes of both customers and investors.

Siemens Advanta is committed to integrating the green gene into corporate development and product life cycle. Activities to lower a company carbon footprint very well do pay off with proper strategic planning and implementation.