Sustainability goals and emission update
Sustainability
In 2020 we set our sustainability commitment towards 2030:
Achieving carbon neutrality throughout the supply chain, implementing circular solutions, and promoting social responsibility.
Carbon Neutral
To achieve a 70% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 across:
- Facilities
- Transport & travel
- Our Supply Chain
And to offset any residual emissions.
Circular Solutions
To adopt circular materials throughout the value chain:
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
- Incorporate sustainable design into new products, solutions, and sales models.
Social Responsibility
To implement UNGP and OECD guidelines throughout our supply chain and cascade to the next level from the largest suppliers.
Carbon Neutral
Our goal is to achieve a 70% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 across our facilities, operations, logistics, products, and supply chain.
- For scope 1 and 2 emissions, where we have substantial influence, our goal is a 70 % reduction of emissions in absolute terms compared to 2019.
- For scope 3 emissions, where we have less influence, our goal is a 70 % reduction in the carbon intensity (carbon emissions relative to sales revenue at constant prices) throughout our value chain, from raw material to end customer, compared to 2019.
Any residual emissions in 2030 will be offset to reach carbon neutrality by acquiring high-quality carbon credits using carbon removal technologies or nature-based solutions.
Circular Solutions:
Strong focus on incorporating circular principles throughout the value chain, with emphasis on:
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Implementing strategies to minimize waste generation, increase product durability, and facilitate recycling or repurposing of materials at the end of their life cycle.
- Designing for Sustainability: Ensuring that new products, solutions, and sales models are designed with sustainability in mind, considering factors such as material selection, energy efficiency, recyclability, and extended product life.
By adopting circular solutions, the company aims to transition from a linear "take-make-dispose" model to a more sustainable and circular approach.
Social Responsibility:
The company commits to implementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines throughout the supply chain. This includes:
- Ensuring fair labor practices and working conditions for employees, both within the company and amongst our suppliers.
- Promoting human rights, including the prevention of child labor, forced labor, and discrimination.
- Responsible sourcing practices, including supplier audits and assessments to ensure compliance with social and environmental standards.
- Sharing these guidelines with all suppliers and encouraging them to adopt and cascade these principles to their own suppliers.
By embracing social responsibility, the company aims to contribute to sustainable and ethical practices throughout its operations and supply chain, fostering a positive impact on society.
Carbon Emission Update
For scope 1 and 2, we have achieved a 10% reduction from 2022-2023. Since 2019, we have implemented a number of reduction initiatives, and amongst others have been able to reduce our energy use in own sites by 15 % by installing solar panels and more energy-efficient lighting in our manufacturing facilities in Mexico and US. However, our total emissions for scope 1 and 2 are still close to the 2019 level. This is mainly related to a significant increase in sales volumes and manufacturing levels, and use of LNG gas for rotation moulding in Stavanger and Monterrey. Key initiatives to reduce emissions in the coming years will be to transition to electric rotation moulding.
For scope 3, which accounts for 95% of our emissions, our carbon intensity has decreased by 20% from 2019 to 2023. We have seen particular improvements in the area of logistics where air freight is down from 8.2% in 2019 to 3.7 % in 2022 and only 1.3% in 2023.
The progress in scope 3 emissions reduction has been slower from 2021-2023, primarily due to increased travel activity compared to 2020. While the total reduction since 2019 is not as significant as we had hoped, several actions taken in recent years are expected to yield emission reductions in the coming years. This includes the use of more sustainable materials in our products and clear reduction initiatives for each sub-area. We therefore stand by our goals.
* Emissions relative to revenues, adjusted for price increases since 2019 as the base year. 2019 = 100%
Total Emission Overview
Laerdal report emissions at Group level for Scope 1, 2 and 3. Emissions are estimated using a spend based approach. See our Measure to Improve page to read more about our methodology. Scope 1 emissions are negligible and consist of natural gas used in manufacturing processes plus petrol for company cars. Scope 2 emissions consist of emissions related to energy purchased for manufacturing and office locations. The emissions reported for Scope 2 are market based. Scope 3 emissions are the largest emission source at Laerdal Medical. To understand the source of Scope 3 emissions, we divide it into four main categories. Travel represents business travel by company employees. Logistics includes both Upstream and Downstream logistics. Operations represents indirect emissions from operations like purchasing of IT equipment, cleaning services and marketing activities to name a few. The products category represents all raw materials and components that are used in the manufacturing of our products.
Scope 3 Emissions
Scope 3 emissions from Travel are mostly related to business trips using air travel. For Logistics, we estimate the emissions from transportation from our suppliers to our manufacturing sites, between Laerdal locations and distribution to our end customers. Logistics also includes operations of third-party logistics warehouses. Operations includes purchases of products and services used in the day-to-day running of the company. Facilities, IT & Communication equipment, Marketing activities, external consulting services and assets. Products is the largest Scope 3 category and represents indirect emissions from the purchases of raw materials and components plus products that we purchase from other manufacturers that we sell from our customers.
Product Emissions
Products and components are the biggest contributor to our emissions, accounting for 37% of our total emissions. Between 2019 to 2023, the carbon intensity of our products and components has decreased by 18%. During this time, we tested and introduced new environmentally friendly and low CO2 material options for selected products (see our Sustainability Report).
Although the impact is currently small overall, it has been a crucial learning phase. We believe the effect will be significant as we leverage our gained expertise and scale up the use of these sustainable materials across a larger part of our portfolio in the coming years.
Mapping to GHG Protocol
The following table shows how to map the emissions categories Laerdal reports on to the GHG Protocol.
We currently include all Scopes according to GHG protocol except Scope 3 category 10. Processing of sold products; 14. Franchises; and 15. Investments, as these are not applicable to our operations. Our investments in Laerdal Invest will be covered in Laerdal Invest’s climate accounting. We do not yet include Scope 3 category 7. Employee commuting; 11. Use of sold products; 12. End-of-life treatment of sold products; and 13. Downstream leased assets, due to lack of data in these categories. Data gathering for these categories are under development and estimations will be included in future reporting.
