Determining an operational carbon footprint is complex, but an important step on the road to climate protection. HELLA has now identified where in the value chain the greatest emissions occur and where measures must be taken first. 

HELLA also wants to make a contribution to slowing down climate change: HELLA aims to have CO2-neutral production as early as 2025 and CO2-neutral operations by 2050 at the latest. A milestone on the road to climate neutrality has now been reached: As part of a FORVIA project, HELLA has determined the CO2 emissions generated by its business operations along the entire value chain. In the next step, climate protection measures are to be derived from this and implemented.  

CO2 backpack arises in the supply chain and during transport 

A large part of HELLA's carbon footprint, and thus of HELLA's products, is generated outside the factory gates, primarily through the use of its products (47%). If HELLA headlamps are used in combustion vehicles, for example, these vehicle emissions contribute proportionately to HELLA's carbon footprint. These emissions resulting from product use will fall dramatically over the next few years as the proportion of low-emission hybrid and electric vehicles continues to rise. Almost 20% of HELLA's greenhouse gases are also produced in the supply chain through the mining of raw materials and production at suppliers, another 15% during transport and 6% during proper disposal. These upstream and downstream indirect emissions (Scope 3 in technical jargon) amounted to 9.8 million metric tons of carbon in 2019.  

"Only what can be measured can be managed. This makes it all the more important that we now know very precisely where we are causing how much CO2. This gives us transparency as to which levers we need to use to reduce the CO2 backpack of our products; for example, by giving concrete carbon specifications to our suppliers, redesigning transport, and working on the recyclability of our products," says Bernard Schäferbarthold, who is responsible for sustainability among other things on the HELLA Management Board. With this approach, HELLA is not least meeting increasing customer requirements. For example, many vehicle manufacturers are currently tightening their climate targets and, in this context, formulating demanding CO2 specifications for suppliers and their products.

   HELLA calculates greenhouse gas emissions along the categories specified by the internationally recognized, scientific                                                                                                                       "Greenhouse Gas Protocol" standard.

HELLA has already set up numerous projects to further develop and implement the main starting points for reducing CO2 emissions. The focus is particularly on logistics processes, product design and dialog with suppliers on climate protection.