Epurio's Sustainability Journey
Reducing our carbon emissions, expanding our diversity
We at Heraeus Epurio recognize that climate change is a huge global challenge, and we are therefore committed to reducing our carbon emissions in all our facilities worldwide.
This is our commitment:
We aim to reduce our carbon footprint by 50% until 2030, starting with the base year 2021, and to achieve net zero until 2040. This target considers emissions that are known under the so-called Scope 1 and Scope 2 categories, whereby:
- Scope 1 emissions are direct greenhouse emissions that occur from sources that are controlled or owned by an organization.
- Scope 2 includes indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, associated with electricity, steam, heat, or cooling.
Heraeus Epurio Supports Your Path to Sustainability
Bigger containers, smaller footprint
Since 2020, we have worked closely with our customers in Japan to provide them the opportunity to choose larger product containers, going up from 5 kg to 10 kg sizes, to reduce waste and cut their disposal costs. Through this we could help them save 9,530 containers per year. We also offered our customers the option to limit the frequency of deliveries from 4 times per month to 2 to 3 times – leading to fewer trucks on the road, lower emissions, and a smaller carbon footprint.
Data-driven temperature control in our factory
We successfully implemented measures to save additional tons of CO2 per year in our Leverkusen production site, such as adjusting our heating programming and night setback. For this we set up dashboards in our production to measure and analyse data about our energy consumption. From the results of our analyses, we could adjust the control system of our facilities so that temperature reduction could be implemented more efficiently at night and on weekends. This is only the beginning – even more data-driven projects to save energy are ongoing in our facilities worldwide.
Ultra-pure and methylene chloride-free
Our R&D team developed PLPM-MCF, where MCF stands for ‘methylene chloride-free’. PLPM crosslinkers are ultra-pure specialty chemicals used in photoresists essential to semiconductor manufacturing. During the development of this in-demand, high-grade product line, we eliminated the use of methylene chloride in the process rather than removing it at the end through means of separation. Methylene chloride, also known as dichloromethane, is a toxic chemical compound that belongs to the group of halogenated organic solvents. Due to its toxicity, it has various regulatory restrictions in place. Our process change eliminated the use of approximately 21.4 tons of methylene chloride. Since then, we can offer a globally compliant product that boasts of increased purity and lower metals and is overall a safer choice for us, our customers, and the environment.
Cleaner, safer coating technology for displays
Compared to vacuum sputtering indium tin oxide (ITO), wet coating technology is not only a more economical and energy-efficient process for transparent conductive coatings used in manufacturing solar panels, displays, and touchscreens – it’s also better for the environment. Indium, one of the key components of ITO, is primarily obtained as a by-product of zinc and tin mining. Extracting and refining these metals can have an environmental impact, including habitat disruption and greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, producing ITO films requires energy-intensive equipment. In contrast, our pioneering CleviosTM conductive polymers used in wet coating are mostly water-soluble and do not require metal mining.
The Heraeus Sustainability Report 2021-2022
Find out in the 2021-2022 Sustainability Report how Heraeus is driving the climate-friendly transformation. With the ambitious goal of significantly reducing CO2 emissions and a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, we are setting new standards. Dive into our vision of a sustainable future!
Diversity: Opening the doors to our organization
"At Heraeus Epurio, we aim to increase our workforce to meet the growth in our business. We do not only seek candidates with the best fit, we also desire to maintain our diversity. This opens so many doors to our organization. As an electronic chemicals company, women add great value to an industry that has traditionally been considered as being in ‘men’s hands.’ Looking at the current ratio in our Heraeus Epurio Talent Program, the number of women in our local and global management teams amazes me every single day! I am proud of and grateful to be part of this journey myself, and to provide direction in a leading position in this company!"
