Since 2005, Solvay has reduced its scope 1 and 2 emissions by approximately 95% - that is, emissions related to its industrial activities, such as those from the consumption of natural gas and electricity.
Solvay's initiatives in Brazil are aligned with the global objectives set by Solvay Group in its Solvay One Planet sustainability program: to achieve Carbon Neutrality of scopes 1 and 2 by 2040.
Angela Project
Implemented in 2006 at Solvay's industrial complex in Paulínia, Angela Project is a project that aims to abate the N2O greenhouse gas emissions. Each year, the unit abates about 4.5 million tons of CO2 equivalent, which corresponds to the removal of one million vehicles from the roads generating emissions in the same period. The efficiency level of the unit, which was 98%, increased to 99.99% in 2019 thanks to investments in improvement and reliability projects.
Energy derived from biomass
As of 2019, part of the electricity consumed at the Solvay Paulínia and Santo André units has come from the Brotas Electric Power Cogeneration Unit, which transforms renewable biomass generated by the sugar-alcohol industry into electricity. With this, Solvay increased its consumption of renewable energy by 4.8%. At the same time, an average reduction of 27% in the greenhouse gas emission factor of this purchased electricity was observed.
Other initiatives
- Thermal integration of hot and cold streams in production lines, reducing steam consumption and, consequently, the volume of natural gas used in its generation.
- Continuous improvement of industrial processes to increase the efficiency of production lines, with the reduction of steam and energy consumption.
- Selling by-products that used to be burned.
(Graph referring to Scope 1 and 2)
Solvay has been reducing upstream Scope 3 emissions by partnering with raw material suppliers and switching to renewable/circular feedstocks.
How to make further reductions?
In addition to continuous improvement that creates efficiency gains in the processes that contribute to reducing emissions, Solvay continues to develop studies to achieve a 100% reduction of its emissions. It is evident, however, that when a 95% reduction level has been reached, it becomes more challenging to seek solutions to tackle the remaining 5%.
Studies are underway to increase the use of renewable energy and to replace the natural gas that currently powers steam-producing boilers with renewable energy sources, such as biomethane or biomass. These are complex projects, involving availability and the guarantee of supply for these inputs, the logistics of access to them, regulatory issues that are still evolving, and the cost and adaptation of equipment.
While Solvay keeps working to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions even more and engage suppliers to reduce upstream scope 3 emissions, the Company decided to pursue Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM) by purchasing high-quality Voluntary Carbon Units (VCUs) from a reforestation project in the Amazon (Fazenda São Nicolau - Cotriguaçu/MT) to offset the remaining emissions.
Is offsetting the solution?
For Solvay, the answer is no. Our track record of reductions and our neutrality goals make it clear that, for us, offsetting for carbon neutrality is just one way to contribute today towards social Net-Zero goals. This practice is in line with Science Based Target (SBTi*) guidance, which recommends: "companies should go above and beyond their science-based targets to invest in mitigation beyond their value chain." (reference: Science Based Targets, Beyond Value Chain Mitigation ).
This means implementing mitigation actions or investments outside the company's value chain, which includes support for activities that avoid or reduce greenhouse gas emissions or that removes carbon, as is the case of the Fazenda Sao Nicolau reforestation project.
* The result of collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute, and the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) is a global initiative which more than a thousand companies from around the world (Solvay among them) have signed up to, engaging in goals aligned with the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C.