Environment

Energie AG pursues the following environmental objectives:

• Enabling the energy transition by increasing the share of renewable energy
• Resource conservation
• Warranting an environmentally friendly and legally compliant circular economy

Energie AG's major sustainability issues in the environmental realm are climate protection and the responsible, careful consumption of natural energy resources. They are covered in the section Environment, broken down according to the segments Energy, Grid, Waste Management, Czech Republic, and Holding & Services.

Regular internal and external audits are carried out as part of due diligence measures to help to ensure the necessary compliance with the environmentally-relevant statutory requirements. For all the review results, see the latest environmental statements from Energie AG Oberösterreich Umwelt Service GmbH (Umwelt Service GmbH) and Energie AG Oberösterreich Erzeugung GmbH (Erzeugung GmbH).

Climate protection & resource conservation

The Energie AG Group’s business activity requires a reasonable amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Thermal plants are indispensable for electricity production as a means of ensuring a secure supply and stable grids. Energie AG works to counter emissions by making substantial positive impacts on the environment through efficient low-CO₂ energy and heat generation, and by harnessing the benefits of primary fuel and primary raw material substitution. In addition, the Waste Management Segment’s refrigerator recycling service makes a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The emissions in the 2019/2020 fiscal year are broken down as follows: the total emissions (Scope 1) amounted to 1,350 kt of CO₂ (previous year: 1,500 kt); of these total emissions, 1,036 kt are attributable to fossil fuel sources (previous year: 1,191 kt) and 313 kt to biogenic energy sources (previous year: 308 kt). Energie AG Group accounted for 62 kt of indirect (Scope 2) CO₂ emissions (previous year: 71 kt).

The Energie AG Group’s emissions predominantly come from the operation of thermal power plants, district heating plants, waste incineration plants and co-generation plants, as well as from pumping energy, distribution losses, process heat, building heating and vehicles.

Calculation of CO₂ emissions takes into account the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Corporate Standards and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI 305) Standards.

Co₂ emissions in tonnes per year

Scope 1 encompasses direct emissions from the incineration processes of stationary facilities, direct emissions from the incineration processes of mobile facilities, direct emissions of volatile gases and direct emissions from processes.

Direct greenhouse gas emissions are released when primary energy sources are converted in the Company's facilities, vehicles and building heating (without electricity). This includes all fuels such as natural gas, heating oil, coal, diesel, petrol, liquefied petroleum gas and biogenic fuels. Energie AG creates electricity and district heating from these sources, allowing it to operate its own fleet of road vehicles.

Scope 2 encompasses indirect emissions from electricity purchases, indirect emissions from district heating/cooling and indirect emissions from steam purchases. The Energie AG residual mix is used to measure CO₂ emissions from purchased electricity for all Energie AG Group units (141.57 g CO₂/kWh, previous year: 170.26 g CO₂/kWh). As the majority of locations are within the service area, this represents a hybrid form of location-based and market-based calculation.

Indirect greenhouse gas emissions are released by the use of electricity from the grid and heating from non-Energie AG systems. This includes the operation of systems that generate no electricity in-house (such as electricity supply to Energie AG buildings, grid purchases during system shutdowns/overhauls, pumped-storage electricity, systems in the water network and systems in the gas grid (without own gas needed).

CO₂ emissions from electricity production

The CO₂ emissions from electricity production ¹⁾Fuel mix disclosure figures of Energie AG Oberösterreich excl. Businesskunden GmbH and Enamo Ökostrom GmbH; the data for the CO₂ emissions for the electricity production in the 2019/2020 fiscal year was not available at the time the report for 2019/2020 was prepared. totalled 34.17 g/kWh in the 2018/2019 fiscal year (2017/2018 fiscal year: 54.33 g/kWh. While CO₂ emissions amounted to 54.33 g/kWh in fiscal year 2017/2018, the increased use of environmentally friendly energy sources in fiscal year 2018/2019 reduced them significantly to 34.17 g/kWh. This will lead to climate neutrality for the entire electricity procurement in fiscal year 2019/2020, which means that the CO₂ emissions will amount to 0 g/kWh.

Vehicle fleet

Energie AG emphasises its role as a paragon and pioneer in the area of resource preservation by enthusiastically endorsing electric mobility and alternative engine power. The share of electric vehicles in the fleet of company cars was increased significantly in the 2019/2020 fiscal year.

Energy audit

The energy audit, in line with § 9 of the Austrian Federal Energy Efficiency Act 2015 (Bundes-Energieeffizienzgesetz; EEffG), is conducted once every four years and covers all the Energie AG Group’s Austrian locations. The most recent energy audit was concluded in November 2019. The energy audit examines a key energy consumption area in the relevant sites’ ”processes“, which is analysed in detail and subsequently audited. These processes encompass operational processes and industrial facilities (e.g. electric drives and systems, hot water systems used in industrial activities). The “Processes” business unit accounted for 95.1% of Energie AG’s total energy consumption in the 2017/2018 fiscal year (2014/2015 fiscal year: 92.0%), while transport accounted for 4.2% (2014/2015 fiscal year: 4.0%) and buildings accounted for 0.7% (2014/2015 fiscal year: 4.0%).

Due to the continuous efficiency gains in the production processes, the energy audit only identified a few areas with major potential for improvement. The top-rated measures include increasing the district heat extraction at the waste incineration plant in Wels, which is currently in the detail planning phase, and the planned installation of a 50 kWp PV power plant in Attnang/Redlham in spring/summer of 2021. Additional measures such as an upgrade of the lighting systems and pipe insulation are being implemented gradually. Measures taken in addition to those from the energy audit include, inter alia, the commissioning of four electric car charging stations powered by a 400 kWp PV power plant in Ötztal in the 2019/2020 fiscal year.

¹⁾ Fuel mix disclosure figures of Energie AG Oberösterreich excl. Businesskunden GmbH and Enamo Ökostrom GmbH; the data for the CO₂ emissions for the electricity production in the 2019/2020 fiscal year was not available at the time the report for 2019/2020 was prepared.