Schaeffler organises worldwide Climate Action Day

June has seen Climate Action Day at all Schaeffler locations worldwide, with every one of the approximate 83,000 Schaeffler Group employees stopping work for 90 minutes to focus on climate issues.

Taking part in about 4,000 workshops, they came up with a wide range of ideas for reducing CO2 emissions by means of green materials, green production, green products, and their own actions in their respective areas of the company. The workshops were held virtually or in small groups, depending on the circumstances, across all places of work, whether office or shopfloor.

Schaeffler is committed to the 1.5-degree target set by the Paris climate agreement and has committed to its own ambitious group-wide climate targets. “The global Climate Action Day was an important milestone and a strong signal on our joint path to climate neutrality. It highlights the immense energy and momentum we have here at Schaeffler for building a more sustainable future,” said Schaeffler CEO Klaus Rosenfeld. “We can only achieve our ambitious climate targets if everyone is committed to helping and working together.”

The Schaeffler Group has said it will be climate-neutral by 2040. This target encompasses the company’s entire supply chain. Schaeffler’s own production (Scope 1 and 2) will be climate-neutral even sooner – by 2030.

In the UK Sheffield and Hereford UK sites took advantage of the land they have and planted locally sourced trees. The Birmingham office had more of a challenge having moved to the Fort Dunlop site in 2020, so looked at how to make a sustainable building more sustainable. Ideas ranged from personal changes through to investigating further improvements to the site, such as motion sensor lights being changed to include sensors which detect existing brightness levels before coming on.

Schaeffler’s employees worldwide put forward more than 20,000 climate-protection ideas ranging across the company’s entire value chain and involving everything from the use of sustainable materials to greater use of alternative energy sources, to leasing e-bikes. The company is now further developing and reviewing these ideas.