The consumption or use of resources plays a major role in EnBW's business activities. For example: coal is burned; waste and by-products are produced; land, water and energy are consumed. Here you will find examples of EnBW's activities for the responsible use of resources.
Further information:
Further data on the following topics can be found in the environmental data table.
Responsible procurement
Coal procurement
With a view to the phasing out of coal-fired generation in Germany and the aim of making EnBW climate neutral by 2035, hard coal will be gradually replaced by more climate-friendly energy sources. Nevertheless, hard coal will still play a fundamental role for EnBW as a source of energy over the next few years to ensure a reliable and economic supply of electricity. Coal deliveries to our power plants have fallen continuously over the last five years from 4.24 million t of coal in 2016 to 1.80 million t in 2020 (previous year: 3.16 million t of coal). This sharp fall in comparison to 2019 is mainly due to the lower demand for electricity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the mild winter weather in the first quarter and the cheap price of gas. The deliveries represent a procurement volume of €79 million (previous year: €170 million).
It is important for us to know the origins of our coal. Some 83% of our coal requirements are thus covered by contracts for which the producers are already known when the contract is concluded. The remainder is sourced from contracts concluded with trade intermediaries which usually define a quality standard but not the source of the coal. In addition, we maintain close contacts with other potential producers and traders to avoid any dependency on one single producer.
More information on EnBW's coal procurement can be found at www.enbw.com/coal-procurement.
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| 2019 | 2.39 | 0.46 | 0.26 | 0.04 |
| 2020 | 1.62 | 0.18 |
Reduction of -42.9% in coal deliveries from 2019 to 2020
Gas procurement
In order to achieve our climate neutrality target 2035, we are working intensively on switching over our power plants initially from coal to more climate-friendly gas (fuel switch) and then to climate-neutral gas such as biogas or hydrogen in the long term. Natural gas plays an important role as a transition technology – either in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) or grid-based natural gas. Therefore, we are now gradually expanding our measures for the responsible procurement of raw materials to also include the procurement of natural gas.
EnBW sources most of its natural gas via supply contracts with Equinor from Norway, Novatek and Gazprom from Russia, and the European wholesale market.
We are increasingly fulfilling our responsibility as a company also in the procurement of gas and exercising human rights due diligence in our supply chain. In future, we will examine all new business partners using a clearly defined process. We already carried out the first business partner audits of our gas producers in 2020. This includes an audit with respect to both compliance and sustainability. The main focus is placed on the observance of international sustainability standards, compliance with guidelines on environmental protection and human rights, dialog with stakeholders and disclosure of the extraction methods.
Water usage
Increased use of modern cooling towers
For the operation of our thermal power plants (nuclear power, coal, oil, gas), large quantities of water are taken from the Rhine and Neckar Rivers in particular for cooling and as process water, which is then fed back in after use.
Through the increased use of modern cooling towers, newer and more efficient power plants and the use of combined heat and power generation, we have been able to considerably reduce the burden on the watercourses compared to the earlier heat input of older thermal power plants with once-through cooling. This is the result of the economic analysis carried out as part of the management planning for the Neckar River in connection with the Water Framework Directive.
Even during summer heat waves and low water periods, sophisticated water, heat and oxygen management, coordinated with the authorities, helps to minimise the impact on water bodies as far as possible.
With the water withdrawal charge that has been payable in Baden-Württemberg for many years, there is not only an ecological aspect but also an economic incentive to use the resource water for cooling purposes only to the extent necessary.
Waste Management
Reduce and recycle waste
At EnBW, different types of waste are generated in the individual business activities along the value chain. Waste management is part of our environmental management system The aim is to achieve continuous improvement and thus reduce waste. Data on waste volumes and the recycling rate in the Group can be found on the Environmental Data page.
The purpose of waste incineration plants is to dispose of waste by using the energy contained in it, for example to generate electricity and heat. The waste incineration in our EnBW combined heat and power plant in Stuttgart-Münster also ensures that the energy resources in the waste are used responsibly.
Together with coal, mechanically dewatered and thermally dried sewage sludge can be incinerated. A prerequisite is that the sewage sludge complies with the Sewage Sludge Ordinance. This man-made waste from sewage treatment plants has so far largely been deposited in landfills or used in agriculture and in recultivation measures in depleted lignite deposits.
Thermal recycling in power plants is a technically feasible and environmentally friendly disposal method.
Power plant by-products
Building materials from power plants
The power plant industry produces by-products such as fly ash, boiler ash and gypsum, which are used as secondary raw materials in the building materials industry. In particular, the gypsum produced during flue gas cleaning has long been marketed to the gypsum-processing industry, thus avoiding the mining of naturally extracted gypsum.
Mineral products from coal-fired power plants have proven their worth for decades as building materials in concrete and reinforced concrete construction, mining, road and path construction and in earthworks, foundation engineering and landscaping.
More than 9 million tonnes of these building materials from coal-fired power plants are used annually in the construction industry in the form of fly ash, boiler sand, smelting chamber granulate, FGD gypsum and others. This is associated with a considerable relief of the environment, conservation of resources and with great economic benefits. Furthermore, there are convincing advantages for the user.
Desulphurisation products (REA gypsum)
In order to meet the legal environmental protection requirements for keeping the air clean, the coal-fired power stations were equipped with flue gas desulphurisation plants (FGD), among other things. In these plants, the sulphur dioxide present in the flue gas reacts with natural lime. Downstream oxidation of the reaction products produces gypsum, which is referred to as FGD gypsum.
Extensive investigations have shown that there are no differences between natural gypsum and FGD gypsum in terms of chemical composition and content of trace elements. According to these investigations, FGD gypsum, like natural gypsum, can be used for the production of building materials without health concerns.
Environmental protection and energy savings
Natural raw materials are becoming increasingly scarce. Their extraction often requires drastic interventions in the landscape. The energy required to produce building materials is often very high.
The use of building materials from coal-fired power stations conserves natural resources and brings energy savings in the production and processing of building materials, as these products are already in the economic cycle and can in part be used directly as raw materials in their unaltered state. Their environmental compatibility and harmlessness in terms of industrial hygiene have been proven in many studies.
Mobility initiatives
Improve the environmental balance
EnBW AG is a group with various subsidiaries and locations. This makes it necessary for our employees to undertake business trips using different modes of transport. In addition, our network operators are present in the area to ensure the security of supply of the electricity and gas network and use company vehicles for the operational management and maintenance of the networks.
In order to improve the environmental balance of our travel activities, we have defined the following objectives and introduced appropriate measures:
- Avoidance of business travel
- Improvement of CO₂ emissions from the use of passenger cars
- Significant expansion of the electric vehicle fleet
In order to measure the further development in the achievement of objectives, we have been reporting the "CO₂ intensity of the business trips and travel" in g CO₂eq/km in the annual report since 2014. This includes the CO₂eq from business travel (both the Scope1 emissions from our own vehicles and the Scope3 emissions from e.g. flight, train, taxi).
Ad 1. One of the main focuses of our activities is the avoidance of business travel, for which purpose we make growing use of web and video conferencing. This not only reduces carbon emissions and costs, but leads to lower accident risk and more efficient use of working hours. We have steadily added to the number of room systems for video conferencing since 2009. Today, over 330 rooms feature systems for holding video conferences. Starting in 2012, we have established and continuously developed an IT solution for web conferencing, which is now entirely based on a smart client environment. This system played a major part in our ability to allow some 10,000 employees to begin working from home at short notice from March 2020 after the onset of the corona pandemic. Since then, up to 18,000 video conferences have been held every day.
Ad 2. Another focus is on reducing carbon emissions when vehicle use is unavoidable. We also deploy a wide-ranging package of measures to reduce carbon emissions in the composition of our vehicle fleet (data as of Q1 2021):
- •Our fleet today includes some 604 alternative fuel vehicles. The bulk of these comprise 475 electric vehicles (EVs), increasing numbers of which are on order. Other vehicles are hybrid or run on liquefied petroleum gas or natural gas.
- All EVs are charged with 100% green electricity.
- When replacing company cars, we now exclusively purchase EVs or hybrids.
- For the vehicle pool used for business trips, only EVs are procured as replacements.
- We are continuously expanding the EV charging infrastructure for employees at our sites. During 2020, for example, we added a total of 168 charging points at 49 sites around Germany. In total over the last two years, we have provided 702 EV charging points at 109 locations. Additionally, bicycle boxes with 77 charging points for e-bikes are available at 26 locations. By expanding the charging infrastructure at our sites, we aim to make it easier for employees to switch to electric mobility and thus accelerate the mobility transformation within our company.
EnBW AG’s central vehicle fleet totals some 3,617 vehicles. About 45% of our 2,976-vehicles operating fleet consists of commercial vehicles/vans used for grid installation work. The remainder are used as pool vehicles or service vehicles.
Despite the large proportion accounted for by the operating fleet, our carbon emissions for the fleet as a whole currently average approximately 105 g/km (passenger cars, excluding commercial vehicles). For pool vehicles, we are down to just 102 g/km (as of Q1 2021).
Read more about EnBW's commitment to e-mobility here .