2024 was the fourth year of our 5-year reporting cycle for the period 2021-2025. In total, 56 KPIs have been disclosed this year, with the intention to increase this over the course of the coming reporting cycles.
In 2024, we continued improving our reporting methodology across all categories relevant to our company footprint, in particular all 31 manufacturing sites.
The following reporting is based on full calendar year data, providing a basis for more reliable absolute figures.
In 2024, our efforts in reducing occupational accidents plateaued despite the positive impact of the 10 Lifesaving Rules and the new Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Audit framework. This stagnation indicates a pressing need to enhance our focus on safety awareness and culture. On a positive note, while the number of TRI (total recordable incidents) cases remained at the same level, the severity (average number of absent days) of the cases declined by 40% to 4.9 days on average.
Following a maturity assessment in 2023, we developed and launched the Global EHS Management System. This comprehensive framework includes policies, directives, and instructions that govern, guide, and sustain Bühler’s EHS programs. It covers all operations within our value chain, aiming to foster a strong EHS culture focused on continuous improvement, risk mitigation, and regulatory compliance. The rollout of the system’s 14 elements is ongoing, supporting both employee well-being and sustainable business practices.
Additionally, we piloted the SafetyCulture App at our locations in Beilngries and Žamberk. This digital tool enhances incident reporting to create a safer and more sustainable workplace. The rollout of the reporting tool at all locations worldwide is planned for January 1, 2025. We believe SafetyCulture will significantly elevate our EHS standards, helping us achieve a safer work environment for everyone.
Bühler’s commitment to remain compliant and address issues which could compromise its business practices and those of its stakeholders has always been a top priority. Moving into the new reporting period, this continues to be the case, with further steps taken to build strong governance and awareness of the conduct of actions. This is reflected in the tracked indicators.
The drive for stronger social responsibility is reflected in the high percentage (> 98%) of our global employees who have completed the required compliance training. This was achieved through a coordinated program across all functions and businesses in the regions. Further actions to stabilize and increase the completion rate have been implemented such as an automated de-activation process of the Windows account for employees who do not complete the mandatory e-learnings within the given timeframe. A similar process has been prepared for external users.
More information about Bühler’s commitment to compliance can be found in the Governance section.
Understanding and reducing the environmental impact of our own operations and business is integral to our work on sustainability at Bühler.
With regard to the emissions resulting from the Group’s energy consumption, we have committed to a 60% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Scopes 1 and 2 by 2030. This is in comparison to a baseline year 2019. To reach this target, our priority is currently on reducing energy consumption in our manufacturing processes and buildings. We therefore also measure energy consumption relative to various indicators such as external temperature and manufacturing hours. Following this, we investigate alternative, greener sources of energy, and after evaluating these options, we look at procurement of green electricity through certificates.
Looking at our wider impact on the environment, we also work to reduce water consumption and waste production. In addition, we are working to introduce metrics to measure and improve biodiversity at our sites.
In order to deal with the emissions created at our events, Bühler is collaborating with Prof. Tom Crowther (ETH Zurich) and Restor. In 2024, Bühler established a portfolio of restoration projects to support. The projects directly protect and restore nature and are located in the regions where we organize our events, including Europe, China, North and South Americas.
For purchased goods and services, we collaborate with a consultancy to measure our emissions using a spend-based method via a multiregional Environmental Extended Input-Output Model. To complement and improve this approach, we have initiated primary emissions data collection from key suppliers. Looking ahead to 2025, our focus is on standardizing and enhancing this hybrid measurement approach to better gain visibility on supplier progress and uncover collaboration opportunities for emission reductions. In logistics, we employ a distance-based method in our internal system that considers the weight, distance, and emissions factor of the transport mode. We also actively engaged with some of our key logistics providers to gain a more detailed understanding of our emissions profile from their perspective, leveraging insights directly provided by them.
For Scopes 3.11 (Use of sold products) and 3.12 (End-of-life treatment of sold products), we developed an approach and methodology to quantify emissions which is in line with the requirements and industry best practice. The use of sold products resulted in a jump-off point of 40 million tonnes of CO2e in 2023. Only 2,160 tonnes of CO2e are caused by the disposal of sold goods.
After comparing different methods, the approach followed was a "top-down", project-based approach considering the emissions across entire projects. This approach offers a broader perspective that includes third-party machines and overall project outputs. This approach also brought to light key aspects that need to be addressed to further improve the accuracy of these results, namely: data completeness to reduce percentage of data extrapolation, validation with customer primary data, and automation of data collection to avoid manual errors.
By far the largest potential climate impact that Bühler can have is in enabling emissions reductions for sold goods in customer operations and increasing the efficiency of its installed base. Bühler focuses on implementing innovative solutions and services for energy efficiency, higher yield, and waste reduction through circularity. This is why Bühler has set goals to have solutions ready to multiply by 2025 that reduce energy, waste, and water by 50% in the value chains of our customers (the 50/50/50 goal). Find more information on how we plan to achieve this in the section Our Solutions and Services for Impact.
In the new reporting period, Bühler benefited from existing partnerships and created new partnerships to gain access to the skills and capabilities to deliver our targets for business growth and sustainability impact hand in hand. Partnerships are counted that have contracts in place, require resource allocation, both financial and human, from both parties and result in an acceleration of impact. Partnerships are reported in more detail in the section Partnerships with Purpose.
In the new reporting period, Bühler laid continued focus on the reporting of the social KPIs to reflect our values of Trust, Ownership, and Passion (TOP) and our efforts to build a people-centric culture that puts the full person, their health and wellbeing, in the center and builds the basis for their safety and high performance at work. This includes the focus on fostering a fair and equal workplace for all through the Bühler Diversity, Equity & Inclusion agenda. With programs such as Allyship for Leaders, the Beyond Bias workshop series, and the Women in STEM initiative and Employee Resource Groups, we aim to nurture an inclusive diverse work culture for all employees, partners, and customers. Learning and development remains core and receives continued focus at Bühler. Bühler executes on its lifelong learning commitment through apprenticeship programs, leadership development programs at all levels, and technical and soft skill training offerings for employees at all stages of their career through a global network of research and training centers and training schools complemented by learning and development modules on our global B-Learning portal. Training is available for employees, customers, and partners.
The Bühler Destination 25 strategy includes targets for Human Resources (HR), and these are reflected in the tracked KPIs. This year, Bühler reported a defined set of HR KPIs as “where we stand” and will further elaborate on refining these KPIs as “where we want to be” by setting annual targets and actions to reach them, and by supporting the business with data which helps to drive profitability. The focus this year was to continue to improve data quality and establish key dashboards to provide leaders with direct access to the KPIs.
Bühler continues to track its efforts through a set of standard HR KPIs to facilitate business strategy execution and help leaders make informed decisions and take corrective actions to drive performance and profitability.
More information on how Bühler fosters a TOP culture of inclusive diversity, health, safety, and wellbeing, as well as lifelong learning and actions towards it can be found in the People section.
Recognizing the importance of best industry practices and the need to undergo Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) rating exercises, Bühler has continued to undergo certification by recognized industry bodies such as EcoVadis, CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) and the Drive Sustainability Program, as well as undergoing several on-site assessment programs, such as ISO 9001; ISO 14001; ISO 45001; SEDEX (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange) / SMETA (SEDEX Members Ethical Trade Audit) 4-pillar.
Furthermore, Bühler is also publishing a separate TCFD Report in accordance with the Swiss Ordinance on Climate Disclosures.
More detail on the work done to drive transparency can be found under certificates.
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