„Our corporate carbon footprint identifies the main sources of our emissions so that we can take appropriate action.“
Bettina Moerth explains Lufthansa Cargo’s CO2 footprint for the year 2022.
Since 2012, Lufthansa Cargo has regularly calculated its Corporate Carbon Footprint, representing the CO2 footprint of its entire business operations. This calculation has been completed once again for the calendar year 2022, and the validation and confirmation by external consultants have been completed. But how is such a carbon footprint determined? Why is it necessary? And what conclusions can be drawn from it? Bettina Moerth, Environmental Manager at Lufthansa Cargo, provided answers to these questions.
So, what exactly is the Corporate Carbon Footprint and how is it composed?
A Corporate Carbon Footprint is the sum of all direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions caused by a company's activities. This emission inventory includes emissions from company-owned vehicles and facilities ('Scope 1'), emissions from purchased energy such as electricity and heat ('Scope 2'), and the emissions from upstream and downstream activities of the value chain, including those of subsidiary companies ('Scope 3').
Thus, can we envision that the calculation of the Corporate Carbon Footprint results in a total sum of CO2 emissions? What emissions are included, and how is it determined?
Yes, precisely. The final figure for 2022 stands at 5.34 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e). The small 'e' stands for 'equivalents,' because a corporate carbon footprint not only includes CO2 emissions, but also other greenhouse gases listed in the Kyoto Protocol, such as methane or nitrous oxide. The calculation adheres to the globally recognized standard, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Initially, it involves collecting data on all consumption and environmental impacts – from kerosene consumption across all platforms to energy consumption, purchased loading material, and waste quantities. Each material or environmental impact has emission factors that account for their environmental impacts during production, transportation, and disposal. By multiplying these factors with consumption figures and summing everything up, you end up with above mentioned number.
What is the purpose of this effort? There's no legal obligation for companies to assess their carbon footprint, correct?
No, there's no legal obligation to determine a Corporate Carbon Footprint. However, we view it as part of our corporate responsibility to ensure transparency regarding our environmental impact. Furthermore, there are other compelling reasons why we create it:
1. Sustainability criteria are becoming increasingly important for investors. With our data from the Carbon Footprint, along with the Lufthansa Group, we participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) ranking. The transparency we provide demonstrates our responsibility, credibility, and authenticity.
2. The benefit for us internally is based on the principle defined by Peter Drucker: "I can only improve what I can measure." Our Carbon footprint gives us a deeper and broader insight into the main sources of our emissions. This shows us more clearly where to take action to reduce our footprint effectively and cost-efficiently.
How do you evaluate the current result compare to the previous Carbon Footprint in 2020? Could you provide some context?
Classically, we then present our environmental impacts according to the scopes. The first insight is that slightly over a quarter of our emissions are directly caused by our freighter and operational vehicle fleet (Scope 1); less than 1% is due to purchased energy (Scope 2), and nearly three-quarters of our emissions are generated along our value chain (Scope 3).
In a detailed comparison, our Scope 1 emissions are reduced by 8% compared to 2020, while Scope 3 emissions have increased by 20%. The reduction in Scope 1 emissions of our freighter fleet in 2022 can be attributed in part to increased efficiency through fleet rollover and fuel efficiency measures such as AeroSHARK modification. However, primarily, this reflects the detailed impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the higher utilization of our freighters (including MD11) and the unavailability of belly capacities (Scope 3) during the pandemic in 2020. In contrast, belly flights in 2022 have slowly returned to pre-pandemic levels, resulting in a significant increase in Scope 3 emissions.
When examining the results in the following graph, it's noticeable that 99% of our CO2 emissions are caused by flight operations and kerosene consumption. What lies behind the rest?
Exactly. As an airline, we decided to use a different form of presentation that differentiates between flight-related emissions and other emissions that are generally caused on the ground. And that’s how we learned that over 99% are flight-related:
Nevertheless, we also generate emissions on the ground through energy consumption for building technology, conveying technology, and cloud usage, or the production of our loading and operational aids or the treatment of our waste. Our amount of 52,544 metric tons of CO2e is comparable to the emissions of a major German bank.
So, there is significant potential to reduce environmental impacts on the ground – visible to all employees. Above all, everyone can contribute through their behavior and engagement. Every step counts.
For the first time, certain items are highlighted. What's the significance of this?
We aim to provide even more transparency by highlighting items such as 'Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF)' for the first time, as well as other items that we have previously offset through green power certificates or contributions to high-quality climate protection projects.
Two points to note:
The share of 0.54% in SAF that we report for 2022 represents the proportion of the total company-wide CO2e emissions. When comparing the SAF used to the fossil kerosene used by our long-haul freighters, this percentage was 2.1%.
Currently, many aspects are not yet or not uniformly regulated in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. For example, our use of SAF, which is a significant means for us to reduce flight-related emissions, can be reported, but currently cannot be deducted from our company's own CO2e balance. In contrast, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol stipulates that electricity consumption offset by green power certificates is no longer accounted for, i.e., set at zero. Therefore, the electricity consumption respectively the CO2e emissions of 30,843 tons in Scope 2 from almost all our German stations are quantitatively deducted in the Carbon Footprint. Adjustments will need to be made to calculation standards here.
What are the next steps? Are you deriving measures from the results?
Creating and communicating the Carbon Footprint has become standard practice, but together with Lufthansa Group, it is subject to constant change, either because we gain new insights (e.g. considering cloud usage) or, as already mentioned, because calculation standards change (e.g. SAF accounting).
Our main conclusion is that we will focus on our own Scope 1 and the Scope 2 emissions, because we can influence them with targets and measures such as fleet efficiency and sustainable aviation fuel, as well as energy efficiency on the ground. We can manage Scope 3 emissions through appropriate contracts with suppliers and our own guidelines. However, the Carbon Footprint ultimately plays a very important role for us as proof in the future that our measures are effective, and our footprint is getting smaller all the time.
