ELKA protects the environment and takes responsibility
As a family business, sustainability and responsibility towards future generations are at the heart of our corporate philosophy.
Climate protection management
The starting point for our climate protection management is the annual calculation of our CO2 emissions. The data serves as the basis for defining our climate protection strategy. This includes reducing our CO2 emissions to a minimum and supporting climate protection projects to offset the remaining CO2 emissions.
Climate protection measures for companies include direct emissions caused within the company (electricity and heat generation, vehicle fleet, volatile gases) and indirect emissions from purchased energy, business travel and employee commuting. Other indirect emissions that occur outside the company in the manufacture of raw materials and preliminary products, external logistics and the use and disposal of products or other processes are not covered by the climate protection measures.
The values measured here are assigned to so-called scopes, which summarize the emissions according to their origin in Scope 1, 2 or 3.
More about the CO2 calculation
reducing CO2
When making investment decisions and optimizing processes, we place a strong focus on energy efficiency and ecological compatibility in addition to economic efficiency.
Scope 1 and 2
- Conversion of the vehicle fleet to hybrid and electric vehicles.
- Charging stations for electric cars.
- In recent years, the lighting in offices and production facilities has been converted to LED technology. Motion detectors are providing demand-oriented lighting control in the corridors.
- Our servers and client PCs are 100% powered by green energy.
- All ELKA locations use 100% green energy.
Scope 3
- Our bicycle leasing offer is very popular. Many employees have been motivated to cycle to work and avoid using their cars.
- Climate-neutral letter and parcel shipping via Post with GoGreen.
- Invoices are now only sent electronically.
- Documents such as price lists and brochures are available digitally and are only printed when required and in small quantities.
- The packaging material we receive is sorted, shredded and reused as filling material.
Our goals
Reducing our CO2 emissions will remain an important concern in the future. We have set ourselves a number of optimization targets to further reduce these emissions.
Goals within the Scopes
- Gradual conversion of the vehicle fleet.
- Extension of the bike racks including a charging station via solar panel.
- Power generated via photovoltaic systems.
- Shorten transport routes by optimizing supply chains.
- In the future, we will print on 100% recycled paper. Operating and assembly instructions will only be printed by request and in small quantities.
- To reduce business trips, we plan to increase video calls for customer trainings.
Compensating CO2
While we continue to work on reducing our carbon footprint, we invest in social projects that contribute to reducing emissions worldwide.
Protecting the climate with clean drinking water
The majority of the population in Sierra Leone lives in small rural communities.The supply of clean drinking water is a major problem there. The nearest water point is often far away and women and girls have to travel long distances as they in particular are often responsible for the water supply.
In addition, the water must first be boiled before it can be used safely. This is usually done with open fires, which produces harmful smoke and releases greenhouse gas emissions.
Our climate protection project therefore supports the communities in the Kono region with the recommissioning of 57 wells. In cooperation with the local population, damaged boreholes are repaired and regularly maintained, which secures the regional drinking water supply. The availability of clean drinking water eliminates the need to boil water, saving an average of 10,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.
How does climate protection work with water?
Two billion people in the world have no access to purified drinking water. Many families have no other option than to boil water over an open fire using the simplest of methods.
This results in CO2 emissions and, depending on the region, ever larger areas are being deforested. By treating water chemically (with chlorine, for example) or mechanically (with water filters), or by making groundwater from wells accessible, these CO2 emissions can be reduced.
