Environmental Defense Fund has a long track record of working with businesses to produce tangible environmental benefits. We believe that it is more important than ever to leverage the power of business to act quickly and sustainably to reduce our impact on the climate and environment. The fundamental changes required to meet these challenges require us to bring all stakeholders together.
We have worked with European businesses to pool resources, share lessons, and unlock political will for climate and environmental action. For example:
Dairy Methane Action Alliance (DMAA) - Recognising the urgency of the climate crisis and the significant role of the food sector in reducing global emissions of methane, the Dairy Methane Action Alliance has stepped forward to catalyze accountability, transparency, and ambitious climate action within the food industry.
Net Zero Action Accelerator (NZAA) – Portal with resources to help businesses decarbonise. This hub offers hundreds of free resources, over 25 pathways to net zero and a webinar series that digs into the most challenging sustainability topics.
The European Union’s economy is 68% larger than in 1990, but emissions are down by over 37%. Other regions such as China and India are also making progress to decouple GDP growth from emissions, demonstrating that emissions cuts do not come at the expense of economic opportunity and prosperity and are not simply the result of exporting emissions.
We are highlighting European businesses that are taking serious steps toward reducing their greenhouse gas emissions while building strong, profitable businesses that are creating jobs. These businesses have seized the opportunity to innovate with circular economic principles, renewable energy, and leading technologies to provide the goods and services people need today.
Although challenges exist, the support of proactive and inclusive government policy and ground-up innovation is creating real, substantial progress. The companies featured in the case study analysis have shown that there is no contradiction between reducing emissions and prosperity – quite the contrary.
Our report highlights inspiring, regionally diverse examples from the packaging, steel, cement, agri-food, transport, and retail sectors showing businesses. The featured case studies offer several scalable solutions for other companies to consider.
See key highlights or dig into the individual companies to learn the details of how these sustainable frontrunners are bringing business success and sustainability together.
The retail sector currently accounts for approximately 25% of global CO2 emissions and is expected to grow in the next decades. Reducing the carbon footprint of commercial retailers and their value chains will play a vital role in reaching global climate targets.
Flying Tiger Copenhagen is a Danish retail company founded in 1995. It operates over 900 stores worldwide. It is committed to ending its dependency on virgin fossil-based materials and fuels. Emissions per kg of product sold reduced by 13% from 2019 to 2022 and the company has developed targets, validated by The Science Based Targets initiative, to reduce total greenhouse gas emission intensity (scopes 1, 2 and 3) by approximately 30% by 2026.
View the Q&A with Director of Sustainability at Flying Tiger to learn more about this innovative company, or read the case study report.
Girteka Group, the largest asset-based transport company in Europe, started its history in 1996 with a single truck. Twenty-seven years later, Girteka now stands as one of the leaders in the decarbonization of Europe’s road freight transport, driving sustainability initiatives forward.
Since the beginning of their intermodal transport activities in 2017, Girteka Europe West saved 43.39 million kg of CO2 from being emitted compared to a business-as-usual scenario (2022) using a wide variety of innovative tools.
View the Q&A with Girteka Head of Sustainability to learn more about Girteka’s multi-pronged approach to reducing emissions or read the case study report.
In 2018, the carbon emissions generated by the entire EU packaging sector accounted for 59 million US tons (mt) of CO2 per year and are expected to rise to 66 mt by 2030. Aluminium represents approximately 2% of all European packaging by weight.
Novelis reduced emissions by 14% between 2016-2023.
In 2017, global emissions from aquaculture, which is the industry responsible for fish farming, amounted to 263 million tons (mt) CO2. This number is expected to rise as experts estimate that human demand for “blue food”, defined as aquatic organisms for human consumption, will roughly double by 2050.
Corbion is a Dutch food and biochemicals company committed to lowering the emissions of the aquaculture sector by producing a sustainable feed alternative to fish oil for aquaculture species.
Since 2017, Corbion has been concentrating its investments and R&D efforts on producing a source of omega-3 for feed that does not rely on limited ocean resources and has a lower carbon footprint than fish oil. The company reports a 39% reduction in emissions per ton of product between 2016 and 2022.
The cement sector represents around 8% of global CO2 emissions and since three-quarters of the infrastructure that will exist in 2050 has yet to be built, these emissions are expected to continue to rise due to increased urbanization and population growth.
Founded in 2000, Ecocem has four manufacturing facilities across Western Europe, selling into several major international markets including France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, the UK, etc. It produces over two million tons of low carbon cement annually and is responsible for around 10-15% of the cement supply in the markets in which it operates. Ecocem’s revenues have tripled since 2015 and it expected revenues of around €230m in 2023.
Since the 1950s, the world has produced over 9 billion tons (bt) of plastics. In 2019, the global production of this material amounted to 460 million tons (mt) which contributed to 3.4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Of these plastics, around 36% are used in packaging. Currently, the majority of plastics used for packaging applications are made from fossil-based raw materials, therefore consuming non-renewable resources and releasing fossil carbon in the atmosphere.
Novamont is an Italian company B Corp certified leader in the production of biodegradable and compostable bioplastics from renewable resources. Its bioplastics optimize the management of organic waste by avoiding microplastics, reducing environmental impacts and increasing the circularity of economic systems. In 2020, Novamont committed to a minimum threshold for revenues generated by circular products and activities (‘regenerative revenues’) of above 50%. In 2022 that grew to €426 million.
Globally, the shipping industry accounted for 2.89% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018. Emissions from the industry are expected to rise in the coming decades, possibly reaching 150% of 2008 emissions by 2050.
Damen Shipyards Group offers maritime solutions such as ship building and ship repair worldwide, operating a total of 35 shipyards in 13 countries. In 2022, the Group employed a total of over 12,000 people and reached a production value of €2.5 billion. Damen’s Workboats division produced and delivered its first full electric tug, Sparky, which will save approximately 465 tons of CO2 in diesel emissions annually per tug.
The steel sector’s direct and indirect emissions represent 7% of CO2 emissions globally. Including upstream Scope 3 emissions, the steel industry represents around 11% of global CO2 emissions.
Ovako has become the largest recycler of Nordic steel scraps and is engaged in responsible business practices across the entire supply chain. Ovako’s business model is based on circularity and recycling, remelting scraps to make steel. As steel is totally and infinitely recyclable, scrap-based steel has the same quality as primary steel production. Ovako products consist of an average of 97.2% recycled steel scrap, corresponding to over 800,000 tons of scrap per year, coming from Ovako’s own mills, as well as scrap from downstream manufacturing industries and end-of-life products.
