In order to capture and analyse the millions of data points from a wide variety of sources that are needed to establish the carbon footprint of a product, Schaeffler has developed a digital tool that is certified by TÜV SÜD. The automatic calculation of the carbon footprint breaks down all the greenhouse gas emissions of a product – from primary (raw material) production and manufacturing to transportation and warehousing – and aggregates these. This enables Schaeffler to provide all stakeholders with transparent access to the emissions data of its products. The CO₂ calculator itself depends on transparency: an accurate and credible calculation requires low-threshold access to the relevant data of all the parties along the supply chain.
Schaeffler has been using the carbon calculator tool since the middle of 2023 and is already giving its divisions and internal customers the opportunity to calculate existing or new products using its CO₂ calculator at any time to appropriately respond to customer inquiries and to define decarbonisation actions.
Transparency for customers concurrently enables a critical assessment of Schaeffler’s own factory floor. This puts the company in a position to identify the places along the value chain at which high emissions are generated, as well as the materials, manufacturing or logistics stages where this is the case. Following this identification, those critical aspects can systematically be improved, for example, by using materials produced in climate-friendly ways such as green steel or innovative production methods, as well as by implementing efficiency-enhancing artificial intelligence. In addition, customers can instantly identify whether it makes more sense for emission-related reasons to manufacture a pre-product in-house or to purchase it.
Read the full article here Greener reckoning – tomorrow (schaeffler-tomorrow.com)
