Technological progress, in some cases driven by Bayer, has opened up many possibilities, also in the past decade, to reduce environmental impact. As we have gradually moved from a reactive to a proactive approach, focusing on integrating environmental protection into the production process, we now have spare capacity in our environmental protection facilities which we can place at the disposal of outside companies, helping them to dispose of their problem waste in an appropriate manner.

In the 21st century, environmental protection is being seen within a new and broader context - sustainable development. This poses two main ecological challenges for us, which are to some extent interlinked. The first is the need to develop ecologically efficient products and processes to further reduce environmental impact, especially in view of previously unknown effects which are now being discussed all over the world, such as changes to the atmosphere. The second is the urgent need to cut back on the use of non-renewable resources. In particular, ecoefficiency must be increased. We are facing up to all these challenges.

Let us look at the example of carbon dioxide. This gas, which is produced during combustion processes, is suspected along with other greenhouse gases of contributing to global climate change. We intend by 2010 to have cut greenhouse gas emissions at Bayer AG by more than 50 percent compared to the 1990 levels. We are currently looking at the reduction potentials of the other Group companies to add to the considerable improvements already mentioned.

We have set ourselves a very ambitious task: to virtually halve greenhouse gas emissions within a generation, while continuing to run our plants, expand our production volumes and, in particular, meet our financial targets as a company. We are optimistic that we will succeed, by means of targeted process innovation, the use of modern technologies and by closing down old plants and bringing new power plants on stream.

Now let us consider our second eco-challenge - husbanding resources. Saving energy is a critical element in the sustainable use of natural resources. Though our production volumes have gone up by more than 50 percent since 1990, we have managed to cut specific energy consumption by around 30 percent over the same period. This has been possible thanks to a wide variety of energy-saving initiatives and changes to our processes. Converting our chlor-alkali electrolysis from the mercury-cell method to the membrane method is a good example. This step allowed us to cut specific energy consumption by a quarter, from 12 megajoules to nine megajoules per metric ton of chlorine.

These examples show how we are serious about improving ecoefficiency through Responsible Care.

 

 
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