VAUDE Climate Footprint

VAUDE wants to be a completely climate-neutral company. We have already achieved this at the company headquarters in Tettnang. The next milestone is the VAUDE climate targets for the supply chain. You can find more information and how climate neutrality works here

This page summarizes the most important key figures and correlations from our climate footprint assessment. The full document can be downloaded here.

At the company headquarters in Tettnang, VAUDE has already been completely climate neutral since 2012 (Scopes 1, 2 and 3). The system boundary of our climate footprint has so far been the entire VAUDE operation in Tettnang.

In this sustainability report, we are also including upstream emissions from our supply chain in the climate footprint for the first time.

At VAUDE, we have had ten years of experience with climate accounting and have now reached our next major milestone: we have finally created a reliable database in order to include not only all emissions "at home" at our company headquarters, but also the two largest emitters from the upstream supply chain:

• Materials from which VAUDE products are made.
• Energy consumed in the production of the materials.

Why this is important is clear from the following graphic:

All materials that VAUDE uses to make its products are a source of emissions during their extraction and refinement. How high these are in individual cases depends on quite a few factors, including which raw material is used and in which country the production of the material takes place. The country is important because the energy mix used to make the electricity the supplier is working with varies from country to country, and because energy from fossil fuels is one of the biggest drivers of emissions.

For textile materials, we have defined the system boundary for determining emissions from material consumption up to the point of yarn production; for hard plastic components we count up to the production of the polymer (granulate).

You can read about the materials VAUDE consumes and what we do to reduce emissions from them here

In addition to material consumption, energy consumption in the processing of raw materials plays the major role in VAUDE's climate footprint. In the case of textile materials, this means the production of the textile surface; in the case of hard plastic components, injection molding or comparable manufacturing processes.

You can read here how we are working on this challenging task of reducing emissions from energy consumption in the supply chain.

Overall, we were able to reduce emissions at the Tettnang site by eleven percent compared to 2019.

As of 2019, we have slightly changed the methodology for determining emissions, as 2019 forms the base year for VAUDE's science-based climate targets and we have followed the current systematics of the Green House Gas Protocol.

Some emission factors have changed over time, for example for flights. For the first time, we have also taken all packaging materials fully into account. Nevertheless, this graphic provides a good overview of the development of emissions at VAUDE in Tettnang.

In 2020, of course, the "Corona effect" also made itself felt: Lockdowns, production and delivery bottlenecks, many employees in home offices and hardly any business trips led to savings in energy and materials, and thus to fewer emissions.

The biggest opportunities for reducing emissions are material consumption in our production facility. We want to exert even more influence here by increasing material efficiency, i.e. making better use of the material width for the individual cut parts, and by selecting more environmentally friendly materials. More about our Made in Germany production here.

Emissions year-on-year in metric tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalents) VAUDE Tettnang

More about our Made in Germany production here

Here you can find out more about the emissions caused by VAUDE from merchandise goods logistics.

What are Scopes? An explanation can be found here

Calculation of emissions follows these myclimate principles:

• Scope 3 emissions are shown in the climate footprint in the relevant categories as CO2 equivalents (Total Scope 3: 3,848 tCO2e).

• All greenhouse gases are included in accordance with IPCC in the climate footprint.

• There are no biogenic Scope 3 emissions.

• Emission categories/activities included: Business travel and overnight stays (without company fleet), logistics, material consumption for the VAUDE Manufaktur, fuel and energy related emissions (not included in Scope 1 or 2) , commuting, consumables, electronics, production materials, deliveries, waste, wastewater, water and website (electricity external computer center).

• The base year for GRI reporting is 2014. (Starting balance for GRI reporting). Scope 3 emissions rose in 2015 due to a new calculation method and reporting by VAUDE's transporters, fell in 2016, rose slightly in 2017, fell sharply in 2018 and increased slightly by 2 % in 2019 due to logistics and because of the extensive recording of consumables. 2014: 3757 tCO2e, 2015: 4491 tCO2e, 2016: 4422 tCO2e, 2017: 4522 tCO2e, 2018: 3674t CO2e, 2019: 3475 tCO2e, 2020: 3,848 tCO2e).

• The basis is the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (WRI). If assumptions are made, they are listed in the source.

• The source in almost all cases is ecoinvent v3 (LCA database) with GWP: 100y from IPCC (2013). Individual sources are each listed in the carbon footprint.

Consolidation approach of operational control (in accordance with WRI: GHG Protocol)

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