Full disclosure: Arburg earns a category B score from CDP

In 2020, German plastics machinery manufacturer Arburg took part for the first time in the CDP programme for corporate environmental reporting.

CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs the global environmental disclosure system. Short for Carbon Disclosure Project, it has developed an independent scoring methodology that allows investors, companies, cities, states and regions to measure their environmental risk in order to better manage this strategically.

“Arburg participated in the Carbon Disclosure Projects for the first time and we are more than satisfied with the result,” said Bertram Stern, Sustainability Manager at Arburg. The company has earned a category B CDP score, indicating that, while there is room for improvement, its efforts to measure and manage its environmental footprint have yielded results. Compared to other industry players, its environmental performance may, in particular, be considered to be better than average in the areas of climate protection, ecology and CO2 emissions.

The score assigned to a company runs from category A to category D and is determined on the basis of the data provided to CDP by completing questionnaires on climate change, forests and water security.

With a “B” score, Arburg is at what is known as “Management” level, which means that coordinated measures are being taken on climate issues and the company's own strategies in this regard are being further developed. This is higher than the “C” score, or “Awareness” level – the European average – earned by companies with “knowledge of the impact of climate issues”. The average in the mechanical engineering sector, however,  is a “D" score. Companies in this category are “transparent on climate issues”.

For Arburg, this first CDP rating reveals that emissions and active engagement on climate and sustainability issues in and along the value chain remain areas in which development is needed.

The company will remain at management level B in 2021 while continuing to work on the further improvement of its environmental performance, said Stern.

“To achieve this, we will intensify our medium- and long-term efforts throughout the company and improve in the categories in which we have been scored “C”, both at our headquarters in Lossburg and in all of our subsidiaries. We will try to further reduce any emissions that we can directly influence and to integrate a sustainability strategy into our supply chain management that is specifically geared towards our suppliers,” he clarified.

Since 2019, Arburg’s circular economy and resource conservation activities have been grouped together under the arburgGREENworld programme. Both the CDP score and the company’s recently published sustainability report are important components of this programme, which is founded on four pillars. The first three, i.e. “Green Machine”, “Green Production” and “Green Services”, are highly customer oriented. The fourth – “Green Environment” – relates to Arburg’s internal processes. The CDP score achieved in 2020 will operate as a benchmark measure against which the company’s future progress may be measured.