Festo on the way to climate neutrality

Automation technology manufacturer from Esslingen will massively reduce CO₂ footprint

"Festo will massively reduce its CO2 footprint over the next two years. As a result, by the end of 2023, all our production and logistics sites as well as the German sales locations and the corporate headquarters in Esslingen will be CO2 neutral", explains the Chairman of the Management Board of Festo SE & Co. KG, Dr. h.c. Oliver Jung, in his end-of-year address to the staff.

The Executive Board has decided on extensive investments and released budgets in order to be able to realise the neutralisation of Scope1 and Scope2 emissions (our own generation and purchase of energy according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol).

The planned measures are carried out in four main directions:

They serve to improve energy efficiency in production. In future, new buildings will also be designed to be CO2 neutral with regard to air conditioning.
A massive expansion of the company's own renewable energy production through photovoltaics will significantly reduce the amount of electricity purchased from outside sources.
Likewise, a switch to 100% green power is to be implemented.
And in the following years, ecologically sensible compensation projects will be implemented to bridge unavoidable conversion periods of existing heating systems and the vehicle fleet in all our Festo properties worldwide.

Festo has aligned its own sustainability strategy along the lines of the United Nations Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) and firmly anchored it in its corporate strategy CS 2025. Festo believes that the range of services in automation and technical education is well on the way to offering its customers sustainable, innovative and competitive solutions.

In this context, so-called Scope3 emissions (i.e. upstream and downstream emissions outside our own area) will play an increasingly important role. Here, emissions from purchasing, logistics on the one hand and the use of our products by customers on the other are considered. Reducing the energy consumption of Festo products in use is a particular focus of our research and development activities. To this end, pioneering innovations will be presented to our customers at the Hanover Trade Fair 2022.

On the path to climate neutrality, industry as a whole will play a key role. New solutions will be found in the interplay of digitalisation, artificial intelligence, automation and sustainable energy concepts and resilient infrastructures. Linked to this, the changing qualification requirements will also give new impetus to technical education. Festo believes it is ideally positioned to play its part in a climate-neutral future.

With the decision to go CO2 neutral, Festo is assuming responsibility as a family company and will make its own contribution to tackling the greatest task facing humanity today, the fight against climate change and its consequences. "We are convinced that our commitment to the ecological transformation of business and industry provides meaningful orientation for all of us in the Festo family company and offers a wide range of opportunities", says the Chairman of the Management Board Dr. Oliver Jung.

Festo is a global player and an independent family-owned company with headquarters in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. Festo has set standards in industrial automation technology and technical education ever since its establishment, thereby making a contribution to sustainable development of the environment, the economy and society. The company supplies pneumatic and electrical automation technology to 300,000 customers of factory and process automation in over 35 industries. Digitalization, AI and the LifeTech sector with medical technology and laboratory automation are becoming increasingly important. The products and services are available in 176 countries. With about 20,600 employees in over 250 branch offices in around 60 countries worldwide, Festo achieved a turnover of around €3.65 billion in 2023. Each year around 7% of this turnover is invested in research and development. In this learning company, 1.5 % of turnover is invested in basic and further training. Festo Didactic SE is a leading provider of technical education and training and offers its customers worldwide comprehensive digital and physical learning solutions in the industrial environment.