Annual report 2022 - Report - Page 20
Sustainability
20 Annual Report 2022
As a consulting company with no
production facilities, our climate footprint
is not large. Horten’s key contribution to
climate change mitigation is therefore
through our advice to the actors involved
in the green transition – producers of
renewable energy, companies behind
new sustainable energy solutions and
infrastructure, utilities and municipalities.
However, it is also important for us to
have our own house in order.
We conducted two management
workshops in an internal ESG working
group in 2022, to define the purpose and
aims for Horten’s future ESG reporting. In
the two workshops, we used a materiality
analysis as a discussion tool to identify
the social, environmental and economic
factors that could affect our business in
the long term, and where Horten has the
greatest impact on the environment and
society. This work will continue in 2023.
In 2021, we produced climate accounts
for the first time, to get an overview of
our annual greenhouse gas emissions.
The climate accounts were generated
using the web-based CEMAsys system,
which is based on the international
Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG
protocol).
The first climate accounts gave us
detailed insight into the key figures and
our first baseline. However, this baseline
was for an extraordinary year, where we
worked more from home due to the
pandemic, and travelled less by air, train
and car.
CEMAsys also introduced a method
change in emissions factors in 2022,
regarding the calculation of emissions
from hotel stays and district heating
consumption. This method change
improves the precision of the
measurement, but also results in lower
emissions despite largely unchanged
consumption.
Climate accounts 2022
The CO2 emissions are divided into three
scopes, in line with the GHG protocol’s
instructions and methodology. Horten’s
total emissions for 2022 were 339 tCO2.
With 290 full-time employees, this means
emissions per employee of 1.17 tCO2 for
2022.
All emissions occurring in companyowned buildings and vehicles are
reported in scope 1. Horten’s scope 1
emissions are therefore linked to the use
of company cars and refrigerant gas from
a refrigeration system at the office in
Hellerup. Together, the three offices
account for 10 tCO2e or 2.9% of total
CO2 emissions in 2022. This is a 20.3%
reduction from the previous year’s scope
1 emissions.
All emissions from the use of electricity
and district heating are reported in scope
2. The total emissions for all three offices
are 161.2 tCO2e or 47.6% of total
emissions. The emissions in scope 2 are
primarily from electricity (118.8 tCO2e).
Scope 2 emissions have risen 16.7%
compared to the previous year.
We reviewed our energy consumption at
the offices in Hellerup and Aarhus in
October 2022, to find areas where we
could quickly introduce energy-saving
measures. We reduced the heating and
ventilation, turned off the facade lighting
at night, introduced intelligent control for
lighting and networks, and installed LED
lights wherever possible.
Horten has chosen to limit reporting for
2022 in scope 3 to business travel
(driving in private vehicles, flights, taxi
trips, train travel, ferry trips and hotel
stays). Scope 3 emissions amounted to
167.8 tCO2e in 2022 or 49.5% of total
emissions. The largest contributor in this
category is driving in private vehicles,
which accounts for 57.5 tCO2e or 16.9%
of total emissions. Scope 3 emissions saw
an 80% increase in 2022 compared to
2021. This is because we travelled more,
including international travel, compared
to 2021, when travel activity was
extraordinarily low.
We initiated a reassessment of our travel
policy in 2022, to promote more climatefriendly travel. This is expected to be
complete in 2023.
We will also expand scope 3 reporting in
2023 to include our canteen, and we are
working on a project to minimise its
climate footprint, for example by using
more local ingredients and less meat.