2020 Sustainability Report

56 Ecology Bützberg site In 2020 we successfully completed the “large-scale consumer model” introduced by canton Bern to reduce energy consumption. We comfortably exceeded the goal that was set of verifiably reducing energy consumption by 4.4% between 2017 and 2019, with a figure of 7.4%. Energy consumption at the Bützberg site is divided into three main areas: approximately 50% heating, 30% fuel and 20% electricity for the factory. Looking at the trends in the different areas, it is noticeable that electricity consumption is falling steadily. In fact, in relation to the number of hours worked, consumption has remained stable. So the reduction is primarily due to the reduced number of employees, or rather of their working hours, in Bützberg. In terms of fuel, there was a reduction of 7400 litres in 2019 compared with the previous year. The consumption by our lorries is almost unchanged compared with the previous reporting period, so the lower figure is due to a reduction in consumption by company cars and to having newer vehicles in the fleet. This trend accelerated in 2020, when con- sumption was a further 11,300 litres down compared with 2019. In this case, however, the reason lay in the coronavirus pandemic, which greatly restricted our ability to travel. We can assume that, once the coronavirus crisis is over, business travel will increase again. However, we must try to continue to use the new communication tools that we introduced during the crisis and so permanently reduce our need to travel and therefore our fuel consumption. During the reporting period, 6% of our heating energy came from oil, and the rest from wood. Consumption per heating degree day remained stable, even though of course actual consumption varies depending on the weather conditions. Energy consumption Energy source in MWh Girsberger AG Bützberg Heating Oil Wood Electricity Petrol Diesel Girsberger GmbH Endingen Gas Electricity Petrol/diesel Overview energy consumption 2020 103 1,761 755 1,047 74 817 189 515 2019 152 1,965 795 1,146 84 784 204 633 2018 119 2,015 812 1,209 92 737 196 671 2017 132 1,919 850 1,224 65 821 181 662 2016 167 1,674 915 1,150 76 790 188 638