According to various forecasts, the world population is expected to grow from its current 6.6 billion to 8 billion people by 2030. At the same time, the demand for energy worldwide is likely to increase by more than 50 percent, according to the experts of the International Energy Agency (IEA) headquartered in Paris. The International Panel on Climate Change – the scientific body of experts advising the United Nations – anticipates that the climate change caused by humanity, and the associated rise in temperature on the earth, will further increase if we are not successful in reducing the output of carbon dioxide (chemical formula: CO2). Numerous measures have therefore been decided upon at the international and national political level in order to reduce the output of CO2 and cut energy consumption. Decisive contributions to the attainment of these objectives have, for many years now, emanated from the industrial sector, of which Henkel is very much a part.
Henkel has grouped its activities relating to sustainable development into five focal areas: water and wastewater, materials and waste, health and safety, social progress, and also the topic of energy and climate with which we are concerned here.
“In order to ensure the efficient utilization of energy resources and to promote climate protection, Henkel has long been working on new technologies for the development, manufacture and usage of its products and systems,” emphasizes Henkel CEO Kasper Rorsted. Henkel adhesives are helping to make modern automobiles lighter in order to reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Modern laundry detergents and cleaning products from the company perform excellently even at low temperatures, enabling households to lower their energy consumption. “And these are just a few examples of many smart solutions from Henkel,” explains Rorsted. Over the last ten years, Henkel has succeeded in reducing its energy consumption per ton of production output by 40 percent, resulting in a decrease in CO¬2 emissions of 33 percent.
Such figures underline the success enjoyed by Henkel in its efforts to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Spurred on by the reductions achieved in the past, the company intends to utilize further potential for improvements in production particularly. Over the coming five years, energy consumption per ton of production output is to be decreased by a further 15 percent, with a concomitant additional cut in the emission of CO2. Needless to say, Henkel’s approach also includes a ensuring that all new products make a positive contribution to sustainable development. The following examples from the company’s three business sectors illustrate how these objectives can be achieved in specific terms.

Laundry & Home Care
“In focusing on the executional excellence of our brands together with their environmental compatibility – what we call ‘Performance based on Sustainability’ – we see enormous potential for driving forward the development of further innovative products,” explains Christian-André Weinberger, Corporate Senior Vice President Laundry & Home Care. “However, a primary prerequisite for success in this endeavor is that individuals behave in a responsible manner; that, in their purchasing decisions, they choose the best-performing and most sustainable solution, and that they use the product correctly.”
As a symbol of Henkel’s determination in this regard, all the company’s laundry and home care products have, since April 2008, carried the logo “Quality & Responsibility”. Its purpose is to communicate Henkel’s total dedication to first-class product performance and a responsible approach to resource usage. The logo also constitutes an appeal to consumers to likewise adopt a responsible attitude to resource conservation. As part of this approach, Henkel is also involved, for example, in the “Save Energy and Water” initiative of the A.I.S.E. – the international association for soaps, detergents and maintenance products – the aim being to encourage water and energy efficiency in machine dishwashing. Corresponding logos on machine dishwashing detergent products and internet/website postings encourage consumers to select the more energy-efficient programs available in their dishwashers.
It was back in the 1970s that Henkel laid its foundation for reducing energy consumption in laundry care – with pioneering work in the field of enzyme research. Around one third of laundry volumes at that time were made up of fabrics from manmade fibers. The new, colorful textiles were gradually making more and more inroads into domains that were previously the preserve of white linen and similar fabrics that required the boil setting to get them clean. The new fabrics presented detergent manufacturers with a problem. They could not be boiled but naturally still needed to be properly cleaned at the low temperatures that they could withstand. However, conventional heavy-duty detergents needed to be used at elevated temperatures in order to attain the high level of efficacy for which they were renowned. Henkel recognized the problem early on and launched Persil 70, a biologically active heavy-duty detergent. With its enzymes, Persil 70 was able to effectively attack even stubborn protein-based stains at low temperatures.
A significant contribution to energy saving can therefore be instantly made through the use of enzymes. Lower laundry temperatures result in a reduction in a household’s energy requirement. Indeed, electricity consumption per wash load has halved since 1970. And that means that carbon dioxide emissions in Germany alone have been reduced by 1.5 million metric tons. This corresponds to the energy consumption, and thus the carbon dioxide emissions, of all the private households in a city the size of Dusseldorf (population 581,000) over a period of six months.
Without the use of high-performance enzymes, the excellent results produced by a modern laundry detergent at low temperatures would be unthinkable. Whereas certain types of washing would have been boiled in the past, i.e. washed at temperatures around 90 degrees C, Henkel’s premium detergents in Europe – Persil, Le Chat, Dixan and Wipp – are able to ensure significantly improved stain removal even at 20 degrees Celsius thanks to their high-performance active enzyme formulation. And, by applying these the low washing temperatures, consumers are able to save energy and thus reduce their CO2 emissions – cutting their costs and helping the climate.

Cosmetics
In the case of Henkel’s cosmetics products too, resource conservation is a major factor. For example, the company has brought out under its umbrella brand Schwarzkopf Professional a mini-sized hair spray – the Silhouette Compact – offering the same yield as a conventional, large can product. This has been made possible by the combination of a concentrated formulation and a special spray nozzle that automatically regulates the discharge volume. The benefits compared to the normal-sized version are many and varied: for the consumer, the mini-sized spray is easier to use and offers more flexibility – for example in travel situations. For the environment, it means 50 percent less propellant gas compared to normal hair sprays. There are also savings in resources with respect to packaging, in production and in transportation. And as a further plus: the waste in terms of tinplate and plastics is also reduced by half.

Adhesive Technologies
Henkel is a world leader – in both technical and ecological terms – in the fields of adhesives and sealants. Take solar energy for example: Henkel has been active in this growing market since 2002, participating in various collaborations. Together with one of the largest solar module producers in Europe, the company has developed a new technology which increases the amount of solar energy captured by between 30 and 40 percent compared to conventional solar modules. The challenge lay in reliably connecting the solar panels to the steel frame in order to allow the modules to follow the sun’s path through the sky. The solution found by Henkel goes by the name of Terostat MS. This high-tech bonding compound is weather-resistant even under extreme conditions such as burning sunshine and high wind speeds.
Henkel is able to call on many years of experience in the development of high-performance adhesives for the automotive industry, among others. These adhesives stiffen the body shell, rendering it more resilient. This in turn enables thinner metal sheeting to be used, making vehicles lighter, which in turn reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. For each kilogram saved in a car, 20 kg less CO2 is discharged in the course of its service lifetime.
Rising energy costs and a growing awareness of environmental needs are increasing the demand for “green” construction materials – and not only in Germany. A survey has revealed that up to 25 percent of US Americans are keen on using ecological building products when constructing their homes, and are also willing to pay a premium for the privilege. With its OSI Green Series, Henkel has launched a range of “green” adhesives and sealants onto the US market. The use of these products enhances energy efficiency in the finished building.
On average, almost 22 percent of household heat is lost through windows and doors. The cause usually lies in poorly sealed joints. Well insulated windows and doors keep the warmth in the rooms longer, helping to reduce energy consumption and heating costs. In recognition of this fact, Henkel has developed its “Windows Technology Quality” system and, under the Teroson brand, it has established a whole range of products designed to ensure the reliable sealing of joints.
 
Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) pilot project
Working with five other companies, Henkel is participating in a pilot project to determine the carbon dioxide emissions generated by certain of its products, their so-called CO2 impact or “carbon footprints”. This research is being overseen by the WWF, the “Öko-Institut” (Institute for Applied Ecology), the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and also the German agency THEMA1. The carbon footprint refers to the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted by a product throughout its entire service lifetime, taking into account raw material procurement, production, fabrication, transportation, use and, finally, disposal. Product carbon footprints could, in future, be used to characterize the climate-relevant environmental burden caused by an individual product. As its contribution to this project, Henkel will determine the carbon footprints for a body wash, a heavy-duty detergent, a joint sealant and also an industrial packaging adhesive. The primary purpose of this undertaking is to engage in the international discussion on the determination of carbon footprints and to promote a process of harmonization in their measurement and assessment. The PCF pilot project will also provide a forum for experts to discuss what kind of marking – if any – products could reasonably be expected to carry.
The method for determining carbon footprints is based on lifecycle assessments (LCA). These serve as a vehicle for recording and evaluating all forms of environmental impact arising as a result of industrial activity and throughout the entire value chain – from the cradle to the grave, so to speak. Rather than characterizing the entire environmental burden caused by a product, the carbon footprint reflects only the carbon dioxide emissions determined from the lifecycle assessments as relevant to climate. Henkel has been carrying out lifecycle assessments since the beginning of the 1990s and will be contributing knowledge and experience to this pilot project in order to actively assist in the development and harmonization of cogent methods for the determination of carbon footprints as a prelude to introducing more effective measures for climate protection. The results of the project will provide an indication as to which stages along a product’s service life certain levels of carbon dioxide emissions occur, enabling these to be specifically targeted in order to reduce the overall volumes involved.

Henkel’s worldwide efficiency drive
Henkel operates production sites in 77 countries. In order to reduce resource consumption and environmental burden while at the same time increasing cost-efficiency and safety, Henkel is committed to continuously improving all its facilities, processes and structures. In 2006, it initiated its worldwide efficiency drive “Excellence in Site Services”, of which one of the objectives is to drive improvements in the field of energy consumption. The company is currently in the process of implementing this project on an international scale at all its production sites. Measurable successes have already been achieved in many countries: the six Henkel sites in Italy, for example, report a reduction in their overall energy consumption from 2003 to 2007 of 7 percent per ton of production output.
Henkel’s Engels plant in Russia primarily produces heavy-duty detergents and industrial adhesives. Steam is used to heat the buildings and as process energy. Previously, the site was supplied with this medium from an external steam turbine power plant, but the long pipeline distances involved meant that significant heat losses occurred. Consequently, Henkel installed its own steam generation plant, enabling annual energy consumption to fall by up to 30 percent.
In order to further reduce transport costs, Henkel gives preference to those carriers and haulage companies operating within a cooperative network. It also makes the most of every opportunity to join together with other suppliers of similar products on the transport side, particularly where the recipients of the goods are identical. For example, in Germany Henkel cooperates with other leading manufacturers in the distribution of its cosmetic products. In Austria, Henkel has its cosmetics, detergents and household cleaners shipped out together from a central depot at its Vienna production site. Pooled shipment to customers in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia meant the avoidance of 200,000 transportation kilometers in 2007. This corresponds to around 70,000 liters of diesel fuel or 185 kg in saved CO2 emissions per year.
Throughout the world, Henkel strives to recycle waste heat from production back to its processes. At the company’s cosmetics site in Wassertrüdingen, Germany, for example, Henkel installed a new steam-driven heat exchanger in 2007. With the waste heat recovered from the compressor, it now heats the test baths used for its hair and deodorant sprays, enabling it to cut its energy consumption by about 6 percent in 2007 – equivalent to 250 metric tons of CO2 emissions.

Henkel is proud of its successes to date and is inspired to achieve more in the future. Now the company intends to align all its products and all its sites worldwide toward enabling not just the company itself but also its customers and consumers to save even more energy and further help to protect the climate.

Henkel has regularly published an annual Sustainability Report since 1992. Through this medium and through its website, Henkel reports on the progress being made by the company in the fields of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility.

For more than 130 years, Henkel has been a leader with brands and technologies that make people's lives easier, better and more beautiful.  Henkel operates in three business areas – Home Care, Personal Care, and Adhesive Technologies – and is ranked among the Fortune Global 500 companies. More than 60 percent of Henkel’s sales are in consumer goods, while the industrial business accounts for almost 40 percent of the company’s total sales. In fiscal 2007, Henkel generated sales of 13,074 million euros and operating profit of 1,344 million euros. Our more than 55,000 employees worldwide are dedicated to fulfilling our corporate claim, "A Brand like a Friend," and ensuring that people in more than 125 countries can trust in brands and technologies from Henkel.

Henkel AG & Co. KGaA

Head of Corporate Communications
Ernst Primosch, Corporate Vice President