Why carry out a GHG assessment?
According to the definition of ADEME (the French agency for ecological transition), a GHG assessment is an evaluation of the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted (or captured) into the atmosphere over a year by the activities of an organization or a territory.
Altyor has chosen to carry out its GHG assessment on a voluntary basis in order to understand the impact of our business and to know the effective levers to reduce our footprint.
An assessment of the 3 perimeters
A carbon footprint analysis can be performed on one or all three of these categories (scopes):
Direct emissions
Scope 1
Scope 1 covers greenhouse gas emissions directly related to the company and its activities from fixed or mobile installations (e.g. gas heating in the plant, fuel combustion in vehicles under its control, etc.)
Indirect energy related emissions
Scope 2
These are mainly emissions related to the production of electricity, heat or cold due to the company’s activities but produced elsewhere.
Other indirect emissions
Scope 3
Scope 3 includes all other greenhouse gas emissions that are not directly linked to the manufacture of the product, but to other activities upstream and downstream of the organization’s value chain (employee travel, fixed assets, investments, use and end of life of products, etc.)
“Some players are focusing on analysing their scope 1 and 2. At Altyor, we believe that it is imperative to focus on all three scopes, in order to implement a low-carbon strategy for all three.”
Yanis Cottard, Altyor Président
Overall result of the Altyor carbon footprint
Scopes 1 and 2 together represent 2.5% of our GHG emissions. Scope 3, relating to indirect emissions, is therefore of major importance, since it represents 97.5% of our emissions, i.e. 13,064 tons of CO2e.
Altyor’s GHG emissions are mainly due to the materials we use in our products (56%). The other contributors are the transportation of the products we manufacture, the energy used to manufacture them, their consumption (fossil fuels, electricity, etc.) during their use, and finally the energy cost of their end-of-life.
Plastics (injected and packaging) account for 71% of material emissions in Scope 3, or 4,000 tons of CO2. Metals account for 16%, followed by electronic components for 12%.
The main mode of transportation used by Altyor is sea freight, which represents 80% of our modes of transportation (based on the weight of goods transported). Although air freight accounts for only 9% of the modes of transport, it does account for 82% of our greenhouse gas emissions.
How can we improve our carbon footprint?
Altyor has voluntarily completed its carbon footprint for all three scopes in 2021. Thanks to this assessment we have become aware of the improvements that are needed and the levers that need to be applied. The company would like to carry out this assessment on a regular basis in order to analyze the effects of the actions it has implemented.
Altyor is committed to:
- automate the production of our GHG report
- define reduction objectives
- reduce energy consumption through the implementation of best practices on site
- maximize the recycling of resources and disposing of waste appropriately
- use the least CO2 intensive transportation of goods and people
- design sustainable and repairable products through proven technology choices, intelligent design and a robust qualification process
- optimize the energy consumption of products by selecting appropriate technologies or components and by improving operating and standby modes
- promote product and packaging sobriety by designing products with a low carbon impact
- organize the end-of-life of products through our recycling channels
“Altyor was selected by Bpifrance and Ademe to join the Decarbonation gas pedal, with the aim of defining its low-carbon transition plan and implementing it via the “ACT* Pas à Pas” approach.
*ACT: Assessing low Carbon Transition initiative