Decarbonisation is a crucial element in mitigating climate change. It involves reducing GHGs primarily by limiting energy consumption and the use of fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy sources, or by reducing material consumption. Businesses can contribute to climate change mitigation by implementing effective decarbonisation strategies.
Energy efficiency: You can reduce demand through awareness of rational energy use and combating wastage by minimising non-productive consumption in factories or non-occupational consumption in buildings. Potential savings can vary between 5% and 20% of consumption. Energy efficiency involves using less energy to achieve the same results (quantity produced, quality) through investment in technologies and equipment aimed at greater performance and productivity (high-efficiency motors, speed controllers, heat recovery, LED lighting, insulation, etc.). To understand the potential for reducing your energy consumption, an energy audit is recommended.
Digitalisation: You can only improve what you measure. The digitalisation of energy management allows for the collection of production data (e.g., from a solar PV plant) or consumption data (from different sectors) and real-time monitoring. Operators can thus identify optimisation opportunities and act quickly thanks to alerts from installed systems.
Renewable energy: Renewable energy sources are considered "inexhaustible" due to their rapid replenishment and they generate little to no emissions that pollute the environment. They come from natural cyclical or constant phenomena such as the sun (heat and light), the moon's pull (tides), the earth's heat (geothermal), and the wind (wind power). For example, biomass, derived from agricultural or forestry organic waste, can be used to produce electricity, heat, or biofuels. Exploiting available spaces (roofs, ground) by installing photovoltaic solar panels can cover part of the electricity needs.
CO2 capture: Capturing carbon from factory emissions before it is released into the atmosphere can be useful when it is difficult to reduce emissions, especially in heavy industries. The most commonly used process is "post-combustion" capture, which involves collecting CO2 by washing the emissions with a solvent. For more information on storing CO2 as a natural or artificial carbon sink, click here .
Alternative inputs: This involves the substitution of raw materials and materials that are significant CO2 emitters with less emitting materials. Materials used for manufacturing can be recycled (e.g., plastic) or ecological (e.g., plant-based leather) or produced using renewable energies (e.g., green hydrogen used in the production of ammonia), while maintaining the same usefulness.
Circular economy: This lever aims to limit the consumption of primary resources by shifting from a linear model (extract, manufacture, consume, and dispose) to a circular organisation of activities (reuse, reduce, and recycle resources). Recycling, efficient resource use and using waste to produce energy (biogas, biomass) save materials.
