Velux Group, a Danish manufacturing company that specializes in skylights and roof windows, has pledged to become a ‘lifetime carbon neutral’ establishment by 2041. The commitment will be executed in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to remove as much CO2 from the atmosphere as it has emitted via operations and power since its founding on April 1, 1941.
WWF is an international non-governmental association that focuses on the reduction of human impact on the environment and wilderness preservation.
On September 1, the Danish company became the latest firm to commit to a carbon reduction program that exceeds net zero emissions. Velux Group plans to offset its historic carbon footprint, which it claims to be approximately 5.6M tons of CO2, by investing in biodiversity and forest projects developed by WWF for Velux.
David Briggs, the chief executive of Velux, said, “We will also dramatically reduce our future CO2 emissions and ask our suppliers to do the same. Hopefully, other companies will be inspired to become ‘lifetime carbon neutral’ in order to create a sustainable future for all.”
Myanmar and Uganda will be the locations of the first two forest projects in the 20-year partnership. The projects will focus on conserving and boosting biodiversity and restoring and preserving degraded forests in collaboration with local communities.
Marco Lambertini, the international director general of WWF, said, “Embracing a commitment aligned with a 1.5C world while also protecting important forest landscapes and biodiversity – and the crucial services they provide to communities and the economy – is in line with a climate responsible and nature positive future that will serve as the foundation for achieving all the Sustainable Development Goals. Together, we hope that other organizations will be inspired by the Velux Carbon Neutral and raise the bar for corporate climate and nature action globally.”
Since no standard methodology exists to evaluate a historic carbon footprint, Velux developed a new way to calculate its lifetime carbon emissions based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard and then applied to historical data. Consultancy Carbon Trust will independently verify the methodology, and WWF will review it.
The Danish company’s lifetime carbon-neutral pledge is part of its 2030 Sustainability Strategy, which commits Velux to reduce its operational and value chain CO2 emissions consistent with a 1.5-degree warming setting suggested by the Paris Agreement.
To accomplish these goals, the firm intends to:
- Boost energy efficiency investments at its production sites
- Convert all of its operations to renewable energy
- Modify the way it specifies and purchases materials
Velux’s commitment joins a small but growing number of companies that have pledged to achieve carbon reductions that exceed net zero emissions over the years to come. The trend started in January when Microsoft promised to become ‘net negative’ by 2030 and to capture as much CO2 from the air by 2050 as it has emitted since its founding in 1975.
