The Sustainability Report covers the environmental achievements for 2020 of AGC Glass Europe, operating with 2 divisions (Building & Industrial Glass Division and Automotive Division). These achievements are the results of the continuous commitment of all the sites of AGC Glass Europe to more sustainable production operations and greener products and services.
Production operations : 2020 achievements at a glance
Energy recovery and electricity production: AGC started to install PV panels and heat recovery installations in 2009. Since then, electricity production has steadily increased to 25,577 MWh of recovered and self-generated energy in 2020. End of 2020, AGC constructed its first wind turbine on the site in Seneffe, Belgium.
Air: On a comparable basis, per tonne of glass sold, Primary Operations has reduced its direct CO2 emissions by 11 percent since 2002. The use of Heavy Fuel Oils has been consistently reduced during this period to disappear completely in 2020. There has been a reduction of around 61% in the specific dust emissions since 1999.
Water: From 1998 to 2020, AGC has managed to reduce the water consumption by 69 percent on a comparable basis.
Solid waste: Today, the amount of solid waste produced by the Group is around 234,000 tonnes/year, of which around 97 percent is further recycled or recovered on site by our suppliers or contractors.
Transport: 56 percent of all raw materials is transported by ship, barge and train, taking about 50,170 trucks per year off the road. In 2020, about 40,300 tonnes of finished glass products were transported in combined train and truck transport, taking about 2,000 trucks per year off the road.
Packaging: Today most of the glass packaging is reusable. AGC Glass Europe achieves a very high level of packaging reuse. In Belgium 98 packaging of the packaging is reused.
Recycling: AGC Glass Europe recycles around 1,000,000 tonnes of cullet per year, saving about 1,150,000 tonnes of raw material and 700,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
More details (in English) in “Environmental Achievements”.
Environmental objectives for 2030
Today more than ever we have a responsibility to ensure that future generations inherit a world that is developing in a sustainable way. Especially on the issue of climate change, society knows that what we do today affects tomorrow, and that all should take their responsibility now.
Therefore AGC Glass Europe has selected six environmental objectives that must be achieved by 2030 using 2020 as the baseline year. These objectives target reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, water consumption and waste, and drive the development of new products with better environmental performance during their entire life cycle, including recycling at the end of life.
More details (in English) in “Planning and objectives”.