Morgan Advanced Materials

Close up of solar panel cells

Energy

As public concern grows, more customers are asking about our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions as part of the manufacturing process. The increasing demand for low-carbon products and processes, and the need to consider the effects of climate change in general, have had an impact on our long-term strategy.

Our goal is to be a CO2e scope 1 and 2 net zero business by 2050. Our 2030 target is to reduce our scope 1 and 2 CO2e emissions by 50% (from a 2015 baseline).

During 2023 we reduced our emissions by 25% (compared to 2022). We are now 54% below our 2015 baseline and on track to meet our 2030 goal.

Our scope 1 and 2 CO2e emissions have been reducing, driven by improvements in:

  • Increased sourcing of renewable electricity
  • Efficiency improvements in our high-temperature processes
  • Continued investment in electric furnaces

We have a broad-based improvement programme underway covering energy procurement, process improvements and behavioural changes in our plants.

In 2023, we improved our energy intensity, price adjusted, by around 11% and continued the transition to carbon-free energy for a number of our sites. Nearly three-quarters of our electricity now comes from green or carbon-free sources.

Our CO2 emissions in the first half of 2024 were down 11.6% on the prior period.

Energy performance in 2023

  • Total GHG emissions (tCO2e) were 157,574 tonnes, a 25% decrease over 2022 levels and 54% decrease over 2015 values.
  • Scope 1 GHG emissions (tCO2e) from stationary fuel combustion were 105,946 tonnes and scope 1 GHG emissions (tCO2e) from process emissions were 4,617 tonnes. For 2023, total scope 1 GHG emissions (tCO2e) accounted was 110,563 tonnes, which is a 9% decrease over 2022 values and 46% decrease over 2015 values.
  • Market-based scope 2 GHG emissions (tCO2e) were 47,011 tonnes, which is a 47% decrease over 2022 values and 66% decrease over 2015 values.
  • Achieved a “B” management score for Climate Change from CDP recognising we are taking co-ordinated action on climate issues.

Energy procurement

The total energy consumption (fuel and electricity) for the Group was 969.9 GWh for 2023, which is 8.5% lower than 2022. In 2023, we reached the milestone of 72% green (renewable and carbon-free) electricity.

Scope 3 emissions

We acknowledge the importance of assessing our value-chain emissions in achieving our long-term sustainability objectives. We plan to collaborate with our key stakeholders and top-tier suppliers to reduce indirect emissions, which is our initial move towards minimising the impact of our product life cycle.

On GHG reporting, we define our organisational boundary on an operational control basis, and we report our scope 1 and 2 emissions on this basis. This implies that we account for 100% of such emissions resulting from operations over which Morgan or one of our subsidiaries has operational control.

Generally, the term scope 3 refers to indirect GHG emissions originating from activities in our value chain, such as upstream emissions linked to raw materials, downstream emissions generated from the products we sell, and emissions from transportation activities upstream and downstream. The scope 3 standard further classifies these emissions into fifteen distinct categories.

Details of our 2023 scope 3 screening exercise can be found on page 51 of the 2023 Annual Report.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Morgan’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), are mostly generated by the combustion of fossil fuels at various stages of our manufacturing processes. We track these using a reporting methodology based on the internationally recognised Greenhouse Gas Protocol. This stipulates the source for the global warming potential (GWP) rates that we use to convert non-carbon dioxide emissions into the standard measure of carbon accounting, i.e. carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e).