Energy

Our sustainability strategy includes actions to reduce GHG emissions and combat climate change.

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.

By the end of 2021, we had lowered GHG emissions by 33% against 2015 levels and reduced 17% compared to 2020, and GHG emission intensity by 38%.
Our Aspiration Our 2030 Goal
A CO2 net zero business by 20501 50% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO2 emissions2
1 Excludes indirect emissions generated by our supply chain, distribution network and employee travel.
2 Reduction targets shown are compared to a 2015 baseline.

Our progress

Drawing on our expertise as a leading innovator of products that reduce our customers GHG emissions, our focus in 2021 was on improving our own energy efficiency. We focused on procuring renewable and clean energy sources, and evaluating the replacement of higher-emission fuels with less-carbon-intensive fuels.

We made significant progress in improving energy procurement, with a move towards carbon free and renewable energy sources; 33% of our electricity is now procured from renewable and carbon-free sources, compared with 6% in 2020.

By the end of 2021, we had lowered GHG emissions by 33% against 2015 levels and emission intensity by 38%. Our sites are continuing to implement best practice to reduce energy consumption globally, as part of an effort to not only use energy more wisely but also drive down CO2e emissions.

Scope 3 emissions

We recognise that assessment of our value-chain emissions is an important part of our long-term sustainability strategy. We aim to work with our key stakeholders and top tier suppliers to reduce indirect emissions and this is our preliminary step towards minimising product lifecycle impact.

We are actively evaluating the following areas: 

  • Supplier goods and services. We identified a system to evaluate our suppliers in 2021 and conducted a pilot on our top tier suppliers in terms of climate and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. Our next steps will be to calculate the GHG Reporting Protocol categories deemed ‘relevant’ and to evaluate the remaining categories’ relevance; 
  • Capital goods. We anticipate having a system identified in 2022 to begin our evaluation of scope 3 emissions associated with capital goods using a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) based method. Systems to conduct LCAs were evaluated and a LCA platform was selected in 2021; 
  • Fuel-and energy-related activities. We are currently evaluating systems to account accurately for scope 3 for Fuel-and energy related activities (not included in scope 1 or 2). We anticipate having a plan defined in 2022 to capture this data. Scope 3 emissions associated with Fuel-and energy-related activities both upstream and downstream will be estimated using various tools such as the GHG Protocol Scope 3 Evaluator and IEA emission data.

Streamlined energy and carbon reporting (UK)

We comply with the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) requirements. The table below represents our energy use and associated GHG emissions from fuel and electricity in the UK for the 2019, 2020 & 2021 reporting years, in compliance with the mandatory reporting requirements by the UK Government’s SECR policy. The scope of this data includes six manufacturing sites and two non-manufacturing sites based in the UK. In 2021, the UK accounted for 3% of our global total scope 1 and 2 emissions, as outlined in our mandatory GHG reporting. Our absolute GHG emissions (scope 1 & 2) for our UK operations were down by 42% compared to 2019 levels and 34% compared to 2020 levels.

Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi)

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a global body helping businesses to set ambitious emissions reductions targets in line with the latest climate science. It is focused on halving global emissions before 2030 and in achieving net-zero emissions before 2050.

We understand the importance of rapid and deep emission cuts to halve global emissions before 2030, and achieve net-zero before 2050. Therefore, in December 2021, Morgan Advanced Materials submitted our commitment to set near-term company-wide emission reductions in line with climate science highlighted by the SBTi.

Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

We recognise climate change as both a risk and an opportunity for our business, and we fully support the implementation of the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Climate change poses challenges to our supply chain and production operations, as well as to our employees and customers. 

We have set out a commitment to align with full TCFD reporting in 2022 and intend to develop and improve these disclosures as we build a deeper understanding of the potential effects on our business.

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).

Our sustainability strategy includes actions to reduce GHG emissions and combat climate change. As public concern grows, more customers are asking about our 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.

The composition of our carbon footprint is shown in the table below.

  1. For scope 1 and 2 we report our CO2e emissions from energy and refrigerants and other process related CO2e emissions. Carbon emission factors are used to convert energy used in our operations to emissions of CO2e. Carbon emission factors for fuels are provided by International Energy Agency (IEA). We report our emissions with reference to the latest Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. Scope 2 includes market-based and location-based factors. In 2021, the value of scope 2 GHG location-based only emissions is 124,868 tonnes.
  2. Total scope 1 emissions were calculated from the addition of direct scope 1 emissions and process emissions. Carbon emission factors for grid electricity are calculated according to the ‘location-based method’ and ‘market-based’ where received. The location-based method reflects the average emissions intensity of the grids on which energy consumption occurs (using mostly grid-average emission factor data). Process emissions disclosed (4,070 tonnes, or circa 3% of scope 1) in 2021 rely on historical calculations that could not be evidenced for assurance purposes.
  3. Total emissions include scope 1 and scope 2 only. Biogenic emissions are treated as carbon neutral and reported separately.
  4. The GHG Protocol requires that CO2e emissions from biomass combustion at stationary sources are reported as biomass CO2e emissions (in terms of total amount of biogenic CO2e emitted) and are tracked separately from fossil CO2e emissions. Biogenic emissions have also been updated to reflect an error identified in an emission factor. In previous years biogenic emissions were included as part of our scope 1 emissions and calculated utilising an emission factor of 1.336 MT CO2e/MT of wood. The factor has been revised to reflect the factors provided by DEFRA of 0.059 MT CO2e/MT of wood and therefore scope 1 emissions have been restated to remove biogenic emissions.
  5. For manufacturing, we have selected an intensity ratio based on sales (on a constant-currency* basis). This aligns with our longstanding reporting of manufacturing performance. Emissions from the combustion of biogenic fuels (such as biomass and coffee husks) within our operations are reported separately from other scope 1 and 2 emissions, as recommended by the GHG Protocol, and are excluded from our intensity ratio calculation. The data also excludes scope 3 emissions and emissions from Company-owned and leased vehicles.