Sustainable procurement: an important leg of our journey to a better future

With our sustainability roadmap in hand, we continue to take distinct steps to reduce and eventually eliminate our ecological footprint, as well as to create better solutions, happier employees and stronger communities. Without losing sight of our goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, we are making an important stopover on our sustainability journey as we have recently engaged in carbon offsetting for the production of our electric steel radiators.

All roads lead to (a sustainable) Rome

With 64.9% of energy consumption in EU households is used for space heating and cooling1, there is a lot of potential to reduce carbon emissions. The right heat source and related products such as low temperature emitters, smart controls, valves, etc. are clearly key elements in a sustainable future. We bring all of this together in a complete range of sustainable indoor climate comfort solutions.

It is not surprising therefore that our production and our solutions are 2 of the 4 focus areas in our sustainability strategy, along with our people and our communities.

Sustainable procurement

By changing the way we source materials, such as steel, brass, plastic and packaging materials, we want to get a clean start for a greener production and delivery process. With steel in particular, we are making great progress. Since early 2020 we have, for example, worked with steel suppliers across our production footprint to utilise stronger but thinner steel grades to manufacture steel panels that offer the same heat performance and pressure resistance. This has allowed us to reduce the amount of material and waste, as well as increase energy efficiency in the production process.

Last year, Purmo Group committed to the purchase of 140,000 tones of near zero-emission steel between 2026 and 2033. This steel enables the reduction of CO2 emissions by up to 95% compared to traditional steelmaking powered by coal.

We are now also exploring the opportunities of carbon offsetting wherever possible, starting with the production of carbon offset steel radiators. John Peter Leesi, CEO of Purmo Group comments: “We’re taking two approaches to sustainability: the first is to do the things we do more responsibly; the second is to find entirely new ways of doing them that can continue indefinitely. In steel sourcing, we’re being more responsible with conventionally produced steel, but also investing in near zero-carbon production methods for the future.”

Carbon offsetting and green steel

The term ‘green steel’ has become quite trendy but, unfortunately, it is being used quite freely for any kind of steel on the spectrum between low carbon-embodied steel and almost zero carbon-emission steel. Whilst we are pursuing opportunities across the entire range, we want to be very clear on what it is we are doing today and are committed to in the future.

Our current, short-term focus is on carbon offset steel. As of April 2024, we started the production of carbon offset steel electric radiators in our Myson factory in Gateshead. For this we cooperate with Arcelor Mittal, who have set up XCarb®, a global steelmaking innovation programme targeted at carbon neutral steel by 2050.

The CO2 savings that arise from these initiatives are aggregated, then independently verified by global assurance provider DNV, and finally converted into XCarb® green steel certificates. These certificates represent a reduction in the Scope 3 carbon emissions for those who buy them but also affects their customers directly as the CO2 savings reduce the lifetime carbon impact of the products they in turn buy. For a recent purchase of 16 tonnes of steel, for example, we received a green steel certificate stating that we have saved 35 tonnes of CO2.

Making a difference with Purmo Group

“Although we realise that carbon offsetting is just one small step towards more sustainable procurement, it is an important step in the right direction. We are aware that this is just a stopover on a long journey ahead but we are convinced that every action counts to create a better future for us, the next generation and our planet,” says Sam Hodlin, Head of Sustainability at Purmo Group.

"Our customers are increasingly interested in environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). They are keen to cooperate with market leaders in the field of sustainability and attach great importance to the availability of environmental credentials such as EPDs and EcoVadis, which provide evidence of the sustainability of our products and our business respectively. Behind the scenes we are working hard on this. We are planning new EcoVadis audits, for example, and have identified software that can help us to calculate the environmental impact of our products and then create EPDs in an effective and streamlined way.”

Long-term goals

The production of steel unfortunately generates particularly high levels of carbon. Due to the nature of our activities we cannot omit its use, but we are committed to doing so in a carbon neutral way by 2050. We are currently looking forward to producing real green steel products once we start to receive the near zero carbon-emission steel from H2 Green Steel in 2026.

We are one of the few in our industry to set targets for reducing greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, which have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. Furthermore, we are actively pursuing other commitments related to our packaging solutions and operations and we look forward to sharing more information with you in the coming months and years.

Together our impact is greater

Although we are certainly determined to make a significant contribution, global challenges such as climate change impact us all and can only be countered by a joint effort. HVAC industry manufacturers, suppliers, professionals and end users must all work together if we are to achieve a big win with indoor climate improvements.

We attach great importance in guiding both HVAC professionals and end users in making informed choices. For example, there is still some reluctance to use heat pumps because there are a lot of misconceptions out there. Many people still believe that a heat pump is more costly than gas and air conditioning, but studies are starting to prove that that is not so in most cases2. As a leading supplier of sustainable indoor climate solutions we feel it is very important that all parties involved have access to the right information and solutions. Only then can we take the journey to a better future together.

Sources:
1. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Energy_consumption_in_households
2. https://climateinstitute.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Heat-Pumps-Pay-Off-Unlocking-lower-cost-heating-and-cooling-in-Canada-Canadian-Climate-Institute.pdf