Driving down emissions
Reducing our emissions is a key part of our responsible business agenda
Driving down our greenhouse gas emissions brings business benefits to us, including improved efficiency and greater resilience, and is a key part of our responsible business agenda. It is part of our responsibility to monitor, manage and reduce our emissions to achieve our net-zero commitment across our value chain by 2050.
Our ambitions
Reducing our emissions will help us take advantage of the opportunities presented by the transition to a low carbon economy. It will also help limit the exposure of our business and stakeholders to the negative effects of climate change and make us more resilient.
We are committed to reducing emissions across our entire value chain. In 2023, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) validated our emissions reduction targets (from a 2021 baseline year) which require significant reductions in our emissions in the near term by 2030, and for us to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
The following targets submitted by Belron have been validated by the SBTi
By 2030
- Reduce scope 1 & 2 (direct & indirect) emissions by 42%*; and
- Reduce scope 3 (supply chain) emissions by 25%*
By 2050
- Belron commits to reach net-zero GHG emissions across the value chain by 2050
- Reduce scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 90%*
*from a 2021 base year
Summary of progress
In 2024, we achieved a decrease in total emissions across scopes 1, 2 and 3 (categories 1 to 5) of 1% on 2023 levels and 12% since our 2021 baseline year. This is despite an increase in total job volumes of 4% and a sales increase of 7% in comparison to 2023.
Reducing our emissions
While we have a long way to go, we continued to make progress on our scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction, delivering a combined reduction of 22% on 2023 levels. This was achieved through an increase in renewable electricity use from 42% at the end of 2023 to 94% in 2024.
We also continued to reduce the amount of fuel we use as we moved to more efficient vehicles and increased the number of electric vehicles (EVs) we operate to 14% of our fleet.
In scope 3, we saw an increase of 5% on 2023 emissions driven by increases in category 1 ‘goods and services’ emissions due to increased spending in the business, and category 4 ‘upstream transport and distribution’ emissions. Despite the increase in 2024, scope 3 emissions have reduced 7% since the 2021 baseline year.
We continue to engage with our value chain to understand our suppliers’ emission reduction plans, and improve the robustness of the data we use to calculate our scope 3 emissions
Repair First
Our repair first strategy is at the heart of how we work around the world. Wherever possible we will repair a windscreen rather than replace it. A repair results in at least 80% less emissions than a replacement, with 16.4kg of GHG generated by a repair and 82.3kg by a replacement.*
* 2023 product carbon footprint analysis of Scope 1 (Direct), Scope 2 (Indirect) and Scope 3 (indirect) emissions. Calculation methodology is consistent with the requirements of ISO 14067 and subject to independent verification by Bureau Veritas. The global average figure is calculated using representative data from Belron® corporate operations in USA, France, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand.
Overall, 94% of the electricity we consumed in 2024 came from renewable sources, up from 42% in 2023. In 2024, 10 countries sourced 100% renewable electricity. A further 5 countries bought a large proportion of renewable electricity.
We continue to make progress in transitioning our mobile vans, courtesy and company cars. At the end of 2024, 14% of our global fleet was electric and our fleet emissions were reduced by 12%. In summary: 35% of all our cars, and 7% of our vans were fully electric; 12 Belron businesses were operating with electric cars, and 12 with electric mobile vans.
Our business in France began a roll-out of electric vans in 2023, and by early 2024, the country’s 390-strong van fleet was electric, with 445 charging stations installed in branches. One year on, we have seen the following results: A 95% reduction in emissions from the fleet; and a 25%+ reduction in fuel costs, despite an increase in mobile jobs delivered.
To learn more about this and many other topics please read our 2024 Responsilble Business Report.
Belron’s roots are firmly established in South Africa and the business has a long standing and deep relationship with Afrika Tikkun.
We want Belron to be one of the most sustainable service companies in the world