Uwe Lauber, CEO of MAN Energy Solutions, said: “Climate change – and thus the need to reduce greenhouse gases – is probably the greatest challenge of our generation and naturally plays a key role in our corporate strategy. However, sustainable corporate action involves other important aspects besides climate protection and does not end at our own main gate. We are pursuing a cultural transformation that also includes our partners and suppliers.”

Decarbonisation at heart of strategy

Within the area of decarbonisation, MAN Energy Solutions is focusing on a steadily growing product portfolio that simultaneously reduces harmful, greenhouse-gas emissions while safeguarding the business of its corporate customers. In concrete terms, this means that – by 2030 – sustainable technologies and solutions should account for the majority of MAN’s business, and that the portfolio should also include a solution for CO₂-neutral operation for every product group.

MAN Energy Solutions’ production facilities are also steadily reducing their CO₂ emissions. Lauber said: “While the operation of our products in the field is by far the biggest lever for reducing emissions that we have at hand, we are constantly working to further reduce emissions from our production sites and plants too. By 2030, we will cut our production’s CO₂ emissions by half.”

The company has already reached an important milestone in that, since January 2022, all electricity purchased for its European production sites has come from renewable sources. MAN is also planning to invest millions of euro to expand its own renewable energy generation.

Multi-faceted responsibility

In its efforts to achieve the most comprehensive circular economy possible, MAN is gearing its own production to energy and resource efficiency. As an example, the company has reduced the volume of waste it generated by 40%, and energy consumption by 20%, in 2020 and 2021 respectively. MAN is also working to further extend the operating life of its own products, which are already very long-lasting. The focus here includes the conversion of diesel engines to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG) or climate-neutral fuels such as synthetic natural gas (SNG), green methanol and ammonia.

MAN Energy Solutions is aware of its human rights and environmental responsibilities in both its internal and external supply chains. Compliance with regulations, standards, and voluntary commitments relating to occupational safety, the environment and human rights are therefore a key priority for the company. In 2021, the company developed – among other things – its new ‘Compliance Management System – Health, Safety & Environment’ (CMS HSE), which expands the requirements regarding environmental protection and occupational safety; it also set up a sustainability rating to evaluate suppliers and partners.

A central role in the area of employee empowerment is played by the Germany-wide ‘Transformation Qualification’ training initiative, which was launched in 2021 in cooperation with the company’s works council. The aim is to safeguard important core competencies in the company on the one hand, while building up further future-oriented competencies on the other. In addition, MAN Energy Solutions has extended the option for ‘mobile working’ and concluded a general works agreement that enables and regulates mobile working beyond the Covid 19 pandemic. In this way, MAN aims to offer its employees more scope for flexibility and to further improve their work-life balance.