12 November 2024

GoGreen – individual roadmaps for our production sites on the road to decarbonisation

As part of our GoGreen programme, we will reduce production-related CO₂ emissions at all our European sites to zero by 2050.

The programme covers a wide range of projects to reduce energy consumption, optimise the energy mix and ensure that energy is drawn from renewable sources. The first step towards an improved energy mix is already well advanced. The conversion of boilers to phase out coal and oil will be completed by 2026.

We have developed GoGreen roadmaps for our production sites, which marks another important step towards more energy-efficient and sustainable production. Our roadmaps show us that the main areas for energy savings will be in the optimisation of evaporation stations and extraction. We are now examining this for each of our production sites individually and planning tailored implementation.

At our factory in Uelzen, a new extraction tower has just been built as part of the tailored GoGreen roadmap for the site. This will be put into operation during the current campaign. The production site is thus increasing energy efficiency in the extraction of sugar and at the same time saving around 10,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year – an important contribution to decarbonisation. The extraction tower plays a key role in the sugar production process: the sugar beet, sliced into fine strips, are heated and fed upwards through the tower. The sugar is then extracted from the beet slices using water heated to around 60 degrees Celsius. The beet slices remain in the extraction tower for more than twice as long as before. This means that the sugar is extracted more efficiently, we use less water and thus reduce our energy consumption enormously.

In addition to significantly reducing energy consumption, the use of renewable energies is a core element of our GoGreen programme. With this in mind, we signed a cooperation agreement with Nature Energy in Denmark in September. Nordzucker supplies beet pulp to Nature Energy, which uses it to produce biomethane for sugar production. From 2025, Nordzucker will use this biomethane to decarbonise sugar production at its two Danish production sites. The plan is to gradually reduce CO₂ emissions at these production sites by up to 37,000 tonnes by 2030. By 2030, we want to halve the emissions of our factories in Denmark. The use of biomethane is an important step on the way to achieving CO₂ neutrality in production by 2050.

The implementation of the roadmaps is already in full swing. In addition to the construction of the new extraction tower in Uelzen, GoGreen projects are being implemented at all European sites to sustainably reduce CO₂ emissions.