Scotland-based Howden Group, a leading global provider of mission critical air and gas handling products, technologies and services, has announced its commitment to reduce its carbon footprint globally.

Already a low-carbon business, Howden generates 28,000 tonnes of emissions each year and its carbon reduction plans see the business further reducing its carbon impact by 50% by the year 2030 and becoming ‘carbon net zero’ by 2035. This will be achieved through purchase of renewable energy and carbon-free energy, efficiency gains from energy conservation measures and by renewable energy projects at its manufacturing facilities.

The business has also set targets for waste reduction to landfill and for reduction of water use, aiming for half its industrial operations to have ‘zero waste to landfill’ by 2035 and 30% water reduction over the same period.

However, the major impact Howden has on global sustainability is through helping its customers reduce their environmental impact by supply of its services and equipment. As an example, a single Howden steam turbine is capable of negating 50,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

Underscoring the positive impact of Howden’s products and solutions, a recent contract announced with Hybrit in Sweden, the first project of its kind, that will see Howden provide a Hydrogen compression solution enabling the production of fossil free steel, which has the potential to reduce Sweden’s total carbon emissions by 10%.

Ross Shuster, CEO of Howden, said: “Howden is proud to join other leading businesses by announcing our commitment to net zero targets. Going beyond the commitments we are making to reduce the environmental impact of our own operations, we are also committed to the positive impact that our products and services have on our customers’ carbon emissions and sustainability initiatives.

“This is an area where we can make a very significant impact on global carbon emissions. These commitments are part of our broader environmental, social and governance strategy.”

David Baird, Howden global EHS leader, said: “When we benchmark our carbon footprint against our peers, it is already comparatively low due to the nature of our business and current good practice.

“Nevertheless, we can improve this even further and hence we have put robust plans in place to manage our footprint via sourcing of carbon free energy, renewables on site and implementation of energy efficiency measures.”

Howden manufactures highly engineered fans, compressors, heat exchangers, steam turbines, and other air and gas handling equipment, and provides related aftermarket services and support to customers around the world across highly diversified end-markets.