Carbon-neutral supply chain programme is off to a strong start

Renewable energy technologies generate power with zero carbon emissions, but emissions from their supply chains still remain. We’re closely engaging with our suppliers to reduce carbon emissions and build more sustainable supply chains.

Today, most of our supply chain emissions come from offshore wind. On average, material extraction, manufacturing, transport, and installation account for 90 % of the total lifecycle emissions of an Ørsted offshore wind farm. This is primarily due to carbon-intensive processes needed to manufacture materials for wind turbines and foundations, as well as the fossil fuels used by vessels supporting the installation of our farms.

In January 2020, we launched our supply chain decarbonisation programme to address these emissions. Leveraging strong relationships with our key strategic suppliers, we encourage them to:

Realising these objectives is not going to be easy. For instance, there are currently no established accounting practices within the renewable energy industry and few suppliers disclose their carbon footprint. This makes it difficult to accurately map carbon emissions across our supply chain. Likewise, some supply chain emissions are particularly hard to abate, especially those linked to heavy manufacturing and shipping. Yet, we’re ready to be part of the journey of innovation and collaboration to get there.

The next stage of our supply chain decarbonisation will address emissions from our indirect suppliers, particularly those from production of steel for wind turbine foundations. Steel accounts for roughly 50 % of the total emissions in our offshore wind supply chain. Significant innovation is needed to find sustainable and cost-competitive ways to produce low-carbon steel, entailing close engagement with suppliers. In December 2020, Ørsted joined the global SteelZero initiative to foster low-carbon innovation and collaboration across the steel value chain and drive market demand for net-zero steel.

Beyond offshore wind, we’ll also define activities to decarbonise our onshore wind and solar technologies, and we’ll reduce emissions from the last two lifecycle stages of our green energy assets: our own operations and decommissioning of the assets.