Energy and Climate Action
The GKV has joined forces with other medium-sized industrial sectors to form the Fair Energy Transition Alliance and is actively involved in the discussion about energy policy in Germany. Energy prices have already risen massively in recent years due to purely national levies and taxes. Now the high energy prices have reached a point that is no longer affordable for many medium-sized companies. Despite full order books, many are facing closure with irreversible consequences for the supply chains, value creation and jobs in our country. There is a lot at stake for our 10.000 companies with around one million employees. It's about nothing more and nothing less than the future of medium-sized industry in Germany.
The Corporate Initiative Climate Action Plastics Industry aims to support the plastics processing industry on its path to transforming energy processes towards climate neutrality. The aim is to establish climate-neutral manufacturing processes and climate-neutral products in the plastics industry. In order to achieve this goal, the initiative supports companies in the industry in making their corporate activities more sustainable. Specifically, the initiative starts with companies where the current level of development is. She develops CO2 balances according to the GHG Protocol, holistic sustainability strategies and standard-compliant sustainability reports and supports integration into the company. Companies that join the initiative commit to ensuring transparency regarding their emissions and reducing emissions through concrete measures. The Climate Action Plastics Industry Initiative also shows ways to achieve climate neutrality for the company and its products. The initiative recognizes the commitment of the companies through corresponding industry labels.
The Initiative Energy Efficiency and Climate Action Networks helps companies of all industries and sizes to exchange ideas across industries, within industries or within companies in networks and to implement measures to promote energy efficiency and climate action. The initiative started in 2014 as an energy efficiency network initiative. Since 2021, it has been supported by 21 business associations and organizations together with the federal government and supported by numerous other project partners. It has also been expanded to include the topics of climate action, energy transition and sustainability and is expected to establish 300 to 350 new networks by the end of 2025. In this way, nine to eleven terawatt hours of final energy or five to six million tons of greenhouse gas emissions should be saved. The initiative aims to make an important contribution to climate action and increasing energy efficiency in industry, crafts, trade, commerce and the energy sector. In the GKV energy efficiency and climate action network, several companies work together to increase their energy efficiency and advance climate action measures. The central elements of the networks are a moderated exchange of experiences between participants and the setting of common savings goals. In this way, companies can expand their know-how more quickly in order to reduce their energy consumption and make a contribution to climate action.