We all share a responsibility for achieving them. At EWE we also want to play our part in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. As a result, back in 2019, we identified four SDGs which have particular relevance for EWE and through whose support we can make the greatest contribution to the global target achievement.
Our contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals
As part of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030, more than 150 countries committed themselves in September 2015 to ensuring that everyone in the world can live in dignity by 2030. This is to be attained through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs stand for a world without extreme poverty and famine, for the containment of environmental risks and a globally suitable climate.
SDG 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Our contribution: We are systematically expanding the share of electricity that we generate from renewable energy sources.
Our focus here is on the use of onshore wind energy. As a result, in March 2021 we established Alterric, a joint venture with the Aloys Wobben Foundation to significantly and sustainably increase the share of renewable energies across sectors over the next few years. In addition, in 2020, together with Trianel, we commissioned the Trianel Windpark Borkum II offshore wind farm with a total capacity of 200 MW.
Furthermore, we are offering our customers solutions that will enable them to use energy more efficiently. We are continuously developing new technologies so that we can take a holistic approach to the next stages of the energy and climate revolution. We are particularly committed to the development of hydrogen as a clean gas for the future.
SDG 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
Our contribution: We are not just maintaining network stability and therefore security of supply, we are also creating an intelligent energy supply system using digitalization.
We are continuously investing in innovations to overcome future challenges such as the integration of electric mobility and renewable energies. With EWE Go, for example, we are constantly striving to develop future-proof, innovative and straightforward mobility solutions. We already operate almost 2,000 charging points and have also launched a cooperation with McDonald’s Germany to promote e-mobility in order to forge ahead even more systematically with the expansion of public charging infrastructure in the future. We are also addressing the integration of green gases into the energy system at an early stage.
SDG 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Our contribution: We are helping cities and municipalities to continue developing sustainably in many different ways.
We are achieving this through innovative solutions in the areas of energy, telecommunications, information technology and mobility. By way of example, we are driving developments towards a “gigabit society” and are in a position to provide an increasing number of households with very high bandwidths thanks to the systematic expansion of the fibre optic network.
In the context of neighbourhood development projects, we offer tailored overall concepts comprising energy, telecommunications and mobility solutions. We focus primarily on ecologically sustainable solutions, such as combined heat and power plants that can also run on renewable energy sources. This offering is rounded off by specific solutions for electric vehicle fleets for neighbourhood residents.
SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Our contribution: Climate protection has traditionally been of great importance for EWE and has always played a central role in our decision. We have committed ourselves to ending our production of electricity from coal by 2030 and currently expect to achieve this before the mid-2020s. We have already retired one of three coal-fired units, with the next set to follow in 2021.
For us, energy efficiency and renewable energies are the key to climate neutrality. In order to effectively support the energy revolution and further reduce the energy sector’s CO2 footprint, we are systematically expanding the share of electricity that we generate from renewable energy sources. But we also want to reduce our own CO2 footprint, which is why we have set ourselves the objective of making the emissions that we can control directly climate-neutral by 2035. We also take responsibility for the upstream and downstream stages in the value chain that we cannot control directly.Next Steps
We will continuously derive measures to further embed the SDGs in the EWE Group and raise awareness for them among all our colleagues. The SDGs serve as a guiding framework for all our corporate decisions.