Reports and Figures

KWS Sustainability Reports

As a plant breeding company, KWS is part of the agricultural value chain. We mainly require heat for drying seed, and cold and heat for breeding work in greenhouses or climatic chambers, and for operating agricultural machinery. We currently cover these energy requirements predominantly with natural gas, by purchasing electricity from national power grids, and with diesel, but also by using energy obtained from biomass (biomethane, wood chips, bioethanol and corn cobs). The company also has its own photovoltaic systems at various locations and they help reduce the amount of energy that has to be purchased externally. Our global energy consumption totaled 832 (794) TJ in calendar year 2024, of which 15% (13%) was covered by renewable energies. The increased energy consumption was covered in particular by higher diesel consumption and a greater combustion of corn cobs and biomethane. The energy intensity was 0.50 (0.47) GJ per €1,000 of net sales.

KWS has set itself the goal of reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 50% by 2030 compared with the baseline year 2020/2021 (47,587 tons of CO₂e). KWS therefore surpasses the 42% reduction required by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) for this period. Our aim is to reduce our emissions to net zero in 2050. Both objectives are geared toward meeting the 1.5 degree target defined in the Paris Agreement. In this section, we comment on the changes in energy and emissions.

In calendar year 2024, the KWS Group’s Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions were 52,044 (49,213) t CO₂e. The 6% increase is attributable in particular to higher emissions from diesel and Scope 1 fertilizer consumption at our production and breeding stations. That results in an emission intensity of 31.0 (29.3) kg CO₂e per €1,000 of net sales.