Barco : reaches first target to reduce carbon footprint of own operations one year in advance

In 2016, Barco set a number of very ambitious 5-year sustainability goals, to be established by 2020 (compared to 2015). These were reducing the carbon footprint of our operations by 20%, reducing the energy footprint of our products by 25%, and ensuring that at least 25% of new product releases received the Barco ECO label. We are very proud to announce that the first of these goals has already been reached in fiscal year 2019: one year in advance.

Delivering on many fronts

Great results are created by great partnerships. That is why Barco assigned an internal taskforce and partnered with an (external) carbon footprinting expert to create a roadmap for the coming years. A first focus on logistics, resulting in a shift of transportation by boat instead of airplane, led to a strong reduction of our carbon footprint. In subsequent years, also the mobility and infrastructure pillars were tackled.

2019 was a very successful year for Barco. We not only achieved great business results, but managed to do this while strongly reducing our carbon emissions in mobility and infrastructure, with a year-on-year reduction of 13% and 12% respectively compared to 2018. The main drivers are a strong reduction of business travel, and the centralization of manufacturing activities (including the relocation of production activities to the state-of-the-art factory in Kortrijk).

Logistics	-1%	-21%
Mobility	-13%	-19%
Infrastructure	-12%	-19%

The graph below clearly shows the year-on-year reduction in carbon footprint, split into logistics, mobility and infrastructure.

Next mid and long term objectives

In 2019, we again set the focus on the mid and long terms, further sharpened our ambitions and set new targets for 2023. The objective is to improve on sustainability across the board. Meanwhile, we also decided to commit Science Based Targets as a way to further solidify our ambitious sustainability goals. Barco is joining the global movement of leading companies aligning their business with the most ambitious aim of the Paris Agreement, to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the best chance of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.

Barco's Ecolabel: an industry first

In order to allow evaluating the ecological footprint of our products in a quantifiable and objective manner, Barco has developed a tool that grades our products according to their ecodesign performance. This gives customers an overview of environmental performance and encourages developers in Barco to make sustainable choices. The framework that has been used to validate the ecoscoring is defined in the ISO 14021 standard.

Products that are at the top of the ranking and thus have a lower environmental footprint can be marked with the 'Barco Eco Product label'. The first products with this Eco Product label are already being shipped, including the 6MP diagnostic display, some ClickShare solutions and the Series 4 Projectors. It is our ambition that by 2023, 70% of our revenues will come from products with this Eco Product label, and 75% of products launched have this label.