Royal Philips : Philips sets new CO2 emission targets for the 2020 – 2040 period, approved by the Science Based Targets initiative

'As part of our effort to deliver sustainable health technology innovations without adversely affecting the planet, Philips is fully committed to the targets set out in the Paris Agreement,' said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips. 'We see reducing our CO2 emissions as an important prerequisite for sustainable growth, and it will enable us to be ahead of the curve in offering our customers green products and solutions, which already account for 60% of Philips' revenue [2].'

To achieve the combined goal of sustainability and growth, Philips has adopted a strategy of decoupling economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions, through initiatives such as renewable electricity purchasing, materials reduction, equipment recycling/repurposing, reduced use of air transport for staff/freight, and EcoDesign, all of which have significantly reduced the company's CO2 emissions over the last five years.

More information on Philips' 'Healthy people, sustainable planet' program can be found here.

[1] IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp.

[2] Green Revenues are revenues generated through products and solutions that offer a significant environmental improvement in one or more Green Focal Areas: Energy efficiency, Packaging, Hazardous substances, Weight, Circularity and Lifetime reliability. For healthcare equipment, remote serviceability is another Green Focal Area. The lifecycle approach is used to determine a product's overall environmental improvement. It calculates the environmental impact of a product over its total life cycle (raw materials, manufacturing, product use and disposal).