Sustainability Update 2024

All the details and figures of AGC Glass Europe’s decarbonisation journey in 2023 can now be found in the updated Sustainability section of the corporate website.

Leading our industry to decarbonise

AGC Glass Europe is committed to reaching the AGC Group objective to reduce its carbon footprint by 30% in 2030 (FY2019) and achieve carbon-neutral glass production by 2050. The company has set out a carbon roadmap that takes all parts of the value chain into consideration, covering sustainable sourcing of raw materials, using highly efficient melting furnaces, increasing the use of recycled glass and using green electricity.

AGC Glass Europe monitors its carbon footprint on a yearly basis. According to GHG calculations, it is estimated that in 2023 the Carbon Footprint of AGC Glass Europe was 2.7 million tonnes of CO₂ eq.*, which represents a reduction of 13% versus 2019. Results show that the main CO₂ emissions hotspots are mainly attributed to fuel combustion and raw material decarbonization, raw materials production from our suppliers, and electricity purchased for our production sites. 

Decarbonisation highlights of 2023

Recycling

• Glass recycling : AGC Glass Europe recycles around 700,000 tonnes of cullet per year, saving about 840,000 tonnes of raw material and 490,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. 
• The average cullet ratio in our raw materials was close to 30% in 2023 and AGC aims to increase this ratio to 50% by 2030. Therefore AGC launched "AGC Recycle Glass", a program for delivering flat glass circularity. 

Use of green energy : 

• In 2023, the total electricity production from low-carbon sources (wind, solar, cogeneration and heat recovery) reached 42,917 MWh. As a result, close to 3,120 tonnes of CO₂ were saved in 2023. 
• The total output of photovoltaic installations reached 11,166 MWh. This is a remarkable increase close to 80% vs 2022 production

Using highly efficient melting furnaces :

• Electro-boosting. An interdisciplinary AGC team is in the process of installing electro-boosting on our float production lines to partially electrify our production lines all over Europe. 
• Design of a hybrid mid-sized pilot furnace for flat glass. In 2023, AGC and Saint-Gobain announced that they are collaborating on the design of a pilot breakthrough flat glass line. This R&D project called Volta** project is funded by the Innovation Fund of the European Union***. AGC’s Barevka patterned glass production line in the Czech Republic will be entirely refurbished in 2024 into a high performing & state-of-the-art line that aims to be 50% electrified, and 50% fired by a combination of oxygen and gas. The hybrid furnace is expected to reduce the pilot site’s scope 1 and 3 emissions by 75% compared to the reference scenario. The used electricity will be 100% produced by renewables technologies.

Glass at the heart of sustainable architecture : Low-Carbon Glass

Thanks to a holistic approach to decarbonise, AGC Glass Europe is now offering its customers Low-Carbon float glass with significantly less embodied carbon. The first Low-Carbon glass was successfully produced at the AGC plant in Moustier, Belgium. In 2023, the AGC plant in Seingbouse, France also started producing Low-Carbon Glass. Other AGC float plants are likely to follow.

Discover the Sustainability Update now on www.agc-glass.eu.  
Find the latest progress of our decarbonisation journey on the dedicated News page.

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(*) The following GHG results use the Location-based scenario for Scope 2 calculations.  Results include Automotive and Architectural division – AGC sites in 20 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Morocco, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Previous year reportings included Brazil and Russia operations. Due to the organizational boundaries, these countries are not included in our current results. More details can be found on the carbon footprint page. 

(**) More on the dedicated Volta project page .

(***) The Volta project is funded by the European Union.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.