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This page offers an overview of the programme, detailing its purpose, phases, and key processes.

 

          

     


As a global hearing healthcare leader, Demant makes a life-changing difference for millions of people living with hearing loss every year. 

We grow and sustain that impact by ensuring that we lead a responsible and sustainable business with high ethical standards, while we deliver on our ambitious net zero targets.

Throughout the years, our strong, strategic supplier collaborations have helped us to deliver in quality and volume, ensuring a timely supply to our value chain. 

With the programme Sustain, we extend this collaboration by adding a sustainability dimension to that partnership. We know that this will not be an easy task, but there is much value to gain across businesses, and we are excited to continue this journey.


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    What do we want to obtain?

    The ultimate goal is to reduce the negative impact that both Demant and its suppliers have on the planet and on people by delivering on our emission reduction targets.

    Through the Sustain programme, we want to find solutions together with our suppliers. This will enable the decarbonisation of our shared carbon footprint. Another element to the Sustain programme is human rights and how we can collaborate to address this throughout our supply chain. 

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    Who is involved?

    While we are dedicated to minimising greenhouse gas emissions from Demant's own operations, we also aim to tackle the majority of our carbon footprint, which occurs across our supply chain.

    Stakeholders throughout our value chain play an instrumental role in this supply chain decarbonisation task.   

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    Why should you care?

    As national governments continue to work to implement the Paris Agreement – and to increase the ambition of their country-level pledges – companies can expect to see more regulations on current activities and the necessity to promote corporate sustainability.

    The European Union is moving ahead, but other parts of the world are deemed to follow.

    See some examples of recent regulations below. 

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In recent years, the European Union (EU) has shown a strong commitment to sustainability by launching its strategy to become a climate-neutral society by 2050, known as the European Green Deal. The Green Deal consists of a package of policies and laws aimed at enhancing sustainability in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects.  

Two of these directives are the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). With these directives in place, companies no longer have the option to cherry-pick which sustainability information to share. Instead, they'll be legally obligated to gather all necessary information and report on all sustainability issues related to their activities. 

As a listed company in Denmark, Demant is subject to all this legislation. 

In 2023, the Group committed to a 46% reduction in absolute scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, as well as a 46% reduction in scope 3 emissions by 2030, using 2019 as the base year. Additionally, the Group aims to achieve net-zero emissions across the entire value chain by 2050.

Demant's emission reduction targets, approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, are aligned with what science deems necessary to meet the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement: limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

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The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a corporate climate action organization that enables companies and financial institutions worldwide to play their part in tackling the climate crisis.

Six business benefits of setting science-based targets:

 

  1. Brand reputation
  2. Investor confidence
  3. Resilience against regulation 
  4. Increased innovation 
  5. Bottom-line savings 
  6. Competitive edge

 

 

When a company sets science-based targets it shows how much and how quickly it needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Setting a science-based target is a five-step process:

  • Commit: submit a letter establishing your intent to set a science-based target
  • Develop: work on an emissions reduction target in line with the SBTi’s criteria
  • Submit: present your target to the SBTi for official validation
  • Communicate: announce your target and inform your stakeholders
  • Disclose: report company-wide emissions and track target progress annually

 

Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from company-owned and controlled resources, released to the atmosphere as a direct result of company activities, such as fuel from company cars. 

Scope 2 emissions are indirect from the generation of energy purchased from a utility provider released in the atmosphere from the consumption of purchased energy, such as electricity used at sites.

Scope 3 emissions are also indirect, but instead of being linked to the company’s own usage, it is emissions that come from the value chain. This includes both upstream emissions, for example business travel, and downstream emissions, such as product distribution and storage, use, purchase of materials and what happens to a product in use and when it is no longer in use.  

Three scopes of emissions

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For a company like Demant, scope 3 by far represents the largest part of the company emissions.

We estimate that scope 3 accounts for approximately 95% of the Demant Group's total emissions.


The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the most widely-used framework for calculating business carbon emissions – divides scope 3 emissions into upstream and downstream sources. The categories in which scope 3 can be divided can be seen below. The categories Purchased goods and services, and Transportation and distribution play a significant role in Demant Group's environmental impact, while other categories have a comparatively smaller influence.

 

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Demant’s SBTi targets are defined at group level and set 2019 as the base year. Therefore, the 2030 goal of a 46% reduction of the combined scope 1 and 2 emissions, as well as the goal of a 46% reduction in scope 3 are measured against the emission levels recorded in 2019. The scope 3 baseline emissions were calculated using a spend-based approach. The spend approach calculates emissions using general emission factors per monetary unit (CO2eq/$) for a specific field and country. This calculation method results in data with low transparency and accuracy. Demant has experienced substantial growth since this commitment. Thus, the spend-based approach and the emissions derived from it no longer accurately reflect our scope 3 status. Consequently, the extent of decarbonisation required to achieve our goals must be reevaluated.  

This is where Sustain comes into the picture. The Hearing Aids business area has taken its first steps in collecting higher quality 2023 supplier specific carbon data. Based on this data, we will recalculate the 2023 emissions and develop a decarbonisation strategy to reach our climate targets. For both short and long-term perspectives, collaboration is key to success. We want to work closely together with suppliers through workshops to identify hotspots and develop individual decarbonisation strategies.


The Pathfinder Framework, is a standardised approach to measuring and reducing value chain emissions, developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The framework is a comprehensive tool designed to standardise the calculation and exchange of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data across value chains. By providing clear guidelines and methodologies, Pathfinder enables businesses to accurately measure, report, and share product-level emissions information. This consistency is crucial for identifying and reducing carbon footprints, fostering transparency, and accelerating collective efforts toward decarbonisation. The framework's adoption is essential for companies aiming to meet climate goals, enhance supply chain collaboration, and demonstrate leadership in sustainability.

Demant has therefore selected this framework to gather carbon emissions data across its supply chain.


 

For the Hearing Aid business area to accurately restate its 2023 emissions and identify hotspots with our suppliers, we need to collect detailed, high-quality CO2e data and aim to minimise the use of spend-based data.

Thus, we are focusing on collecting higher quality CO2e data, known as supplier-specific data. To achieve this, Demant is adopting the Hybrid Method (see below). This approach involves collecting supplier-specific data for scope 1 and 2 emissions and using a combination of supplier-specific data and averaged data from approved databases for scope 3 emissions.

 

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Source: https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/standards_supporting/Chapter1.pdf


  • Samuele Crippa

    Hearing Aids, Senior Sustainability Manager, Global Procurement
    smrp@demant.com

  • Emilia Signe-Marie Ringberg

    Hearing Aids, Project Manager, Sustainability & Direct Procurement
    emrr@demant.com