All 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are incorporated into the direct or indirect activities of Siemens Brazil. They are reported in the Business to Society (B2S) developed by Siemens, to understand Brazil's needs and integrate the effective contributions that our actions provide to the country. Learn more www.siemens.com.br/relatoriob2s
One example is effective action against climate change (SDG 13). Worldwide, Siemens, in addition to environmental technology solutions, which annually help our customers reduce 521 million metric tons of CO2, was the first industrial company to commit to neutralizing the carbon footprint of its own operations by 2030.
Technological solutions can support Brazil in achieving the 43% CO emissions reduction target2 by 2030, a commitment established in the NCD document agreed with the UN in 2015. Brazil is one of the countries with the greatest potential for reducing CO emissions2 and stands out for the prevalence of renewable sources in its energy matrix, mainly due to the large participation of hydroelectric plants, and also has a vast capacity for wind and biomass generation. One of the strategies to achieve the goal of reducing emissions is to expand the participation of renewable sources.
In the national context, Siemens helped its customers reduce emissions by 3 million tons of CO2 annually into the atmosphere only with technologies for wind power generation and cogeneration of energy present in the energy efficiency of the entire electrification chain implemented until 2016. This contribution comes mainly from generation through biomass, which uses our steam turbines to generate energy from inputs such as bagasse, sugarcane straw and wood chips. Today, in Brazil, 4,240 MW of energy are obtained from Siemens solutions aimed at this segment.
In terms of operations in Brazil, Siemens reduced 32% of CO emissions2 with the adoption of ethanol in fleets, actions in manufacturing processes and energy efficiency at our sites. To reduce its emissions in the long term, the company will focus on 4 initiatives: energy efficiency, decentralized energy system, smart mobility solutions and purchasing clean energy.
Another example is our work on the quality of education (SDG 4), where our efforts are dedicated to social projects and the practice of citizenship by employees.
Brazil currently invests 4.7% of its GDP in education, a figure above the world average of 3.7%. That's R$27.5 billion invested in a demonstrably inefficient school system. So much so that the country ranks 65th out of 70 countries in the ranking of the Programme for International Student Assessment (Program for International Student Assessment – PISA), with below-average scores in mathematics and science.
With the support of the Siemens Foundation, we want to strengthen knowledge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics among students in early childhood education, elementary and high school through the Experiment Project. The project's methodology encourages children and adolescents to learn through questions and investigation. The Experiment Project has already impacted 550 teachers in 21 Brazilian cities, with 20,000 students benefiting by December 2016.
At Siemens, we provide a favorable environment to encourage employees to develop the Volunteer Project, in which the combined efforts of employees are focused on improving the quality of education. In 2016, we donated 11,000 hours and benefited 13,000 people. The company sees this time not as a cost, but as a benefit – to Brazilian society and to Siemens itself – and an investment. In this way, we can reaffirm how much we understand that volunteering is part of our “Responsibility” value and how important it is for employees, the company, the community and a better country.
