Merck KGaA

Carbon per million dollars of revenue. The legacy industry-standard reference (CDP, MSCI). Useful for cross-sector context, but distorted by margin — high-margin firms appear artificially efficient. Read alongside the operational and asset intensities for the full picture.

OpEx (operating expenditure) is the running cost of the business — staff, services, energy, materials. This shows how carbon-intensive operations are per million dollars of spend. Removes the margin distortion that revenue-based ratios introduce.

EVIC (Enterprise Value Including Cash) is the firm's total capital footprint — equity + debt + cash + minority interest. The EU's standard intensity measure (SFDR PAI 3) — answers: how much carbon does each million of capital deployed in this business produce?

PP&E (Property, Plant & Equipment) plus leased real-estate assets is the firm's physical infrastructure on the balance sheet. This shows the carbon intensity of that physical footprint — uses Scope 1+2+3 for consistency with the other headline intensities. Surfaces stranded-asset risk for asset-heavy firms.

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Merck aims to cover 80% of purchased electricity with renewable energies by 2030, having achieved 52.2% in 2024 (52% in 2023, vs 51% in 2023 per ESRS-2 KPI). Procurement uses both bundled (retail green electricity, GO, GEC) and unbundled instruments (Virtual Power Purchase Agreements at 19.9%, US-RECs at 4.5%, I-RECs at 1.8%). VPPAs are the primary lever for Scope 2 reduction. From 2020 to 2024, Scope 2 reduced 30% from 325kt to 227kt CO2e (market-based). Total renewable consumption 572,186 MWh in 2024 of 2,394,720 MWh total energy.

As part of its own business activities, Merck does not currently carry out any activities to remove or reduce greenhouse gases that are financed via CO2eq certificates (E1-7). The decarbonization strategy focuses on actual emission reductions through energy management, process emissions reduction, material efficiency, mode shift, renewable energy purchase, and supplier decarbonization — not on offsets or removals.

• Process emissions reduction (NF3, N2O, fluorinated gases)

  Primary Scope 1 lever. NF3 abatement projects at Ulsan, South Korea and Hometown, USA reduced 385,743 tCO2e in 2024 in the Electronics business sector. Process Gas Reduction (Freon) initiative in Life Science cut 12,655 tCO2e. From 2020 to 2024, Scope 1 reduced 53% (vs 50% target by 2030) — target achieved early; now stabilizing. Full implementation expected by end 2029.

• Energy management — EDISON program and on-site solar

  EDISON program in Life Science achieved 3,840 tCO2e reduction in 2024 through energy efficiency. On-site photovoltaic investments e.g. Jakarta (Indonesia) site to reduce 12% of site emissions. HVAC optimization across operations network. €10 million CapEx allocated in 2024 to energy management actions; €12 million planned for 2025.

• Material efficiency and circularity in production

  Material Efficiency program in Life Science focuses on improving yield and reducing production waste, contributing to Scope 3 cat 1 reductions. Danvers USA Mobius Single-Use process improvement avoided 240 tCO2e in 2024. Full implementation by end 2027. Circularity rate target 70% by 2030 (69.2% in 2024). SMASH Packaging program targets 10% weight reduction, 100% deforestation-free fiber, 100% circular packaging by 2030.

• Use of sold products (Scope 3 cat 11) — specialty gases

  Largest Scope 3 category at 1,021,008 tCO2e in 2024 (down from 1,163,923 in 2020). Electronics specialty gases (etching, cleaning, deposition, dopant gases) have high GWP and are emitted during customer use. Merck optimizes formulations for low-GWP alternatives. Battery-based injection devices in Healthcare and Life Science portfolio products (Biology, Biomonitoring, Chemistry, LabWater) also covered.

• Supplier decarbonization program (Scope 3 cat 1)

  Primary lever for Scope 3 (52% reduction per gross profit target by 2030, baseline 480 tCO2e/€m gross profit; 2024 achieved 359). Program focuses on assessing supplier SBTi compliance, increasing renewable electricity share at suppliers, and educating suppliers on emission reduction levers. Together for Sustainability (TfS) used to manage 2,695 valid supplier scorecards via EcoVadis. Currently impact is unquantifiable as emissions calculated using industry averages rather than primary data.

• Mode shift from air to sea freight

  Life Science Mode Shift program reduces emissions from logistics by converting trade lanes from air freight to sea freight. Reduced 1,862 tCO2e in 2024 vs prior year. Expected full implementation by end of 2025.