Our impact on the Sustainable Development Goals

Fresh, clean water is a basic element of life - it is vital for agriculture and important for industries. At Danfoss, we provide solutions with optimized energy consumption for water and wastewater handling, and desalination, which is important in water-scarce areas. Our technology helps to reduce water loss in city pipes networks and secure more efficient water use within food production.

Optimizing energy use and minimizing water loss

At Danfoss, we engineer technologies for an energy-neutral water sector, by optimizing energy use and minimizing water loss in water-treatment applications and irrigation networks. With use of sensors and variable speed drives coupled with advanced process control we can reduce both water leakage and energy consumption by at least 25%.

To reach carbon neutrality; energy-efficient technology and renewables must be implemented together and on a large scale. We must not only turn our energy supply green but decouple economic growth from energy demand. An enabler for the energy transition is electrification. Danfoss engineers solutions for an electrified mobility sector on land and sea. 
 
Navigate without carbon emissions

At Danfoss, we engineer electric solutions for maritime transport to reduce CO₂ and improve energy-efficiency. Ellen is a first of its kind electric ferry powered by Danfoss’ motors, and she navigates without carbon emissions. 

This holds a great potential. That’s why we joined the Global Maritime Forum’s multi-stakeholder initiative “Getting to Zero Coalition”, aiming at zero-emission vessels by 2030. 

To ensure our future, cities must scale up urban efficiency and transform their energy systems. At Danfoss, we provide energy-efficient solutions for sustainable buildings, heating and cooling, district energy systems and electric transport to develop carbon-neutral cities as the world’s first responders to the climate emergency. 
 
District energy

At Danfoss, we engineer energy-efficient solutions for district energy systems, solutions for sustainable buildings and electric transport. Our Leanheat solution uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and The Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to adjust indoor climate and reduce both energy consumption and cost. 

We work with the Three Percent Club together with other partners to support countries and cities to develop energy-efficient buildings and district heating and cooling systems for future-proof and sustainable cities.

With a growing population, consumers are demanding more, safer and healthier food. This means that the need for efficient and effective food supply and cold chain management has never been more important. We offer technologies that enable the reduction of post-harvest food losses and ensure perfect conditions from farm to fork.
 
Cold chain technologies

At Danfoss, we provide technologies for every step of the food supply chain. In the state of Tamil Nadu, in India, farmers reduced post-harvest food losses by 20% by implementing cold chain technologies, while farmers’ income increased by 200%.

We have joined the UN’s Cool Coalition to share the knowledge and, together with others, to help governments develop cooling action plans and increase their farmers' income and productivity.  

In Danfoss, we are strongly committed to a culture of diversity and inclusion, and that diversity depends on inclusion. Therefore, we are on a journey to integrate diversity and inclusion into recruitment, promotion, and talent management processes across Danfoss.

We recognize that the industry we operate in is often dominated by men. It takes real action and commitments to achieve equality and that is why we are committed to have 30% women in leadership positions by 2025, reflecting the gender composition throughout our company. To ensure we get there we set individual short-term targets on the percentage of females in leadership roles in all regions.

We  continue to work on improving health and safety at the workplace. Our “Safety First” program resulted in a substantial reduction in the Lost Time Injury Frequency. In a combined effort between leaders and employees we have made Danfoss a safer and a healthier place to work.

In 2020 there was an extra focus on health, safety, and wellbeing due to COVID-19. In Europe, Danfoss took a precautionary step by distributing 15,000 antigen texts across our organization. This enabled us to act fast to secure our employees’ health during the pandemic as well as keep business continuity.

As a part of our climate strategy, we have committed to becoming carbon-neutral in 2030 through decarbonization of electricity consumption in our factories and continuous energy savings in line with our “energy efficiency first” principle. This will bring a significant reduction in our global carbon footprint.

We have committed to set Science Based Targets as a part of the UN Global Compact campaign “Business Ambition for 1.5°C”. This will also include targets for reduction of our carbon emissions in our entire global value chain.

Our results must always be created with a strong moral compass and respecting human rights. Our Sustainability Program and our Ethics Handbook address our commitment to human rights, labor rights, anti-corruption and fair competition. In 2020, Danfoss was ranked number four in an analysis by the Danish Institute of Human Rights (DIHR) among twenty Danish companies in terms of compliance to the UN Guiding Principles for Human Rights.

We anchor integrity and compliance in our organization through internal compliance programs and control mechanisms. We also engage with our suppliers on strong standards in business practices, environmental requirements, and labor welfare.

Strong partnerships are necessary to reach our business goals as well the Sustainable Development Goals. As a global company, we believe that sustainable development can only be reached with cooperation and through strong global partnerships.

We are actively working with partners across business, government, civil society, and academia to maximize impact, share knowledge, and promote sustainable technologies. We also support and take part in more formal partnerships to accelerate action on sustainable development.

Our CEO Kim Fausing has been appointed chairman of the climate partnership between the Danish government and the manufacturing industry in Denmark. The partnership will help drive the action towards achieving Danish climate goals 2030.

We also collaborate with cities and municipalities. We engage with projects such as ProjectZero in Sønderborg, Denmark, to help build capacity and deploy smart and energy-efficient solutions.