気候保護のための解決策の開発
重要なファクターが省エネ、温室効果ガス削減のための高品質材料
建設分野
ビルの断熱 ポリウレタン
"EcoCommercial Building" Zero emission building
PU insulation
太陽光発電 photovoltaics
全エネルギー（電気、暖冷房、温水）
断熱ガラス
通風システム
ポリカーボネート板 太陽光発電モジュールに使用 Polycarbonate sheet for transparent roofing
or facade panels
high
heat-insulating effect and can also be manufactured with
considerably less energy than, for example, glass.
溶剤フリーの塗料 environmentally and climate-friendly
construction.
November 19, 2007 Press Conference ”Bayer Climate Program” Address by Dr. Wolfgang Plischke Member of the Board of Management
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Bayer Climate Program is based on elements that exemplify our
overall company: innovative products, extensive know-how and
inventive spirit.
With our integrated catalogue of measures, we want to face up to
the challenge of developing new solutions for climate protection
and dealing with the consequences of climate change.
High-quality materials are a key factor here. Such products play
a major role in saving energy and thus in reducing greenhouse
gases such as carbon dioxide.
At Bayer, one emphasis is on the construction segment because it
plays an important part from the energy and climate point of
view. We have decided to direct our attention to the field of
offices and industrial buildings, which has been rather neglected
up to now.
In the architecture of the recent past, not enough attention has
been paid to the principle of climate-friendly construction.
Instead, energy-guzzling air-conditioning units have been
installed to create a pleasant room climate in types of building
that have long ceased to be standard.
(2007-1526e-1)
Insulation, as we know, plays a key role in minimizing energy
requirements in buildings. This is clearly illustrated by another
statistic: In the highly industrialized countries of the northern
hemisphere, some 40 percent of total energy consumption is
nowadays used to heat buildings.
In our part of Europe, we associate insulation primarily with
heat insulation - in other words the need to protect rooms from
the cold. In hot climate zones, the problem is of course
reversed. There, buildings have to be insulated to keep them
cool.
Whether the insulation is to keep out the cold or keep out the
heat, the challenge is the same from the climate perspective: it
must be as energy-efficient as possible.
(2007-1526e-2)
For both cases, we need insulating materials with the minimum
thermal conductivity to prevent heat escaping or coming in. Bayer
polyurethanes are ideal for this. They are based on years and
years of know-how and experience. With its low thermal
conductivity, polyurethane is far superior to all other materials
and is thus best suited for energy-efficient construction in all
the world's climate zones.
Mr. Wenning has already told you about polyurethane's excellent
energy balance.
(2007-1526e-3)
For this reason, insulating materials form an integral part of
one of the lighthouse projects of our Climate Program. We have
called it the ”EcoCommercial Building”. As Mr. Wenning has already
explained to you, it is a new, globally adaptable concept for
zero-emission buildings.
”Globally
adaptable” means that it can be modified to
suit the conditions in any of the world's climate zones. A
building designed according to this concept can meet its own
energy needs through the integration of various specifically
coordinated factors.
(2007-1526e-4)
The most important factors we have integrated into this
zero-emission concept for commercial buildings are:
- Bayer insulating materials that reduce the energy requirement
- The energy required to operate the building is produced, free
of emissions, by photovoltaic units. Bayer polycarbonates and/or
thermoplastic polyurethanes can be used to manufacture the
photovoltaic modules.
I should stress at this point that, through the generation of
solar energy, the building is able to meet its entire energy
needs itself - i.e. for electricity, heating, hot water and
air-conditioning.
- Another factor is the glazing used for the building facades. An
exact calculation is made of how the daylight can be used as a
source of light without causing excessive heat loss or incoming
heat.
- Furthermore, we specifically utelize of the so-called ”thermal inertia”
of the building
mass, which is basically the energy storage capacity of the
concrete, columns and brickwork. In hot climate zones, this means
we dissipate heat at night from the building to the outside, and
thus make the use of an air-conditioning unit superfluous.
Studies have shown that this energy concept using solar energy is
manageable and economical in parts of the world to the south of
latitude 55, i.e. to the south of Denmark.
If there is inadequate sunshine, the building takes the
additional energy it needs from the local electricity grid. If
there is too much sunshine, a battery holds the excessive energy
in reserve, or it is fed back to the utility supplier.
On average over the year, an EcoCommercial Building returns at
least as much energy to the utility supplier as it procured from
it to supplement its own generation.
Our Bayer MaterialScience subgroup can contribute other products
to support this concept in addition to the insulating products
and materials for the photovoltaic modules. I would like to
mention just two of them:
- Polycarbonate sheet for transparent roofing or facade panels.
These have a high heat-insulating effect and can also be
manufactured with considerably less energy than, for example,
glass. Because of their low weight, they can be mounted with
lighter supporting structures, which in turn means less energy is
required for their production.
- Secondly, Bayer can supply raw materials for low-solvent and
solvent-free surface coatings and adhesives, which are also
important elements for environmentally and climate-friendly
construction.
(2007-1526e-5)
We will begin building the first EcoCommercial Building in spring
2008 in India near the capital of New Delhi. We will thus
implement the zero-emission concept for our new company office
building in a subtropical climate zone characterized by extreme
heat and humidity.
The subtropics are regarded as a region that will be particularly
hard hit by climate change. Even now, the concept of
climate-friendly construction is being heavily publicized in
India with the expression ”Green Building”.
We believe we can make an important contribution, because our
calculations have shown that an EcoCommercial Building will use
over 70 percent less electricity than a conventionally built
building in India.
We expect construction to take a maximum of 15 months, which
means that we could move into our building in India by mid-2009.
We would like to show you a short film to illustrate the building
ot his EcoCommercial Building.
(2007-1526e-6)
Ladies and gentlemen, India is an important and growing market
for us. I would therefore like to emphasize that, while we are
making an important contribution to climate protection, we also
have an economic interest in this project. The construction
sector is one of Bayer MaterialScience's most important customer
industries. In India, demand for polyurethane products is
increasing very fast, and growth is currently estimated at around
10 percent a year.
India is only the beginning of our initiative, however, because
the zero-emission building is a globally adaptable concept. As we
all know, there is also an enormous demand in other countries and
climate zones for insulated, climate-friendly buildings.
I would like at this point to pick up on an aspect that has
already been broached by Mr. Wenning. We want to push forward
with the concept of the EcoCommercial Building at a global level,
and continuously develop it. For this, we plan to establish an
open scientific platform for dialogue between all interested
players in the construction sector.
Apart from our customers in the building materials industry,
construction companies, architects and engineers, we also invite
research institutions, legislative and standardization
authorities, and trade associations to participate.
(2007-1526e-7)
Two of our partners with whom we jointly developed the concept of
the EcoCommercial Building are present today. We are delighted to
welcome Mr. Riecks from the Architects Office, Banz + Riecks, and
Mr. Ufheil from the engineering company, ”solares bauen”. Both gentlemen will also take
part in the workshops on the EcoCommercial Building this
afternoon.
Bayer's expertise has gone into the overall concept and is
reflected in many individual solutions that will make the
EcoCommercial Building possible. We also provide advice on how
this concept can be adapted to the various specifications
regarding design, engineering and materials, and the planning of
the supporting structure in an integrated project.
Bayer MaterialScience will be the client in the initial
implementation of the concept. Bayer Technology Services has been
charged with the construction engineering, and the actual
building work will be carried out by local cooperation partners.
Bayer Technology Services is involved in principle in all the
company's major construction projects. As such, our service
company has always paid a great deal of attention to
energy-efficient design, which means that we can call on a
considerable amount of know-how in this field.
(2007-1526e-8)
Our technical know-how also benefits us in a second lighthouse
project of the Bayer Climate Program: the Bayer Climate Check.
With this new tool, which we have developed, we will make a
thorough analysis of all the chief production processes employed
throughout our global organization with respect to climate
compatibility.
Bayer has, of course, been including environmental protection and
climate protection aspects in its production engineering for many
years now. Ecology has been an integral part of our activities
for many years. In our company's Mission Statement, we commit
ourselves to the principles of sustainable development, declare
our intention to regard commercial efficiency and ecology as
objectives of equal rank, and endeavor to bring them into harmony
with each other.
Energy efficiency plays a special role here. We have always been
guided by the notion of ”the lower the energy consumption
the better - in both an ecological and economic respect”.
The Bayer Climate Check is a new tool that will enable us to
systematically intensify these efforts with respect to the
climate.
I use the word ”systematically”
in this context to
refer both to the subject of our studies and to the method we are
using, because we want to obtain objective and reproducible test
results.
For this purpose, we have developed a special Key Performance
Indicator. We will call this indicator the ”Climate Footprint”. It is oriented to the influence
on the climate of carbon dioxide and the equivalently calculated
climate relevance of the other greenhouse gases. In fact, nearly
99 percent of our greenhouse gas emission is carbon dioxide.
To document the transparency and objectiveness of our procedure,
we will have the Bayer Climate Check certified by the TÜV at the beginning of 2008. The TÜV is one of the world's leading
auditing companies in the field of climate protection.
”Systematically”
also means we will
apply the Bayer Climate Check upstream of the actual production
and include the raw materials, the energy purchases and the
logistics processes in the assessment.
With the Bayer Climate Check, decision-makers now also have an
ecological criterion for the comprehensive design of the
production processes in addition to the conventional
profitability calculation.
The Climate Check aims to provide us with answers to questions
such as: What influence do the raw materials we use have on the
climate? Is the method of procuring energy and the form of energy
selected by us the most efficient? How do we best organize our
logistics processes?
We will use the answers to further optimize our production
processes in terms of their climate compatibility.
We will also apply the Climate Check to technology projects and
major investment projects.
The Bayer Climate Check will help us in particular to identify
new and potential ways of reducing emissions and achieving our
ambitious emission targets.
(2007-1526e-9)
With the evaluation of our global sites, we will capture around
85 percent of the direct and indirect emissions caused by our
production processes. We want to conclude this stage of the study
by the end of 2009.
And, based on the results of the analysis, we will be able to
introduce specific measures to make improvements.
(2007-1526e-10)
Ladies and gentlemen, climate change is already with us.
But however important preventive climate protection may be, we
still need to reiterate the question already asked by Mr.
Wenning: How can we encounter the consequences of climate change?
At Bayer CropScience, we are dedicating ourselves to both these
aspects.
Mr. Wenning has also already described in detail the conditions
under which agriculture is now being carried out and which could
become even worse as a result of climate change.
The consequence of this is that agricultural productivity needs
to be increased under ever more difficult conditions. In other
words, the yield per hectare under cultivation must be increased
significantly to be able to feed the world's population.
In addition, the shortage of fossil fuels and the damage to the
world climate being caused by them are leading to plants becoming
ever more important as renewable energy raw materials - also in
view of the fact that there is no way of increasing the area
under cultivation.
Furthermore, many plants can be used both for biofuels - also
called organic fuels - and for feeding man and animals. The
competition for their use will also increase accordingly.
Against this background, safeguarding harvests and raising yields
is of major importance.
(2007-1526e-11)
To ensure safe harvests, it is becoming more necessary than ever
to deploy wide-ranging crop protection - a field in which Bayer
CropScience has an enormous amount of expertise. This is shown
among other things by the fact that we launched 16 new active
ingredients onto the market between 2000 and 2005. Four more are
currently at the launch stage, while another ten are at the late
development stage.
New active ingredients help to safeguard harvests. This is
equally important whether the crops are used as food or for the
production of biofuels.
In order to raise the yields of crops, we also deploy our
innovative strength to make them more resistant to unfavorable
conditions.
(2007-1526e-12)
So-called abiotic stress factors such as drought, heat, high
light intensity, cold and salty soil can reduce the optimal
attainable yield of crops by up to 80 percent.
In view of the possible consequences of climate change, these
factors are particularly important. Recent research has shown
that these stress factors are closely related to the energy
balance of the plants.
(2007-1526e-13)
With canola, it has now become possible with the aid of
biotechnology to lower the activity of a gene that consumes a lot
of energy during the stress reaction of the plant, leading to
dramatic yield losses on harvesting. In laboratory tests, these
plants resisted all kinds of stress better than canola plants in
which the activity of the relevant gene was allowed to continue
uncontrolled.
In the field, such trial canola crops also produced significantly
higher yields - for example under extremely dry conditions.
In this field of stress tolerance on plants, Bayer CropScience is
also carrying out research on corn, cotton and rice.
(2007-1526e-14)
Ladies and gentlemen, along with this biotechnological approach
that we are currently researching, Bayer can also offer a
solution in the field of classic crop protection. For example,
the active ingredient imidacloprid is a highly efficient
insecticide, which we market under the brand names Gaucho, Admire
and Confidor. In our special formulations, it also shows a
significant stress-reducing effect. We are also working on
achieving an effect of this kind with other active ingredients.
(2007-1526e-15)
In the field of biofuels, too, it is absolutely essential in view
of what was said earlier to exploit the full potential of plants
- in this case their potential as raw materials for bioenergy.
For biodiesel, for example. Biodiesel is obtained primarily from
canola.
The company already makes a
major contribution to the supply of plants as a raw material for
biofuels with its high-yield canola seed. Mr. Wenning has already
talked to you about the increase in yields made possible by this.
Our InVigor seeds - a high-yield canola variety developed by
Bayer CropScience in Canada - produce a 20 percent or so higher
yield of biodiesel than comparable seeds.
Related to the liter yield of biodiesel per hectare under
cultivation, this means that, with the aid of our high-yield
canola, some 190 liters more biodiesel per hectare can be
produced than from comparable hybrid seeds.
There is a great deal of discussion at the moment about the use
of biodiesel as a non-fossil fuel - a discussion we are following
very closely.
The fact is that, compared with fossil fuel, around 1.5 kg of CO2
can be avoided per liter of fuel when biodiesel is used. The
amount of fossil fuel that needs to be burned for the production
of biofuel has already been taken into account in this
calculation.
It is important here to consider one special aspect I touched on
earlier, namely that vegetable products are being turned into
renewable fuels when they could also serve as food and animal
feedstuffs. This makes it particularly important to search for
alternative energy crops that could not equally well be used for
food.
One such approach involves the jatropha plant. Jatropha curcas is
an inedible, oil-containing bush that also grows in dry regions.
It even flourishes in soil that is unsuitable for food
production.
What makes it so interesting is that its seed is over 30 percent
oil and this makes it such a highly promising raw material for
biodiesel.
Biodiesel obtained from the oil of the jatropha plant would not
be in competition with the production of food. On the one hand,
this plant is not itself suitable for food, and on the other, it
can be cultivated on land that is unsuitable for food crops.
We are working with partners to drive the use of jatropha-based
biodiesel. Our particular know-how regarding the question of a
future-oriented, economically efficient cultivation of this crop
is proving very useful.
In addition, Bayer is encouraging the production of biodiesel in
terms of infrastructure. At our German Brunsbüttel site, for example, we are
providing the infrastructure for operating a biodiesel unit.
Another biodiesel facility is under construction at our site in
Institute in West Virginia, United States, and negotiations are
also in progress regarding the siting of a biodiesel facility at
the Leverkusen Chemical Park.
As you can see, Bayer can already make a valuable contribution in
the field of biodiesel. We hope this will also be successful when
it comes to bioethanol.
At present, bioethanol produced from sugar cane is the most
economical way to produce vegetable-based fuel. It has the best
energy and climate gas balance of any biofuel. In this field, we
are now looking closely at various options.
(2007-1526e-16)
As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, the Bayer Climate Program
approaches the subject from a number of different angles in
several climate-related fields: from the zero-emission commercial
building and the Climate Check for climate-friendly production,
to stress-tolerant crops and energy suppliers.
The breadth of this involvement also demonstrates with how much
vigor and energy we are meeting the challenge of climate change
and the need for climate protection.
We have a very clearly defined reason for doing this: We feel
obliged to make a recognizable contribution to solving our
ecological problems.
Of course we also expect this commitment to bring us commercial
success, because only companies that are successful can continue
to carry out research and thus contribute to solving problems.
Many thanks.