Air Products raises green goals in latest sustainability report

Air Products has released its 2024 Sustainability Report, “Generating a Cleaner Future,” detailing progress toward existing sustainability goals and announcing new ones.

“Over the past year, Air Products has strengthened our previously announced environmental goals, and with this report, we are also introducing new goals around renewable energy and water stewardship. We have worked with our customers across dozens of industries while advancing our global clean hydrogen projects, pioneering them to help decarbonize industrial and heavy transportation,” said Seifi Ghasemi, chairman, president and CEO of Air Products. “The progress we have made in this effort is the result of the tremendous efforts of our employees, our customers and within our company to meet our higher purpose and create a cleaner future for our world.”

Among the new initiatives, Air Products updated the base year for its “Three by 2030” carbon intensity targets for Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 2015 to 2023, while maintaining the same target date of 2030, making the goals more ambitious.

The company also pledged to quadruple the amount of renewable energy used to manufacture its products by 2030, compared to a 2023 base year. This goal exceeds the pledge made by world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 to “triple” the amount of renewable energy by 2030.

The Sustainability Report also highlights a number of the company’s global clean hydrogen projects designed to support the energy transition, including the world’s largest green hydrogen plant, NEOM Green Hydrogen Company, a joint venture between ACWA Power, Air Products and NEOM.

The project involves the construction of a world-scale, renewable energy-powered green hydrogen ammonia production facility in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Once operational, the facility will supply 600 tons of emission-free hydrogen per day to the industrial and heavy transport sectors.

Air Products said clean hydrogen from the megaprojects would help the world avoid emissions of 250 to 500 million tons of CO2 equivalent over their lifetime, depending on the mix of hydrogen uses.