Emissions
Our emissions highlights in 2022
Goal: 15%
reduction in GHG intensity (scope 1 and 2) from 2017 baseline by 2025
Achieved: 6%
reduction in GHG intensity from 2017 baseline
Achieved: 17%
reduction in absolute direct and indirect GHG emissions
In 2022, we achieved a 6% reduction in GHG emissions intensity and a 17% reduction in absolute direct (scope 1) and indirect (scope 2) GHG emissions from the 2017 baseline. Emissions intensity measures the amount of greenhouse gases relative to production levels or economic output, which was adversely impacted in 2022 due to our product mix. Absolute emissions refers to the total quantity of GHG emissions. For more information on energy related projects that have contributed to GHG emissions reduction, see the Energy section.
In early 2022, we committed to setting near-term company-wide emission reductions targets through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The SBTi is a partnership between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature that defines and promotes best practice in emissions reductions in line with climate science. The SBTi provides companies with independent assessment and validation of GHG emissions reduction targets. Our SBTi-approved targets, which cover our direct (scope 1), indirect (scope 2) and value chain (scope 3) emissions, formed the basis for our new 2030 energy and emissions goals. Moving forward, we will focus on reducing emissions in these categories:
- Direct emissions (scope 1)
- Indirect emissions (scope 2)
- Purchased goods and services, including raw materials and packaging (upstream)
- Customer processing of sold products (downstream)
- End-of-life treatment of sold products
While we do not report hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) on a global level, we do track those emissions at our U.S. facilities. In 2022, our U.S. operations emitted 223 metric tons of HAPs. As we reformulate products to make them more sustainable, our use and therefore the emissions of hazardous air pollutants should decrease.
Increasing efficiency at Quattordio, Italy
We are committed to identifying and implementing new processes that increase our energy efficiency and decrease related emissions. We recently installed a high-efficiency power generation facility at our automotive paint and coatings manufacturing site in Quattordio, Italy. We partnered with Grastim, a developer of high-efficiency energy-generation solutions that include trigeneration and cogeneration, to install and operate the power generation facility. Trigeneration is a process that increases energy efficiency by combining cooling, heating and power generation.
We will purchase energy through a power purchase agreement, which helps lower our energy costs over the next seven years, in addition to reducing our scope 2 emissions. The trigeneration system is expected to contribute to a 13% reduction in total energy costs and a 10% reduction in CO2 emissions related to power generation. Although the system is powered primarily by natural gas, it is designed to be powered with a mix of natural gas and clean hydrogen fuel. With future investment, the system can be adapted to use anywhere from 20% to 60% hydrogen.
Reducing scope 2 emissions in Tianjin, China
Our coatings manufacturing facility in Tianjin, China, uses a chilled-water cooling system in some of their production processes. The facility installed an automatic control system in 2022, which can adjust temperatures at the optimal time to avoid unnecessary energy consumption and product variation caused by unstable cooling temperatures.
Historically, the system was manually controlled, meaning that employees had to start and stop a large number of equipment and valves at various stages of the process to maintain the optimal temperature. The automatic control system removes manual work at this phase and ensures a stable, cool water supply in our production process. The upgrade is estimated to save more than 2.2 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity each year, which in turn helps reduce our scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that this will also lead to more than $275,000 in annual energy cost savings for PPG.
Multi-year data highlights
Greenhouse gas emissions intensity
Metric tons of emissions per metric ton of production
| Total | Direct (scope 1) | Indirect (scope 2) | |
| 2017 | 0.22 | 0.09 | 0.13 |
| 2018 | 0.21 | 0.09 | 0.13 |
| 2019 | 0.21 | 0.09 | 0.12 |
| 2020 | 0.19 | 0.08 | 0.11 |
| 2021 | 0.20 | 0.09 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 0.21 | 0.09 | 0.11 |
Total intensity data include direct and indirect emissions. We report greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide equivalents for carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Data changes from prior reporting reflect updated data and adjustments for acquired and divested locations from the 2017 baseline onward. Total may not equal the sum of direct and indirect due to rounding.
Greenhouse gas emissions
Million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents
| Total | Direct | Indirect | |
| 2017 | 1.05 | 0.41 | 0.64 |
| 2018 | 1.03 | 0.42 | 0.61 |
| 2019 | 0.96 | 0.40 | 0.56 |
| 2020 | 0.80 | 0.32 | 0.48 |
| 2021 | 0.87 | 0.40 | 0.47 |
| 2022 | 0.87 | 0.39 | 0.48 |