The Swiss voice in the world since 1935

Holcim, ABB and Nestlé are largest CO2 emitters in Swiss Market Index

Holcim
With 130 million tonnes of CO2, the construction group Holcim is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Switzerland's most important share index. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

The companies in the Swiss Market Index (SMI) emit an average of 21 million tonnes of CO2 per year. There are huge differences between companies though, as an analysis by the news agency AWP shows.

With 130 million tonnes of CO2, the construction group Holcim is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Switzerland’s most important share index. The technology group ABB is close behind with around 127 million tonnes. The food company Nestlé is also one of the biggest CO2 emitters with 113 million tonnes. Data from the previous year was taken into account.

The figures show the entire CO2 footprint of a company. This includes greenhouse gas emissions in operations, for example from oil heating or vehicle fleets, to emissions from the upstream and downstream value chain (Scope 1, 2 and 3). These are generated, for example, by suppliers, in logistics or during the use of products sold.

+ Climate litigation comes to Switzerland starting with a case against Holcim

There is a large gap after the three largest emitters. The logistics group Kühne+Nagel (14 million tonnes) and the building materials group Sika (13 million tonnes) rank fourth and fifth.

Financial service providers cause relatively few emissions: the major bank UBS and the insurers Swiss Re, Swiss Life and Zurich each emit well under half a million tonnes of CO2. However, this does not include so-called financed emissions.

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.


Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

The United States and China kick off their meeting in Geneva

More

United States and China start tariff talks in Geneva

This content was published on The United States and China have started talks in Geneva aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy.

Read more: United States and China start tariff talks in Geneva
Berne wants to finalise the declaration with Washington in 2 weeks' time

More

Switzerland and US agree to accelerate tariff talks

This content was published on After a meeting with US ministers in Geneva on Friday, the Swiss president intends to present Washington with a declaration of intent in the next two weeks.

Read more: Switzerland and US agree to accelerate tariff talks
Biswind restricts air traffic at Zurich Airport

More

Wind restricts air traffic at Zurich Airport

This content was published on The bise, a cold dry wind, played havoc with air traffic at Zurich Airport on Friday. Numerous flights were delayed and some were cancelled.

Read more: Wind restricts air traffic at Zurich Airport
Confederation and cantons profit from banknotes that are not exchanged

More

Swiss authorities profit from unexchanged banknotes

This content was published on The Swiss government and cantons will receive over CHF700 million from the Swiss National Bank because old banknotes worth almost CHF1 billion have not been exchanged.

Read more: Swiss authorities profit from unexchanged banknotes

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR