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 ProgramAddress 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 adaptablemeans 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 inertiaof 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
systematicallyin 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 T
ÜV at the beginning of 2008. The TÜV is one of the world's leading auditing companies in the field of climate protection.

Systematicallyalso 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 CO
2 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 Brunsb
üttel 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.