Sustainability (ESG) has always been a cornerstone of Oerlikon’s R&D, business and strategy. We drive growth and profitability by leveraging our core competencies, including market leadership, innovations and talents, as well as our relentless focus on sustainability.
What Sustainability Stands for at Oerlikon
Our overarching purpose is to leverage our technology leadership and expand/diversify into new applications and new markets. By taking advantage of our knowledge and capabilities across additional industries, Oerlikon is able not only to drive growth in its business portfolio but also to increase its contribution to sustainability.
Moreover, at Oerlikon, sustainability stands for a relentless focus on minimizing our own environmental impact, ensuring a strong health, safety and employee culture, engaging regularly with stakeholders and upholding good governance.
Prioritizing sustainability in R&D and delivering sustainable solutions for customers will always take precedence. At the same time, we recognize the need to apply the same standards of excellence to our own operational processes and systems and to reduce the impact of our business on the environment.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
At Oerlikon, we affirm both the ideals and the necessities of each of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given the nature of our business, processes and operations, we have a greater impact on certain SDGs compared to others. Based on where we can make the greatest difference, both in our practices and in our impact on the planet and its people, whether globally or in the communities in which we work, we have identified eight SDGs that we are working towards every day. These are Goal 3 Good Health and Well-Being, Goal 5 Gender Equality, Goal 7 Affordable and Clean Energy, Goal 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13 Climate Action and Goal 17 Partnerships for the Goals.
Our material topics and focus
Oerlikon conducted a Double Materiality Assessment (DMA) in 2024 and updated it in 2025, in line with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The DMA process ensures that both impact materiality (Oerlikon’s effects on society and the environment) and financial materiality (sustainability-related risks and opportunities affecting business performance) are systematically assessed. This DMA resulted in four material topics:
- Own workforce
- Climate change
- Resource use and circular economy
- Workers in the value chain
Recognizing the significance of these material topics to our stakeholders, we have integrated some of them into our 2030 sustainability targets - outlined below. We conduct materiality assessments at reasonable intervals so that we can evaluate if there is a need for us to make any adjustments to our material topics.
Our 2030 sustainability targets
At Oerlikon, we are on a journey towards a better future, embracing sustainability in all we do. Together, we aim to create a lasting and positive impact on the world with these targets as the way forward. In 2025, we updated our 2030 ESG targets and we now have six targets that we are working towards - please see table below for more information.
Environmental (own operations)
| Priority topics | Objective | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2030 Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate and energy1 | Implementing energy management systems at all relevant sites2 | 11%B | 19% | 34% | 54% | 76% | 93% | 100% |
| Increasing the share of electrical energy from renewable sources | n.a. |
21%B |
28% | 33% | 36% | 47% | 75% | |
| Reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions in relevant operations according to SBTi (near-term) in thousand metric tons in CO₂ equivalent3 | 145.2 | 156.0 | 140.0 | 138.3 | 137.9 | 114.8 | 80.0 | |
|
Reducing Scope 3 emissions according to SBTi (near-term) in thousand metric tons in CO₂ equivalent³ |
n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | 2367.5 | 2034.5B | 2134.9 | 1525.9 | |
| Circular economy1 |
Reducing the share of disposed waste |
53%B | 44% | 33% | 32% | 35% | 33% | 27% |
Social
| Priority topics | Objective | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2030 Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health & Safety | Ensure zero harm to people – Decreasing the rate of recordable work-related injuries (TAFR)6 |
0.87B | 0.74 | 0.68 | 0.67 | 0.54 | 0.48 | <0.50 |
B Baseline.
1 Relevant sites are production and large office sites and exclude small offices (<50 employees).
In 2025, environmental data from 149 relevant sites were consolidated.
2 Energy management systems include both ISO 50001-certified and Oerlikon-defined Energy Management Systems. Excluding few sites with very low energy consumption (<0.1% of total energy consumption).
3 GRI 305-5.
4 Health and safety data includes data from 163 operational sites, including 149 relevant sites and 14 small offices.
Download our 2025 Annual Report including the Sustainability Report to learn more about our commitments to sustainability and our targets.