Within DHI, we continuously strive to conduct our operations in an environmentally sound manner. We actively seek to avoid or reduce any waste and minimise our carbon footprint through our operations and water usage. Parts of our operations are more energy-intensive than others, e.g. the use of diesel fuel for our fleet of marine vessels. When available, in future, we are open to new technologies to decrease these harmful substances. 

We are committed to working towards reaching net zero by 2025 for our scope 1 and 2 emissions.    

Water consumption  

DHI is in the business of protecting and managing water environments and ecosystems, and that is why being prudent in the way we use water is second nature to us. 

Each DHI office is responsible for monitoring usage and ensuring functioning utilities infrastructure. These offices are typically not water intensive as consumption is limited to restrooms and kitchen/canteen facilities. 

In addition to business offices, DHI operates ballast water test facilities and laboratories in Denmark. The ballast water test facility conducts biological evaluations of maritime technologies and other technical equipment. For 2023, our water consumption in our test facilities and ballast water business increased from 6.1 mega litres in 2022 to 13.8 mega litres in 2023. The increase was due to increased business activity in the ballast water business.

The majority of the water consumption is from using freshwater and seawater in these test facilities. This consumption is not comparable to other businesses of DHI, including FTE-comparable.

For 2023, our total water footprint, excluding test facilities, amounted to 5.2 mega litres, approximately at the same level as the year before (2022: 5.0 mega litres). This equates to a water intensity of 4,724 litres per FTE for the year (2022: 4,846 litres per FTE). 

Going forward, we will continue to monitor our water footprint and work towards reductions.   

Our energy use and carbon footprint

DHI has committed to working towards reaching net zero by 2025 related to sources that are owned or controlled by DHI, namely within scope 1 and scope 2. Our scope 1 emissions stem from our owned assets such as fuel for our fleet of marine vessels and cars, whereas scope 2 emissions relate to energy purchases, with considerable energy used to power our servers, IT equipment and test facilities. 

Our carbon footprint (scope 1 and 2 market-based) amounted to 924 MtCO2e (2022: 1,368 MtCO2e). Based on investigations on options for residual emissions e.g., verified carbon offsetting programmes, we started acquiring high-quality and permanent carbon removal credits, which focus on capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Our carbon footprint (scope 1 and 2 location-based) was 1,490 MtCO2e, an increase of 7% compared to the year before (2022: 1,399 MtCO2e) due to increased business activity, amounting to 1.4 MtCO2e per FTE (2022: 1.4 MtCO2e per FTE).

We will continue to implement energy savings to reduce emission and costs.

As expected, our scope 3 emissions from air travel increased in 2023 compared to 2022. Thus, emissions from air travel increased from 578 MtCO2e in 2022 to 1,291 MtCO2e in 2023. For 2024, we expect the emission to stabilise at the current level.

DHI’s net zero commitment is confirmed, and in the coming years, we will work to continuously reduce our consumption of energy and water. As a company working with water contributing to solving the world’s water challenges and protecting water-related ecosystems, our aim is to invest in our own services and especially the method for blue carbon looks like a promising method to achieve net zero.

We will improve the data collection and tracking of emissions, including the continuance of internal initiatives to reduce our emissions. We will also establish formalised roles and responsibilities to undertake the global energy audit needed for all our offices, focusing on scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. As part of the implementation of CSRD, we will during 2025 complete a scope 3 mapping to understand our full footprint.