Messer’s business activities are geared towards trends in the global economy, where we observe increasing demand for environmental protection and a focus on social responsibility. Indeed, we are ideally positioned to benefit from these developments as we support our customers to achieve their objectives.

For example, climate change is altering global living conditions and economic activities with substantial consequences for people and companies. We at Messer can help by deploying our ‘Gases for Life’ and our application technologies to help reduce the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) footprint of our customers’ processes:

• industrial sectors: e.g., oxygen and hydrogen in the glass sector, nitrogen for volatile organic compound (VOC) removal in the chemical sector, carbon capture, etc.
• transport sector: e.g., nitrogen cooling replacing diesel auxiliary generators in refrigerated trucks, renewable hydrogen in fuel-cell buses, etc.

Since the COP27 in late 2022, there has been an upsurge in customers who are committing themselves to absolute CO₂ emissions reductions and seeking Messer’s expertise to achieve their targets. For example, Messer’s development of oxy-fuel and oxygen-enriched combustion processes for the glass and insulation sectors has supported oxygen enrichment of up to 23.5%, which does not trigger changes in furnace design or safety standards yet can deliver significant reductions in fossil fuel consumption.

In support of the decarbonization of logistics Messer has in 2023 deployed hydrogen refueling technology and hydrogen to large fleet operators of fuel-cell-powered city buses and material handling vehicles in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. In a joint venture with the city of Düren, Germany, Messer has taken the final investment decision on a 10 MW hydrogen electrolyzer to produce renewable hydrogen.

To increase circularity in our supply chain and meet customer requirements Messer is investing in the capture, purification, and re-use of biogenic CO₂ emissions to replace previous fossil sources of merchant carbon dioxide for the food, beverage, chemical, environmental, and other sectors.   

As our customers’ corporate goals are developed and aligned with changing market and regulatory conditions, so we adapt to support them. Unchanging is Messer’s own commitment to act sustainably ourselves and to meet our customers’ needs in accordance with a collective responsibility for people, progress, and the environment. We are determined to think and act decisively for the long term and to measure ourselves against objectives for sustained success and our reputation for innovation and reliability. Sustainability is a feature of our approach to doing business at Messer. This is how we move forward.

In 2015, under the aegis of the United Nations, the international community adopted Agenda 2030. It lays out 17 global goals together with the call to implement measures to achieve those goals. In essence, they seek to permanently preserve the natural basis of human existence and to enable people everywhere to live in dignity. Messer aligns its business activities with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, which also form, in turn, the substantive framework of this Sustainability Report.