When action meets ambition

Ten years after the world came together under the Paris Agreement (opens in a new window or tab), the 2025 anniversary passed without much fanfare. No celebrations, just a sobering reminder that progress toward limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (opens in a new window or tab) above pre-industrial levels remains far too slow. Real progress requires transformation, not just words. Through their example, tesa’s bold steps in Hamburg are paving the way toward climate-neutral manufacturing and proving what is possible when ambitions turn into action.

At the heart of this transformation is our firm conviction that tesa’s future is directly linked to the future of our planet. That is why we are working to decouple growth from emissions and achieve our goal of climate-neutral production by 2030 – by reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 90% and offsetting the remaining emissions.

 

 

The tesa plant in Hamburg is the largest production facility in the tesa network and manufactures high-performance adhesive tapes for industries such as electronics, automotive, printing, and paper. The plant is very energy-intensive; its demand for process steam and heat is currently met by burning natural gas as an energy source. We want to demonstrate how energy-intensive production in the chemical industry can become climate-neutral while keeping energy costs to a minimum. That is why we are investing in more sustainable and less energy-intensive processes, state-of-the-art equipment, and advanced methods to transform our plant in Hamburg – and others around the world. As pioneers, we are paving the way for other companies.

The transformation concept consists of four pillars:

• Pillar 1: Increasing efficiency & reusing waste energy from production to reduce primary energy requirements
• Pillar 2: Electrification of heat and steam requirements with energy storage
• Pillar 3: Green hydrogen for steam generation
• Pillar 4: Intelligent control or digital energy management for smart control

 

The first pillar of the transformation aims to fundamentally increase efficiency and reduce the plant’s primary energy consumption. At the Hamburg site, this vision is taking shape through the transition to solvent-free adhesive technologies, the installation of heat pumps for building heating, and the systematic recovery of heat from production processes. Through the gradual phase-out of the combined heat and power plant and the significant expansion of on-site energy generation from solar and wind power, the plant is becoming a pioneer in sustainable manufacturing.

By 2025, tesa will have successfully installed enough solar modules at its Hamburg site to generate 2.2 MWp of renewable energy. Over the next five years, we will expand our photovoltaic system at this site to increase capacity by an additional 1.8 MWp of electricity from renewable sources. In addition, we aim to install a wind turbine with a generation potential of 4 MWp at this site. These measures not only ensure cleaner and more efficient operations but also serve as a model for how energy-intensive production can successfully transition to a low-carbon future.

 

At our Hamburg plant, we are fundamentally rethinking how energy is generated and used to manufacture our advanced adhesive tapes. A new power-to-heat plant will generate steam from renewable electricity. Thanks to an integrated heat storage system, the heat can be temporarily stored and converted into steam as needed, making the process more flexible and cost-effective than conventional electric boilers.

Green hydrogen, a fundamentally climate-neutral energy source produced by splitting water using electricity from renewable sources such as wind or solar power, is another key component of this transformation. Preparations for the transition to hydrogen by 2027 are already in full swing. By then, the plant is scheduled to be connected to the hydrogen grid, and an external electrolyzer will produce green hydrogen from renewable electricity, which we then plan to use to generate steam for our production processes.

To make this transition possible, we are replacing the existing steam boilers at the site with modern dual-burner systems that can be operated with hydrogen and, if necessary, with natural gas as a backup. Together, these innovations pave the way for more sustainable steam and heat generation.

 

Our transformation is driven by state-of-the-art digital technologies. Artificial intelligence (AI) and other intelligent tools support tesa’s teams in tackling these challenges and complexities. The platform continuously forecasts energy demand, enables us to manage our energy infrastructure based on marginal costs, informs our suppliers of changing requirements, and helps us with the gradual transition to renewable energy. For example, electricity prices spike on cloudy days and drop sharply when the sun is shining. This volatility carries cost risks but also presents opportunities, particularly in energy-intensive sectors such as the chemical industry. Our energy management software determines every 15 minutes which facility can be operated at the lowest cost.