New Business Solutions to Reduce the CO2 Footprint in Heavy-Emissions Sectors

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Review of Business Studies, grade: 1,0, Otto Beisheim School of Management Vallendar, language: English, abstract: Long-term effects and transformations due to further increasing greenhouse gas emissions will trigger irreversible and severe consequences for humans, their habitat and the nature. Governments will fail to reach the agreed emission reduction goals with their current measures and are consequently dependent on private sector involvement.

This study aims to provide a detailed overview of new business models that reduce the CO2 footprint in heavy-emissions sectors: Power Purchase Agreements, Energy Performance Contracting and Energy-as-a-Service. Various papers, market analysis and companies from multiple industries have been examined. Furthermore, a calculation of the future emissions savings potential for the German and global market is presented for each business model.

The findings demonstrate that each analyzed business model is suitable for companies from multiple sectors with particular characteristics. All instruments are providing improved carbon footprints, while the Energy-as-a-Service approach is predicted to reach the most extensive long-term impact. Based on these results, it is highly recommendable for suitable companies to apply at least one of the presented models to achieve emissions savings. For interested corporations, this thesis can serve as a starting point to critically analyze the suitability of the respective business solutions while understanding their future trends and development potentials.