What if?

We recognize that climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. We will do our part to reduce global CO2 emissions in many ways, but especially through what we do best: our energy-saving innovations.

By helping our customers transition to the latest energy-saving technology, we help them lower their CO2 emissions and contribute to a better tomorrow.

We’ve calculated the potential impact of a global shift to our own, more energy-efficient technology. We used existing data on how much one of our latest, most innovative products can lower a customer’s annual CO₂ emissions compared to a product with traditional technology. When we multiply the potential impact of one product with all relevant applications, we see that millions of tons of CO₂ can be avoided globally.

Let’s look at these innovations one by one.

The new H250VSD portable compressor uses electricity instead of diesel to deliver compressed air. The efficient electric drivetrain generates more power than diesel engines of the same size, and it is a much smaller compressor, with lower weight. 

Besides substantially reduced operating costs, the highly efficient electricity usage also dramatically reduces CO2 emissions compared to a diesel-driven unit.  

One unit emits 46% less CO2 , or 28 metric tons less CO2 than a diesel-driven unit during its lifetime of use.  

So, what if just four out of five portable compressors worldwide were upgraded to this lower-carbon alternative?   

9 000 000 tons of CO2 could be avoided over the lifetime of these products. 

This is the CO₂ equivalent of 1 900 000 passenger cars driven for a year in the U.S., or the electricity needs of 1 500 000 U.S. households in a year.*

One ZR VSD+ compressor unit avoids 11% or 510 metric tons of CO₂ over its lifetime compared to our traditional VSD technology.  

So, what if all suitable applications worldwide upgraded to this technology? A mind-blowing 9.2 million metric tons of CO₂ could be avoided over the lifetime of the compressors.  

That corresponds to the electricity used in 1.5 million American households in a year, or 2 million U.S. cars driven for a year.*  

The manufacturing process of flat panel displays for TVs and smartphones is conducted in a vacuum environment to ensure quality, cleanliness and control. Vacuum pumps can represent up to 20% of the total energy consumption of a flat panel manufacturing facility, driving the need to innovate more efficient and sustainable vacuum products while also solving the increasing challenges of large vacuum chambers. 

Our new dry vacuum pump can replace two pumps of the previous model to achieve like-for-like performance in the vacuum chamber. The new product’s increased capacity enables a significant reduction in the total energy consumption of the vacuum pump systems needed per chamber.  

Over a lifetime of the newest vacuum pump’s use, 83.4 metric tons of CO₂ are avoided compared with the emissions of the next best product. 

So, if all suitable applications worldwide switched to this technology today, 834 000 metric tons of carbon would be avoided over the lifetime of the vacuum pumps. 

That is equivalent to powering 140 000 U.S. homes over a year, or 180 000 cars driven in the U.S. for a year.*

Around one-third of the millions of drilled holes in a commercial aircraft are commonly drilled using pneumatic hand-held drills. However, more and more industries are now switching from pneumatic to electric tools. One of the drivers of this transformation is to reduce energy consumption. 

In the automotive industry the majority of tools are already electric. There is great room for a transition to electric in the aerospace industry. 

The EBB26 is Atlas Copco’s first battery-powered handheld drill developed for the aerospace industry. In a typical aerospace drilling operation, the tool will reduce 93% of the energy consumption per drilled hole compared to a traditional pneumatic power tool. 

The potential CO₂ reductions from one EBB 26 battery handheld drill tool, based on its average use for a year is 0.12 metric tons of CO₂ . Over the product’s lifetime of 6 years one unit avoids 0.72 metric tons of CO₂. 

When you multiply this by the total installed base of applications in which this product could be used worldwide – the entire market, in other words, or approximately 100 000 units, you get a potential reduction of 72 000 metric tons of CO₂  over the lifetime of the tools.

That is equivalent to powering 12 000 U.S. homes over a year, or 16 000 cars driven in the U.S. for a year.* 

*Calculations are based on our own product data, comparing our latest technology with our traditional technology. The number of potential installations is estimated on global market assumptions. Carbon calculator: https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator