- Grundfos
- Sustainability
- Sustainability report 2024
Grundfos is taking a leading role in addressing the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges. We’re proud to report significant progress towards our ambitions and goals. Check out some key highlights and achievements below.
As a company, we remain relentlessly ambitious and firm in our belief that there is possibility in every drop.
A message from our CEO
In 2024, Grundfos achieved carbon emission reductions in scopes 1, 2 and 3. Our scope 3 reductions should partly be seen in the light of a tough market situation; we sold fewer pumps. However, on a positive note, customer interest in intelligent and energy efficient pumps is increasing.
As a company, we remain relentlessly ambitious and firm in our belief that there is possibility in every drop. We do our utmost to learn, improve and develop the products and technology that enable increasingly smart and energy-efficient water solutions. I am immensely proud of our organisation’s ability to push water and energy-efficient solutions that enable our customers to optimise their operations and save both water and energy.
2024 key sustainability achievements
2024 saw solid progress on Grundfos carbon emission reductions. We have reduced total emissions by 10.5% compared to 2023 and we are ahead of plan for our SBTi approved 2030 target. At the same time, Grundfos solutions enabled end users to save 1.5bn m³ water and provided access to water for 17.2m people.
10.5% emissions reduction
Climate
Compared to 2020 baseline, emissions were reduced by 23.6%.
1.2% own water withdrawal reduction
Water withdrawal
46% reduction in own water withdrawal since 2008 baseline.
17.2m people reached
Water access
51.2m people estimated reached since 2020.
1.5bn m3 water saved
Saving water for end users
We have enabled end users to save an estimated 8bn m3 water since 2020.
EcoVadis Platinum medal
Sustainability rating
In 2024, we received an EcoVadis Platinum medal, placing Grundfos in the top 1% of all rated companies.
CDP B
CDP rating
Grundfos has received a B score from CDP and we continue our progress towards our ambition of CDP A.
Employee motivation score of 77
Employee motivation survey
We achieved the high score of 77 in our 2024 employee motivation survey.
25% women leaders
Diversity, equity and inclusion
The representation at all leadership levels remained at 25%, two percentage points from our 2025 target.
Environmental impact
Explore our progress in climate, water and circular business.
Climate
The impact of climate change often materialises as water impact. Globally, we see a growing need for moving, managing and treating water. Increasing amounts of energy are needed to perform these preventive and reactive actions, and this puts further strain on the climate. Decarbonising the flow of water is therefore central.
Grundfos is committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions across its value chain and to supporting the global transition to an equitable, low-carbon and climate-resilient economy.
Chart explanation
Scope 3, cat. 11: Emissions generated from the electricity used during a 10-year use-phase of our products.
Scope 3 other categories: Purchased goods and services, capital goods, fuel and energy related activities, upstream transportation and distribution, waste generated in operations, business travel, employee commuting, end-of-life treatment of sold products
Scope 1: Natural gas, fleet, refrigerants
Scope 2: District heating, electricity
Progress in 2024
Reduced total carbon emissions by 23.6% compared to baseline year (2020)
10.5% carbon emissions reduction compared to 2023
Grundfos has received a B score from CDP
Water
At Grundfos, we believe water is the most essential resource on the planet. Our ecosystems, biodiversity – life itself depends on it. It is also the foundation for progress. Managing water is vital for upholding economies and societies. Therefore, we seek to accelerate action on water by optimising our products and intelligent water solutions for our own business, customers, end users and the planet.
To realise the potential of water and transition to a water resilient, net-zero future for all, we must address the multidimensional nature of water and the water crisis to:
- Move more water while using less energy
- Reduce the use of water by improving water efficiency
- Treat and recover water to increase water productivity and ensure water-fit-for- purpose
- Build resilience to the impacts of climate change
- Improve access to safe water for all
Water sustainability across and beyond the Grundfos value chain
Our supply chain
Ambition
Reduce water impact and increase resilience in our supply chain.
Our operational sites
Ambition
Increase resilience through operational water management and mitigation actions.
End user solutions (divisions)
Ambition
Increase the uptake of water sustainability solutions with our end users. Innovate and pilot new solutions.
Water access
Ambition
Provide access to safe water for 300 million people in need through water solutions and partnerships.
Public policy, advocacy and partnerships
Ambition
Encourage action to strengthen water resilience and adopt water sustainability solutions.
Partnerships
C40, World Economic Forum, 50L Home, IWA.
Collective impact programmes
Ambition
Improve water availability, quality and resilience for communities in priority areas.
Progress in 2024
46% reduction of own water withdrawal (2008 baseline)
We enabled end users to save 1.5m3 water in 2024
Since 2020, we enabled our end users to save 8.2bn m3 of water
Circular business
Grundfos continues to drive circularity across our business. In 2024, we collected 89,054 kg of pumps from customers, and reductions of waste-to-landfill were at a 73% level compared to 2018 baseline.
Learn more about product sustainability at Grundfos
Approach
Product design
Products designed for reuse, refurbishing and remanufacturing.
Input
Non-virgin and renewable use in material input, ideally via controlled or closed-loop resource cycles.
Business model
Circular service and solutions for product longevity and enabling end-of-life collection.
Next life
Products taken back and value created for next-life offerings.
Explore our Take Back programme
Social impact
Learn more about our sustainability efforts in human rights, water access, health, safety and well-being, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I), learning and talent development and employee and community engagement.
Human rights
The respect of human rights is deeply founded in our purpose and values. We respect the integrity and dignity of all individuals. We recognise our responsibility to operate with respect for human rights in our own operations, across our value chain with the business relationships we work with, and in the communities that we affect and are part of. Our approach is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
Key actions in 2024 included a group-wide human rights risk and saliency assessment to revise our salient human rights issues and the initiation of a living wage benchmark assessment of own workforce.
Learn more about our human rights effort
Water access
Approximately 2.3bn people around the world do not have access to safely managed drinking water*. Having access to clean water is one of the foundations for enhancing health, enabling learning, education and economic growth. It is a prerequisite for quality of life.
In 2024, we delivered safe water access to 6.4m people through direct projects and estimate to have contributed to another 10.8m people through our normal sales channels. Since 2020 we have provided access to water for estimated 51.2m people.
* 1 UN Stats SDG Report 2022: Water and Sanitation - United Nations Sustainable Development
Learn more about our water access approach
Progress in 2024
Economist Impact started the process of developing a tool to quantify water access impact, funded by the Poul Due Jensen Foundation (Grundfos Foundation).
Save the Children and Grundfos formed a three-year partnership to improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene, including toilets and washing facilities, for children through innovative, solar powered water systems.
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Grundfos entered a partnership to reach people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare with basic water access, particularly in Africa and Asia.
Oxfam, a global charity committed to creating lasting solutions to the injustice of poverty, and Grundfos signed a partnership in the areas of solar-powered pumping solutions, solar dosing, disinfection and desalination systems that will see our innovative technologies utilised within Oxfam programmes worldwide.
Health, safety and well-being
We believe that everyone must go to work and return home without injuries. We are determined to drive the health, safety and well-being of our colleagues in all areas of our business by providing a safe work environment, preventing injuries, ensuring good physical conditions and psychological balance. Health, safety and well-being is not the responsibility of just one person or department; it is a collective responsibility, and we want to develop an interdependent safety culture in Grundfos.
2024 saw an increase of our Lost Time Injury Rate (LTIR) from 1.77 to 1.87. A new incident management process was launched, and we continued our effort to raise awareness among our Grundfos colleagues.
Learn more about our health, safety and well-being at Grundfos
Progress in 2024
1.87 Lost Time Injury Rate (LTIR) ratio (target: 1.5)
21% reported stress level (target: 12%)
Employee satisfaction/motivation score: 77 (target: 78)
Diversity, equity and inclusion
When a multitude of viewpoints and perspectives come together, something unique is born. In Grundfos, we nurture a culture that champions respect and fosters a diverse and inclusive workplace, where people sense that they belong and feel valued, respected and supported.
We seek to create a global company culture where everyone is included and valued within Grundfos’ virtual and physical spaces. We want to prioritise equitable possibilities and use diversity and inclusion as critical keys for building a more sustainable future.
Learn more about diversity, equity and inclusion at Grundfos
Progress in 2024
33% representation of women on the Board of Directors
25% of women in leadership positions (target: 27%)
3.0% representation of people with disabilities in our workforce (target: 3.5%)
Learning and talent development
Challenging and motivating people in their professional roles is something we strongly believe in as a success factor for our business. We want our people and our company to develop together. Equally important, our colleagues must feel that they are empowered to take ownership of their personal development. This is the case at all levels of the organisation. A growth mindset has been central since Grundfos was founded, and this goes for company as well as individual.
Our goal is to be a world-class place to work, learn and grow. We continued our journey of strengthening global leadership and employee development programmes in 2024. The Learn & Grow score improved by one point.
Learn more about our talent development approach
Progress in 2024
We created a network of colleagues across all our plants called ‘Empower Shop Floor Excellence’.
A measurement was conducted of our maturity as a learning organisation
Mentoring and coaching programmes were implemented
Further leadership development programmes were launched
New global talent programmes were launched
A global leadership programme was designed for all plant supervisors
Employee and community engagement
Grundfos actively encourages its people to support the communities and local organisations they care about the most. Why? Because it is at the heart of our culture to make a positive impact on local communities. We aim to improve the quality of life of the communities we work with through our employee and community engagement programmes.
In 2024, Grundfos employees supported the Water2Life programme with DKK 1m, and the Poul Due Jensen Foundation approved 57 employee-led applications for Community Engagement Grants amounting to DKK 22m.
Learn more about community engagement at Grundfos
Progress in 2024
115,640 people reached in 2024 (2030 target: 100,000)
DKK 1m donated by Grundfos and employees
17% of employee volunteering participation (2025 target: 20%, 2030 target: 50%)
Business ethics
An overview of our progress in quality, product compliance and customer safety, business conduct and our sustainable supply chain.
Quality, product compliance and customer safety
Quality is at the very core of our products and our brand. By upholding high quality standards, we continuously work to ensure product compliance and the safety of our customers when they use our products.
In 2024 we achieved the ISO 27001 certification, which validates that we have implemented an effective Information Security Management System (ISMS) to oversee the development and maintenance of our digital products and solutions.
Business conduct
We aspire to foster a culture where ethical behaviour and business conduct are embedded. In 2024, a new Code of Conduct was launched. 87% of Grundfos employees completed the Code of Conduct training during the year.
Progress in 2024
Code of Conduct training
We rolled out our new Code of Conduct and facilitated training for all employees in 2024. 87% of employees completed the training.
Strengthening of governance
Grundfos is redesigning its governance around company policies, standards and rules to increase simplicity, coherence and transparency in the company governance.
Ensuring fair competition
Online training programmes on fair and legal competition are available to all Grundfos employees. The training programmes exist in tailored versions for the USA, EU and the majority of Asia.
Anti-corruption and anti-money laundering
Group Legal investigates all cases of potential money laundering and corruption and takes the relevant action.
Sustainable supply chain
We hold ourselves and our supply chain to the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility, encompassing human rights, labour standards, carbon and water footprint reduction, chemical compliance and responsible sourcing, including conflict minerals. This commitment requires a persistent dedication to sustainable practices and transparency, both from us and our suppliers.
In 2024, we onboarded 87 suppliers into the EcoVadis platform for sustainability performance monitoring, and achieved a 91% compliance rate on supplier audits.
Progress in 2024
495 suppliers onboarded to EcoVadis platform in 2024 (target: 500)
91% compliance rate on supplier audits (2025 target: 91%)
Sustainability governance and reporting
Learn more about our governance and strategy, sustainability framework, reporting/ratings.
Sustainability governance, strategy and framework
We govern our sustainability efforts strictly to ensure that we deliver on our commitments across the business. We believe that this enables us to maximise our impact on the global transition to an equitable, sustainable and resilient future.
At Grundfos, sustainability governance is anchored within the Board of Directors and flows through Group Management and our Sustainability Council into Group Functions and Divisions. Our Sustainability Council members meet six times per year to align and follow up on performance and key initiatives. Since the beginning of 2023, our sustainability KPIs are monitored by the Sustainability Council, Group Management and the Board of Directors in a regular cadence with progress reports shared internally on a quarterly basis.
Our sustainability framework
Grundfos’ sustainability framework was defined in 2020, and guides our approach to sustainability across our operations and value chain. The deployment of sustainability programmes and priorities is anchored in the relevant group functions and business divisions across Grundfos and is overall governed by the Grundfos Sustainability Council.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)
While we support and have a positive impact on a range of the SDGs, we have identified two SDGs where we have the most positive impact through our core solutions and wider influence. These are goals 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and 13 (Climate action).
Clean water
Saving water
Enabling end users to save water through water reuse and water efficiency.
Water access
Contributing to improving water access for 300 million people in need.
Climate action
Saving energy
Enabling end users to save energy by innovating and delivering smart pumps and new solutions.
Circular business
Developing towards a circular business.
EcoVadis Platinum medal
Top 1% of all rated companies
In June 2024, Grundfos achieved the Platinum medal rating from EcoVadis. This recognition places Grundfos in the 99th percentile of companies rated worldwide, showcasing our unwavering commitment to sustainable business practices. EcoVadis is one of the world’s largest and most trusted providers of business sustainability ratings, assessing more than 130,000 companies’ actions and practices on their corporate and social responsibility. Using its international standards, EcoVadis has evaluated Grundfos across four key areas: Environment, Labour & Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement to award the business a Platinum medal rating.
Reporting and ratings
We adopt and follow standards and guidelines that support the strengthening of our sustainability performance and encourage and provide transparency on progress.
EcoVadis
EcoVadis allows us and our customers to get a detailed insight into our own progress within environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. Grundfos holds an EcoVadis Platinum medal.
UN Global Compact
We continue to support the UN Global Compact and to report on progress accordingly.
CDP
Grundfos is rated B with CDP Climate based on 2023 data. We continue to aim for an A.
Science Based Targets
Since the baseline year 2020, Grundfos has reduced CO2e emissions by 23.6%.
Business Ambition for 1.5
As part of Grundfos’ SBTi-validated Net Zero target, we have also signed onto the Business Ambition for 1.5 Campaign by UN Global Compact, which continues to call on companies to set ambitious emissions reductions targets in line with the Corporate Net-Zero Standard.
Sustainable Development Goals
Our focus is on SDGs #6 and #13 where we strive to contribute to positive development.
Climate Group EV100
Grundfos is committed to supporting the transition toward a net-zero future. This includes transforming our own fleet of vehicles to run on electricity.
Want the full report?
For further information or questions regarding the Grundfos sustainability report,
you are welcome to contact us via email at sustainability@grundfos.com.
Since the very beginning, Grundfos has shown a deeply rooted respect for people and care for the environment. This continues to be at the core of our business.
Explore our sustainability journey
Discover more about our initiatives to combat climate change and improve quality of life for people, and the governance that oversees them.