We care about the environment and take our responsibility seriously. We are actively reducing our carbon footprint and to commemorate the Company‘s 50th anniversary, Össur will be carbon neutral in 2021.

Carbon Neutral Company

First climate

Össur has partnered with First Climate, a leading service provider of carbon emissions management, to achieve carbon neutrality.

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

Goal 13: Climate Action

Össur is committed to reducing its Greenhouse Gas Emissions and improving the efficiency of our energy and resource consumption before looking into offsetting options

How will we do it?


Actively reduce emissions from our operations

Improve energy efficiency at our locations

Source 100% electricity from renewable energy sources

Offset the remaining emissions by supporting emission reduction projects

What does it mean to be carbon neutral?

Carbon neutral is a term used to describe the state of an entity, such as a company, service, product, or event, where its carbon emissions have been balanced out by funding projects that avoid or sequester carbon emissions. These savings are generated through funding projects, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, all around the world.

Why does Össur want to be carbon neutral?

As a global business, we have a responsibility to our customers, employees, shareholders, and the world at large, to take decisive action on climate change and hence contribute to sustainable development. We take our responsibility for the company’s environmental impact seriously and being carbon neutral plays a key part in our Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy. We want to be part of the global fight against climate change and contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for future generations. We also acknowledge that our internal and external stakeholders prefer to buy products and services from an environmentally conscious company.

What is included in Össur’s scope for being Carbon Neutral?

In short, it is purchased energy and fuel consumption, waste generation, business travel, transportation of goods and electricity consumption of finished goods suppliers.

Purchased electricity, heating & cooling is monitored in College Park, Eindhoven, Foothill Ranch, Iceland, Livingston, Manchester, Newburgh, Orlando, Philadelphia and Tijuana. The consumption of these production and distribution facilities covers 95% of Össur’s energy cost. Össur’s headquarters and main prosthetic manufacturing site in Iceland runs on electricity from 100% renewable energy sources, backed up with a Guarantee of Origin certificate. In 2020, we included electricity consumption of our Clinics for the first time which represents over 1000 employees all around the world.

Freight: Includes all raw material freight, inter-company and finished goods distribution from warehouses to customers.

Business Travel: GHG emission is monitored by Össur‘s global travel system, Egencia.

Waste: Covers waste data from our biggest manufacturing and distribution sites.

Car Fleet: Data on fuel consumption of owned and leased cars.

Finished Goods suppliers: Covers electricity consumption of our Finished Goods Suppliers in Asia.

We are continually improving our emissions monitoring and are now evaluating how to measure emissions from employee commuting to and from work, and from raw materials.

How is Össur’s carbon footprint calculated?

Össur collects data on consumption from all around the company and the resulting emissions are calculated in Össur‘s Environmental Accounting System, internally, and by Össur‘s travel system, Egencia. All calculations methods are based on Greenhouse Gas Protocol methodology. Össur has partnered with First Climate, a leading service provider of carbon emissions management, to achieve carbon neutrality. First Climate has reviewed and validated all emission calculations.

How will Össur become Carbon Neutral?

We will continue to actively work on reducing our emissions, but also source electricity from renewable energy sources and offset remaining emissions by supporting emission reduction projects that are certified to the highest standards in the market resulting in clear socio-economic and environmental benefits. By improving operational efficiency, our goal is to reduce emissions from our operations by 10% in 2021, compared to 2019, and reduce cost at the same time. Therefore, it is a balance of cost savings and investments.There will always be unavoidable emissions from our operations that cannot be eliminated, and we compensate for these by investing in verified emission reduction projects and solutions. All these emission reduction projects are additional, meaning that without the income generated through the sale of certificates, they wouldn’t be feasible at all. We are proud to be able to support ambitious projects and be part of a global energy transition but investing in emission reduction projects is the last step in our approach where the goal is always to do our best in reducing our actual emissions.

What about the rest of Össur’s carbon emissions, when will the whole value chain be included?

We believe in a step-by-step approach, prioritizing our highest risk environmental aspects, and managed in 2020 to add many new emissions sources to our scope of monitoring. The limiting factor is usually the availability of data. Understanding our carbon footprint is essential to taking strong action. We believe there are further opportunities, and we are working towards understanding the environmental impacts of our whole value chain. We will use the next years to evaluate and set future targets for the whole supply chain.

Is Össur going to be carbon neutral from now on, or only for 2021?

Yes, we are committed to our sustainability vision and will continue to actively reduce our carbon footprint and remain carbon neutral beyond 2021.