How is Falck Bringing Transparency to Climate Reporting?

The World Health Organisation recognises climate change as the single largest threat to human health. 

In a rapidly warming world, foundational elements of health such as clean air, safe water and nutritious food are less certain, contributing to serious illnesses like malnutrition, heat stress and infectious diseases. 

In this context, it’s critical that healthcare companies and professionals take the lead on reducing their contribution to climate change, and that they report with integrity and transparency. 

These values are at the heart of Falck’s latest Climate Transparency Report 2024. 

The global leader in providing emergency and healthcare services that help people live longer, healthier and safer lives, has launched the comprehensive report to demonstrate its commitment to reducing GHG emissions in the 9.5 million services it delivered across 25 countries in 2024. 

Introducing the report, Head of Environmental Sustainability at Falck David Nri says: “We believe that with clear and comprehensive guidance on how we count our GHG emissions, others in the sector can be encouraged to do the same.

“We want to support all within healthcare and emergency services who would like to be more ambitious on climate change – our customers, collaborators and even our competitors.”

Bringing transparency to reporting

This is the second climate transparency report that Falck has produced, and the first since it received validation of its near-term science-based targets by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in January 2025. 

These targets commit Falck to: 

• 50.4% reduction of scope 1 emissions by 2032 from a 2022 baseline
• 50.4% reduction of scope 2 emissions by 2032 from a 2022 baseline
• 30% reduction of scope 3 emissions by 2032 from a 2022 baseline

The company tracks emissions across each of these areas guided by the GHG Protocol’s principles for preparing and reporting. 

Its goal is to create a clear and countable understanding of its total emissions and emission sources, to allow emission hotspot identification to support reduction initiatives and to establish a solid foundation for tracking performance across years.

Falck also charts uncertainty across each of its emissions categories. This is intended to demonstrate the reliability of its results based on quality of data and emissions factors applied to the data. 

Action across emissions categories

Overall, Falck reports a notable reduction in total market-based emissions – those associated with the energy a company purchases. 

The 2024 total of 165,791 tCO2e represents a 7% reduction on the company’s 2022 baseline target

Scope 1:

Scope 1 emissions represent a significant challenge for Falck.  

The company operates an exhaustive scope of global services from ambulance, patient transport and healthcare at home, through to healthcare treatment, fire prevention, and roadside and civil services. 

Given that many of these services heavily rely on transportation, mobile combustion emissions – those that come from burning fuel in vehicles – contributed to 26.3% of the company’s total GHG emissions in 2024. 

Across the year, mobile combustion contributed to 43,563 CO2e, an 11% decrease on the company’s 2022 baseline and down from 46,462 tCO2e in 2023. 

Falck reports a 7% decrease in stationary combustion emissions – those from devices that burn fuel in a fixed location. The total 1,608 tCO2e makes up just 1% of the company’s 2024 emissions total.

Scope 2: 

Falck tracks emissions across electricity (market and location-based) and district heating under its Scope 2 reporting. 

Under the market-based category, the company purchases and uses electricity in its owned and leased buildings, contributing 8,688 tCO2e in 2024, 5.2% of total emissions. 

Both market-based and location-based electricity (4,838 tCO2e in 2024) saw a 16% increase on the company’s 2022 baseline figure. 

District heating emissions of 3,003 tCO2e represented a 6% decrease on baseline. 

Scope 3: 

As with many businesses, this remains the largest area of impact – 45.1% of total emissions (74,708 tCO2e) came from upstream goods and services in 2024, though this segment shrank by 10% against baseline targets. 

Upstream fuel and energy – emissions related to the production and distribution of fuels and energy purchased and consumed that are not included in Scope 1 of 2 – increased by 5% against baseline, with a total figure of 13,370 tCO2e. 

Waste emissions decreased 36%, while business travel emissions, a notable area for service companies, dipped 5%. 

The path forward

Falck’s climate report underscores real and measurable progress built on methodical and transparent analysis of the company’s emissions data. 

The progress made reflects the company’s wider sustainability ambitions, centred on four key pillars of environmental action, enhancing social impact, securing a diverse and safe workplace and rigorous governance. 

Discussing the data on LinkedIn, David says: “It's a rough time for sustainability reporting. The EU seems to be moving backwards, companies like Google are quietly removing targets from their website, and companies like Amazon release deceptive disinformation in place of transparent climate reporting.

“My team at Falck are trying to go in a different direction: integrity & transparency. If you know of any company that is more transparent about their climate calculations I want to hear about them.”