Sustainability statistics by industry in 2026

Sustainability statistics by industry are sector-level figures on emissions, resource use and waste. They answer a question that global totals cannot: where environmental impacts actually come from, and which sectors carry the heaviest share of the transition. A cement producer faces a very different footprint from a bank, a hospital or a fashion retailer, even when all of them report under the same frameworks.

This guide brings together the latest sector data from official and widely cited sources, including Eurostat, the International Energy Agency, FAO, UNEP, the European Environment Agency and CDP. Each figure includes its source and data year, so you can cite it accurately.

The numbers also reveal a pattern that matters for every sustainability team. In most industries, the largest share of the footprint sits outside the company’s own walls, in supply chains, financed activities or the use of products. For a view of disclosure practice across all sectors, our overview of ESG reporting statistics covers reporting rates, assurance and standards.

Sustainability statistics by industry at a glance

The table summarises one headline figure per sector. The sections that follow add context, trends and the statistics that explain why each number matters.

Industry	Headline statistic	Source and data year
Buildings and construction	About 37% of global emissions	UNEP, 2025–2026 report
Food and agriculture	16.2 Gt CO2e, about one-third of human-caused emissions	FAO, 2022 data
Steel	7% to 8% of global anthropogenic GHG emissions	worldsteel, 2024 data
Plastics	3.4% of global GHG emissions	OECD, 2019 data
Healthcare	4.4% of global net emissions	Health Care Without Harm, 2014 data
Shipping	2.89% of global anthropogenic CO2	IMO, 2018 data
Tourism	8.8% of global GHG emissions	Nature Communications, 2019 data
Data centres	About 1.5% of global electricity use	IEA, 2024 data
Financial services	Financed emissions over 700 times operational emissions	CDP, 2020 disclosures
Textiles (EU)	19 kg consumed per person per year	EEA, 2022 data

Because sources use different boundaries, base years and gases, these shares should not be added together. Tourism, for example, overlaps with transport, food and buildings.

How emissions split across the European economy

According to Eurostat’s 2024 emissions accounts, greenhouse gas emissions from economic activities and households in the EU totalled 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2024. That is 1% lower than in 2023 and 20% lower than in 2013.

The decline has been uneven across industries:

• Energy supply (electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning) recorded the sharpest fall, down 49% or 512 million tonnes between 2013 and 2024.

• Mining and quarrying emissions fell by 37%.

• Manufacturing cut emissions by 18%, equal to 146 million tonnes.

• Services reduced emissions by 14%.

• Transportation and storage rose by 14%, adding 57 million tonnes.

• Construction increased by 6%.

Power generation has done most of Europe’s decarbonisation work so far, which also lowers the Scope 2 emissions of electricity users in every other sector. Transport and construction are now moving in the wrong direction, and customer and regulatory pressure on them is increasing.

Heavy industry statistics

Steel, cement and chemicals are often called hard-to-abate sectors because their emissions come from both energy use and the chemistry of the production process itself.

Steel

The steel industry produced 1,886 million tonnes of steel in 2024, with total emissions of around 4.1 billion tonnes of CO2e, according to worldsteel. About 75% of that total was direct emissions. The association estimates that these emissions represent 7% to 8% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

On average, each tonne of steel generated 2.18 tonnes of CO2e in 2024 across Scopes 1, 2 and 3. Intensity varies sharply by production route, with ore-based blast furnaces far more carbon-intensive than scrap-based electric arc furnaces. Our guide to the manufacturing carbon footprint explains how industrial companies measure these emissions across sites and products.

Cement

Cement is the second-largest industrial source of CO2 after iron and steel. Estimates commonly place the sector at roughly 5% to 8% of global CO2 emissions, depending on whether process emissions, fuel combustion and electricity are included. A large share comes from the calcination of limestone, which is why efficiency gains alone cannot decarbonise the sector.

Chemicals and plastics

The chemical sector presents a paradox. The International Energy Agency notes that it is the largest industrial energy consumer but only the third-largest source of industrial CO2, after iron and steel and cement, because much of its energy input is used as feedstock rather than burned.

Plastics, covered in our analysis of the plastic carbon footprint, show how chemical emissions extend across the value chain. The OECD’s Global Plastics Outlook found that:

• Plastics accounted for 3.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.

• 90% of those emissions came from production and conversion from fossil fuels.

• The world used 460 million tonnes of plastics in 2019, nearly double the volume in 2000.

• Only 9% of plastic waste was ultimately recycled, while 19% was incinerated and almost 50% went to sanitary landfill.

Our article on the chemical industry carbon footprint covers process emissions and value chain data in more depth.

Buildings and construction statistics

Buildings combine the operational energy used for heating, cooling and lighting with the embodied carbon in materials such as cement, steel and glass.

The tenth edition of UNEP’s Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction, released in May 2026, puts the sector at about 37% of global emissions and nearly 50% of global material extraction. Operational emissions from buildings rose by 1% in 2024 to 9.9 gigatonnes of CO2. The previous edition had reported 34% of global CO2 emissions and 32% of global energy consumption.

Global building energy intensity has fallen by about 8.5%, but UNEP warns that investment in energy efficiency needs to more than double by 2030. For construction companies, the most actionable data point is often embodied carbon. Our guide on how to measure construction materials emissions explains how to calculate the footprint of concrete, steel and other inputs at project level.

How Dcycle turns industry statistics into company data

Industry statistics are useful for benchmarking, but they cannot replace your own data. A sector average tells you that supply chain emissions are probably dominant. It does not tell you which suppliers, sites or product lines drive your footprint. Dcycle is an environmental data platform that organises the activity data behind sustainability reporting in one place.

Collect activity data where it is created

Most footprints are driven by a handful of sources: energy invoices, fuel records, purchasing data, logistics records and supplier information. With automated data collection, companies can connect ERPs such as SAP, Sage or Dynamics, or upload invoices, PDFs and spreadsheets for automatic reading and classification. Units are converted and anomalies flagged, so teams review exceptions instead of every line.

Replace spend estimates with supplier data

Where Scope 3 dominates, supplier data determines the quality of the whole footprint. Dcycle first calculates purchase-based emissions from spend data and industry-average factors, then moves to supplier-specific factors when suppliers share primary data. The ability to manage supplier emissions in one view helps teams focus on the suppliers that contribute most.

Keep every figure traceable

Benchmarks are only credible if your own figures can be checked. Dcycle records who uploaded each file, when data changed, and which formula and emission factor produced each result. This evidence traceability supports internal reviews and external assurance.

Compare sites and entities

Industry statistics often express performance as intensity. With multi-entity management, groups can consolidate data by facility, company and country and compare emissions per employee, per square metre or per unit of revenue.

Reuse the same data across frameworks

One electricity invoice can feed a carbon footprint, a CSRD sustainability statement, an ISO 14064 inventory, a CDP response and an EcoVadis questionnaire. With multi-framework reporting, each data point is collected once and reused, which keeps figures consistent.

Dcycle does not act as an auditor or verifier and does not guarantee compliance with any framework. Verification remains the responsibility of the company and its independent assurance provider.

Food, agriculture and water statistics

Food systems combine farm activities such as livestock and fertiliser use, land-use change, and the processing, packaging, transport, retail and disposal steps after the farm gate.

Agrifood emissions

FAO’s analysis of agrifood systems emissions estimates that global agrifood systems emitted 16.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2022. That figure was virtually unchanged from 2021 and 10% higher than in 2000. Agrifood systems account for about one-third of total human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

Food and beverage companies typically find that farm-level emissions from purchased ingredients dominate their footprint. Our guide to the food industry carbon footprint shows how manufacturers break down emissions by ingredient, process and packaging.

Water use

Agriculture is also the world’s largest consumer of freshwater. A December 2025 FAO update reported by UN News shows agriculture accounting for about 72% of global freshwater withdrawals, with industry at about 15% and municipal and service uses at about 13%. Our overview of sustainability in agriculture covers how producers manage water, soil and emissions pressures together.

Food waste

UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report 2024 estimates that 1.05 billion tonnes of food waste were generated in 2022, including inedible parts. That equals 132 kg per person and almost one-fifth of all food available to consumers.

The breakdown by sector is revealing for retailers and food service businesses:

• Households generated 60% of food waste.

• Food service accounted for 28%.

• Retail accounted for 12%.

Food loss and waste together generate 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to UNEP, making waste reduction both a cost lever and a direct way to cut Scope 3 emissions.

Textiles and retail statistics

Fashion and retail businesses sit at the end of long, fragmented supply chains, which makes sector data especially useful for deciding where to collect information first.

Textile consumption and waste in Europe

The European Environment Agency’s latest textile circularity data shows that consumption reached a record high:

• The average EU citizen bought 19 kg of clothing, footwear and household textiles in 2022, up from 17 kg in 2019.

• Of those 19 kg, 8 kg were clothing, 7 kg household textiles and 4 kg footwear.

• Among 12 categories of household consumption, textiles ranked fifth on average for environmental and climate pressures, measured across raw material use, greenhouse gas emissions, water use and land use.

• EU Member States generated about 6.94 million tonnes of textile waste in 2022, equal to 16 kg per person.

These figures explain why brands face growing requirements on product data, recycled content and end-of-life management. See how textile and fashion sustainability data is structured from fibre to finished product.

Retail supply chains

For retailers, the challenge is less about their own stores and more about what they sell. A 2024 CDP and BCG analysis found that upstream emissions from the manufacturing, retail and materials sectors had a footprint 1.4 times the total CO2 emitted in the EU in 2022. Across all disclosing companies, supply chain emissions were on average 26 times greater than emissions from direct operations, yet only 15% had set a Scope 3 target. Our article on retail sector sustainability looks at how retailers engage suppliers on these emissions.

Transport, logistics and tourism statistics

Transport is the sector where European emissions are still rising, and freight customers increasingly ask carriers for shipment-level data.

Shipping

According to the IMO’s Fourth Greenhouse Gas Study, total shipping emitted 1,056 million tonnes of CO2 in 2018. That represented about 2.89% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions, up from 2.76% in 2012.

Road freight and logistics in Europe

In the EU, transportation and storage recorded the largest emissions increase of any economic activity between 2013 and 2024, rising by 14%. For logistics companies, that trend means more detailed questions from shippers about emissions per shipment, route and transport mode. Our guide to the logistics carbon footprint explains how carriers calculate these figures with recognised methodologies.

Tourism and hospitality

A study published in Nature Communications estimated that tourism generated 5.2 Gt CO2e in 2019, equal to 8.8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Tourism emissions grew by 3.5% per year between 2009 and 2019, double the growth rate of the global economy, because rising demand outpaced efficiency gains.

Digital and healthcare statistics

Some sectors receive less attention in sustainability debates despite substantial and fast-changing footprints.

Data centres

The IEA’s Energy and AI report estimates that data centres consumed around 415 TWh of electricity in 2024, or about 1.5% of global electricity consumption. Consumption is projected to more than double to around 945 TWh by 2030, slightly more than Japan’s current total electricity use. In 2024, the United States accounted for 45% of global data centre electricity consumption, China for 25% and Europe for 15%.

Healthcare

Health Care Without Harm’s health care climate footprint report, produced with Arup, found that the sector’s footprint was equivalent to 4.4% of global net emissions, or about 2 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent, based on 2014 data. Supply chains dominate even here:

• 71% of emissions came from the supply chain, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food and equipment.

• 17% came from direct emissions at health care facilities.

• 12% came from purchased energy.

Our article on healthcare sustainability explores how hospitals and pharmaceutical companies approach these emissions.

Financial sector statistics

For banks, insurers and asset managers, the real footprint sits in loans and investments rather than offices and travel. A CDP analysis of financed emissions, based on 2020 disclosures, found that:

• Portfolio emissions of financial institutions were on average more than 700 times larger than their direct emissions.

• Only around a quarter of financial institutions disclosing to CDP reported their financed emissions.

• Most of those that did report covered less than half of their portfolios.

• Reported financed emissions totalled 1.04 gigatonnes of CO2, and CDP considered the true figure likely to be higher.

This is why lenders and investors increasingly request emissions data from corporate clients. Our guide to the financial sector carbon footprint explains how financed emissions are calculated and why client data quality matters.

3 Patterns behind the industry statistics

Looking across sectors, three patterns are more useful for planning than any single number.

1. The value chain dominates most footprints

Supply chain emissions average 26 times operational emissions among CDP disclosers, financed emissions exceed operational emissions by more than 700 times, and 71% of health care emissions sit in the supply chain. For most companies, the practical priority is their Scope 3 emissions and the supplier data needed to measure them.

2. Intensity matters more than absolute totals

Sector statistics are increasingly expressed per unit, such as CO2e per tonne of steel or energy per square metre. Intensity metrics make companies of different sizes comparable and show whether growth is decoupling from emissions. Our article on emissions intensity metrics explains how to choose the right denominator for CSRD and science-based targets.

3. Target setting is accelerating across sectors

The SBTi’s Trend Tracker reports that 9,764 companies had validated science-based targets by the end of 2025, a 40% increase in one year, with Asia growing fastest at 53%. As more large buyers set targets, suppliers in every industry receive more requests for emissions data.

How to cite sustainability statistics correctly

Small citation errors can undermine credibility. Before quoting a figure, check four points:

• Data year versus publication year. A 2024 report may describe 2019 or 2022 data.

• Gas and scope. Some figures cover CO2 only, others all greenhouse gases. Some include Scope 3, others only direct emissions.

• Boundary. Production-based accounts, consumption-based footprints and sector studies use different boundaries, so their shares should not be added together.

• Primary source. Cite the organisation that produced the estimate, not an article that repeated it.

From sector averages to your own baseline

Sustainability statistics by industry show where the largest impacts sit: in buildings and materials, food systems, heavy industry, transport and, for most companies, the value chain. They also show that the European sectors with rising emissions, transport and construction, face the sharpest increase in scrutiny.

The next step is to replace sector averages with measured figures. Identify the activity data behind your largest emission sources, collect it once with clear ownership and evidence, and move from spend-based estimates to supplier data where it matters most. To see how this works with your own invoices, sites and suppliers, you can request a demo.

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