We will become the first company in the precious metal industry that operates carbon neutral. Already by 2025. We're well on track to reach carbon neutrality. All our 14 production sites contribute with great efforts and smart solutions.
Compared to 2019, we have already doubled the share of green electricity. Last year, 63 percent of our electricity came from renewable sources. Within the next three years, until 2025, we will be increasing this number to 100 percent green electricity from sources such as wind and solar. Yes, our electricity needs will significantly increase. On the one hand, our business will grow substantially and on the other hand we will be electrifying gas driven processes.
In any case, the best way to safe emissions is to use as little energy as possible. Last year, our business grew by more than 20 percent. At the same time, we have been able to reduce our energy consumption by more than 8 percent. This is an equivalent of energy consumption for more than 1,200 households. And even more important, it proves that we can be financially successful while reducing our emissions.
There were many, many initiatives. To give you a few examples, shutdown management was one important, optimizing energy efficiency in our processes, optimizing temperatures, but also smart engineering solutions like reusing the heat from our cooling systems.
And we also changed to very substantial recycling processes. They now use electricity instead of natural gas. This year, we will see further solar installations, we will see further electrification of gas driven processes. And of course we will also see further efficiency measures. We still have a long way to go, and we still have lots of open questions to answer. But I'm quite confident and we're proving every day that it can be done.