Paper, water and waste
In the second phase of our Greenhouse Neutral Programme, we have expanded the scope of our emissions accounting to include copy paper use, water consumption and waste disposal, and are committed to offsetting these emissions.
The overview of all our emissions sources (see table in CO2 emissions and underlying environmental data) shows that paper, water and waste are of much less significance in our business than other environmental impacts. Furthermore, it is difficult for us to influence water use and waste generation at locations where we rent office space. However, in the office buildings we own we ensure appliances meet high standards of water efficiency.
Paper use, on the other hand, is much more responsive to managerial action. Although we have not set any quantitative targets, we have taken a number of measures to reduce the average amount of paper used by our employees in recent years. New IT solutions such as “pull printing” (which eliminates uncollected printouts), web-based collaboration and document management platforms have led to a decrease of paper use in all our locations. Thus, average paper use per employee fell by 13% across the whole Group and was 41.2% lower than in 2013.