Paper, water and waste

We also calculate and compensate the CO₂ emissions from further sources along our supply chain (Scope 3), ie copy paper, waste generation and water use. The overview of all our emissions sources (see CO₂ emissions and underlying environmental data) shows, however, that these are less relevant in our business than other environmental impacts, which is why we have not set quantitative reduction goals for them.

Furthermore, it is difficult for us to influence water use and waste generation at locations where we rent office space. In the office buildings we own ourselves, though, we ensure that appliances meet high standards of water efficiency.

As paper use is more responsive to managerial action, we have taken a number of measures to reduce the average amount 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 significant decrease of paper use in all our locations. Average paper use per employee fell by 25% in 2017, mainly as a result of introducing pull printing at our US and UK locations, leading to a total reduction of more than 50% since 2013.