As an IT service provider, we bear a special responsibility for climate and environmental protection, because the information and communications sector today already contributes up to 4% of global CO² emissions, according to expert estimates, and this figure is expected to rise further. Through our actions, we want to contribute to achieving the 1.5 degree target as a society and support our customers with products and services to achieve their own sustainability goals.
We focus on three building blocks: Collecting data, creating awareness and taking action.
Collecting data and creating transparency
We calculate our corporate carbon footprint annually according to GHG in order to identify the biggest influencing factors and derive measures to reduce our carbon footprint continuously. The goal must always be to avoid or reduce emissions wherever possible and to write our software the most energy efficient. At the same time, our solutions are an important enabler for our customers to improve their own environmental performance.
A large part of our Scope 3 CO² emissions result from our business travel. Therefore, we have revised our travel policy and support sustainable travel options. Our employees have e.g. the option to use the BahnCard and job tickets. Since 2022, we have offered the option of visiting centrally located coworking spaces across Germany to shorten commuting distances and to support travelling with public transport. At our own locations, we place emphasis on sourcing renewable energy, energy- and water-saving sensor technology for lighting and our taps and have a special focus on sustainable resource use and consistent separation of our waste.
In addition, since 2019 all business flights of the Lufthansa Group have been 100% offset in Gold Standard projects via myclimate.
Creating awareness
We have created various formats to communicate and bring our employees closer to the topic of sustainability. These include monthly open exchange formats, content published on our sustainability communication platform and learning nuggets / short interviews explaining sustainability-related topics. Once or twice a month, we invite external speakers such as DPDHL, Mastercard, Alnatura or Ikea within the framework of the Lufthansa Group SustainABILITY Community to gain insights into the sustainability strategies of other companies beyond Lufthansa's borders and to gather mutual inspiration and ideas in order to achieve the 1.5° goal together.
Become active
We don't just want to talk about sustainability and collect data, we also want to get active. As an IT service provider, we are particularly committed to the responsible and long-term use of our hardware and offer our employees the opportunity to purchase old equipment at a favourable price or donate it to charitable organisations and associations. Since mid-2022, we have prepared and donated over 120 laptops to 4 different charities.
In order to integrate the topic of environmental protection into our business processes, we implemented an environmental management system in 2022 and had our headquarters in Norderstedt certified according to ISO 14001. In doing so, we pursue the goal of fully measuring our impact on the environment and continuously improving our environmental performance.
To protect our environment, colleagues from different sites join forces on a yearly CleanUp Day to collect waste from the surrounding area.
We promote a culture of environmental protection and sustainability in our company by encouraging our employees to contribute their ideas and suggestions and to find solutions together. We believe that if each one of us does his and her contribution, together we can make a big impact. Through constant dialogue and exchange within our team, we want to ensure that we keep improving with each other and continuously expand our contribution to protecting the climate and the environment.
