Operational ecology
Swiss Life has set targets for operational ecology which are set out in a Group-wide directive. At the same time, Swiss Life is helping to make its employees more conscious of environmental and climate protection and organises awareness-raising activities at the various locations.
Climate-related operational ecology goals of the Swiss Life Group
Greenhouse gas1
Swiss Life wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 10% by 2021.
Electricity
Swiss Life wants to increase the share of electricity it uses in its buildings from renewable energy sources with a target of reaching 100% by 2021.
Fossil fuels
Swiss Life wants to continuously reduce its use of fossil fuels in its business premises within its investment cycles.
In the course of 2021, Swiss Life will define new subsequent goals for its operational ecology beyond 2021.
Key environmental data on operational ecology are gathered annually in accordance with the globally recognised standard of the Association for Environmental Management and Sustainability at Financial Institutions (VfU). By gathering data on an annual basis, Swiss Life is able to determine where progress has been made, where risks lie and where steps must be taken. The VfU’s key figures conform to the international Greenhouse Gas Protocol standards (Scope 1, 2 and 3). The data are gathered, evaluated and analysed across the Group. All the major Swiss Life locations have environmental officers who collect the data for the individual divisions. The data are consolidated and analysed at Group level. Following the extensive professionalisation of operational ecology, Swiss Life has set itself the goal of continuously improving data quality. Thus, in 2020, additional locations were included in the data collection and the share of extrapolations and estimates could be further limited.
Absolute climate-related indicators¹
| 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total energy consumption (in MWh) | 40 755 | 51 694 | 49 500 | 47 819 | ||||
| Electricity (in MWh) | 22 645 | 32 570 | 32 011 | 31 557 | ||||
| Heating (in MWh) | 12 666 | 13 937 | 15 933 | 14 759 | ||||
| District heating/cooling (in MWh) | 5 444 | 5 187 | 1 556 | 1 503 | ||||
| Renewable electricity (in MWh) | 20 167 | 23 080 | 15 890 | 17 868 | ||||
| Proportion of renewable electricity (in %) | 89 | 71 | 50 | 57 | ||||
| Business travel (in million km) | 26.8 | 61.9 | 68.8 | 63.1 | ||||
| Total greenhouse gas emissions (in t) | 13 611 | 23 657 | 24 436 | 22 788 | ||||
| Greenhouse gas emissions Scope 1 (CO2 equivalents in t) | 5 423 | 6 596 | 9 341 | 8 667 | ||||
| Greenhouse gas emissions Scope 2 (CO2 equivalents in t) | 1 271 | 4 808 | 3 439 | 2 935 | ||||
| Greenhouse gas emissions Scope 1 and 2 (CO2 equivalents in t) | 6 695 | 11 404 | 12 780 | 11 601 | ||||
| Greenhouse gas emissions Scope 3 (CO2 equivalents in t) | 6 916 | 12 254 | 11 656 | 11 186 |
Relative climate-related indicators per full-time equivalent position (FTE)¹
| 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total energy consumption (in KWh/FTE) | 4 149 | 5 540 | 5 614 | 5 823 | ||||
| Electricity (in KWh/FTE) | 2 306 | 3 491 | 3 631 | 3 843 | ||||
| Heating (in KWh/FTE) | 1 290 | 1 494 | 1 807 | 1 797 | ||||
| District heating/cooling (in KWh/FTE) | 554 | 556 | 176 | 183 | ||||
| Renewable electricity (in KWh/FTE) | 2 053 | 2 474 | 1 802 | 2 176 | ||||
| Business travel (in km/FTE) | 2 729 | 6 634 | 7 804 | 7 686 | ||||
| Total greenhouse gas emissions (in kg/FTE) | 1 386 | 2 536 | 2 771 | 2 775 | ||||
| Greenhouse gas emissions Spope 1 (CO2 equivalents in kg/FTE) | 552 | 707 | 1 059 | 1 055 | ||||
| Greenhouse gas emissions Scope 2 (CO2 equivalents in kg/FTE) | 129 | 515 | 390 | 357 | ||||
| Greenhouse gas emissions Scope 1 and 2 (CO2 equivalents in kg/FTE) | 682 | 1 222 | 1 449 | 1 413 | ||||
| Greenhouse gas emissions Scope 3 (CO2 equivalents in kg/FTE) | 704 | 1 313 | 1 322 | 1 362 | ||||
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1 Further companies were included in the data collection process in 2020. The key figures for financial years 2019 and 2020 refer to VfU 2018 while those for the other years refer to VfU 2013.
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Further information can be found in the Sustainability Report (section “Operational Ecology”).