In business activities

Operational ecology comprises the operational environmental management of the Swiss Life Group at its own locations as well as those it rents and the emissions arising from its business activities and its own employees.

Climate targets in the Swiss Life Group’s business operations

CO₂ emissions

Swiss Life aims to reduce its CO₂ emissions per FTE by 50% by the end of 2027 compared to 2019, primarily by adjusting business travel and further increasing energy efficiency. With this aim in mind, the new “Swiss Life 2027” Group-wide programme follows on seamlessly from the previous programme.

Since 2022, Swiss Life has been supporting climate change mitigation projects by acquiring certificates in line with the measured, unavoidable CO₂ emissions from the company’s operational activities. To this end, Swiss Life continues to deliberately focus on certified projects in its core European markets that contribute not only to reducing CO₂ but also to preserving biodiversity, for example through forest conservation, reafforestation and the production of biochar. Further information about these projects is available in the Swiss Life section of the First Climate website (www.firstclimate.com/id85083429).

In total, measured emissions in the reporting year amounted to 15 889 t CO₂e or 1464 kg CO₂e per FTE – an increase of 7% per FTE compared to 2023. This increase is mainly due to business trips by Sales Force employees who have a direct employment relationship with Swiss Life in France being recorded for the first time. Since 2021, all electricity used by Swiss Life has originated from renewable energy sources. By the end of 2024, Swiss Life had reduced total emissions per FTE by 40% compared to 2019. This means that Swiss Life has exceeded its goal of reducing CO₂ emissions per FTE by 35% by the end of 2024 compared to 2019. The environmental indicators for 2024 were audited by an independent auditor (more on this in the “Report of the Independent Auditor” section). Swiss Life offsets measured, unavoidable CO₂ emissions by acquiring certificates for the corresponding amount.

CO₂ emissions are recorded in accordance with the internationally recognised standards of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Corporate Standard. The science-based CO₂ equivalents used for determining these values cover all relevant greenhouse gases:

• Scope 1 emissions comprise fuel used to heat buildings and for the company’s own fleet of vehicles.
• Scope 2 emissions comprise consumption of purchased electricity and district heating at the business locations and electricity for electric cars from the company’s own fleet or from leased cars.
• Swiss Life currently has four Scope 3 emissions categories:
• Category 1, “Purchased Goods and Services”, comprises paper consumption and water use at the business locations. Other purchased services (such as server capacity) that are also relevant for Swiss Life are not yet included in this category.
• Category 3, “Energy activities”, comprises the upstream processes for the production of the purchased building energy that are not included in Scopes 1 and 2. The methodology of the International Energy Agency from 2017 was used to split the energy emission factors from Ecoinvent into Scopes 1, 2 and 3.
• Category 5, “Waste Generated in Operations”, comprises emissions resulting from the disposal of waste at the business locations.
• Category 6, “Business Travel”, comprises the kilometres employees travel for business by train, car or plane.

The other categories are either not relevant for Swiss Life or else the data available is not of satisfactory quality. In addition to its ambition to continuously improve data quality, Swiss Life continuously reviews the scope of its emissions recording and potentially relevant emission categories and analyses suitable data collection methods. These include the currently unrecorded Scope 3 emissions from categories 7, “Employee Commuting”, and 9, “Downstream Transport and Distribution”.

Swiss Life continuously reviews the data basis relating to the real estate used by Swiss Life. This includes checking the plausibility of extrapolations, emission factors, acquisitions and disposals of business activities. In this context, the calculation of environmental indicators was further refined during the year under review.

The main changes in the 2024 financial year were as follows:

• The establishment of the new Swiss Life Wealth Management Ltd legal entity in Switzerland on 1 January 2024 led to the move to the new location at Räffelstrasse in Zurich.
• Following an internal review of the scope of application during the year under review, Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd integrated the Bleicherweg location in Zurich with effect from 1 January 2024. The employees were previously included in an extrapolation.
• At Swiss Life France, detailed data for the Ma Santé Facile location will be recorded from 2024.
• Acquisition of Wilfast Förvaltning AB by Swiss Life Asset Managers in Sweden: The number of employees is less than 30 FTEs. They were previously included in an extrapolation.
• Detailed data was not recorded for Swiss Life International’s four locations in Liverpool, Preston, Cardiff and Basingstoke due to the number of employees falling below 30 FTEs; they were included in an extrapolation for 2024.
• The emission factors for the scientific database Ecoinvent have been updated. For example, the CO₂ factors used in Ecoinvent 3.10 have been adjusted in line with those in Ecoinvent 3.11.

In the year under review, Swiss Life further reduced building energy consumption compared to 2023 (–5% per FTE). This was due to expanded energy-saving measures at various locations. In addition, Swiss Life was able to reduce its fossil fuel consumption compared to 2023. Travel activity at Swiss Life saw a year-on-year increase (+17% per FTE). One reason for this is that, as of the year under review, Swiss Life will also record the business trips of Sales Force employees in direct employment with Swiss Life in France. Paper consumption increased by 1% per FTE compared to the previous year. The proportion of recycled paper was also increased from 16% in the previous year to 19% in the year under review. In the “Waste” category, there was a reduction of 12% per FTE compared to the previous year, while there was no difference in water consumption. In addition, the number of employees increased by 4% compared to the previous year, which also had an impact on the relative environmental indicators.

Further information can be found in the Sustainability Report, available at www.swisslife.com/sustainabilityreport (“Climate Change Mitigation and Operational Ecology” section).

Absolute environmental indicators🗸

Relative environmental indicators per FTE

🗸 PwC CH