Steria, a leading European IT-enabled business services provider, announced on April 12 that it has achieved CarbonNeutral® Certification through the measurement, reduction and offsetting of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e) generated by its flights and company and privately owned vehicles used for business across its Group [1]. The move is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability and corporate responsibility.
Steria implemented a travel reduction policy without compromising its client commitment, and calculated its business travel footprint for 2010. To achieve CarbonNeutral® certification, Steria selected The CarbonNeutral Company as its carbon offset partner, and purchased credits from two Verified Carbon Standard projects: the Tieling Coal Mine Methane Capture project in China that prevents the release of this potent greenhouse gas and uses it to generate energy and the Tamil Nadu Wind Power initiative in India.
The company has also pledged to continue to lower its own carbon emissions per employee by travelling less and leveraging further web and video conferencing technologies. Steria has outlined a clear strategy for reducing its environmental footprint. The activities include an energy reduction strategy, continuing commitment to CarbonNeutral® travel and establishing green solutions and services for its clients. These activities are underpinned by the ISO 14001, the Environmental Management certification programme across the Group (successfully achieved in seven countries), embracing ISO 26000 Best Practice guidelines for Social Responsibility and reporting externally the Performance Indicators to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
The April 12 announcement follows on from the news, announced in December 2010, that Steria is now the only international IT services company listed in France to receive an ‘A’ rating/banding from the Carbon Disclosure Project in the 2010 Carbon Performance Leadership Index (CPLI) – the highest rating possible.
Jonathan Shopley, Managing Director of The CarbonNeutral Company said, “Emissions from flights and company vehicles can make a significant contribution to the carbon footprint of global companies like Steria. Measuring and reducing these emissions to net zero demonstrates Steria’s strong commitment to the environment and the values of its clients, partners, investors and employees. Showing leadership by setting and meeting this type of reduction target will hopefully encourage other business to take similar action.”
John Neilson, Head of Steria Group’s Green Committee and Green Business Community, commented, “Climate change is an important issue for Steria. We are pleased to now be recognized as an established leader in environment. The company has set itself some aggressive targets before the end of this year and has already made significant headway against those objectives, notably the move to an ‘Energy-Positive’ Green building near Paris late summer. We are looking forward to making more announcements about how our actions contribute to reduce our carbon footprint.”
Notes:
[1] The CarbonNeutral® Flight and Fleet Certifications include travels made in delivering business obligations (i.e., travelling to client offices and travel between Steria’s offices. This does not include employees’ travel to their regular place of work).
About Steria
Founded in 1969, Steria is a leading European IT-enabled business services provider delivering IT-enabled business services which help organisations in the public and private sectors operate more efficiently and profitably. Steria has offices in Europe, India, North Africa and SE Asia and a 2010 revenue of € 1.69 billion. Headquartered in Paris, Steria is listed on the Euronext Paris market. For more information, visit www.steria.com.
About The CarbonNeutral Company
The CarbonNeutral Company is a world leading provider of carbon reduction solutions. It has worked with over 300 major businesses and thousands of small and medium sized companies in 32 countries to develop offset inclusive carbon reduction programmes. Since 1997, it has purchased carbon credits from over 200 projects in 24 countries.
CarbonNeutral® is the registered trademark of The CarbonNeutral Company and is a global standard to certify that businesses have measured and reduced their CO2 emissions to net zero for their company, products, operations or services. Permission to display the CarbonNeutral® mark is only given to clients whose carbon reduction programme is implemented in accordance with The CarbonNeutral Protocol. The CarbonNeutral Company has offices in New York, London and Singapore. For more information, visit www.carbonneutral.com.
The CarbonNeutral Company is a founding member of The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA), which provides leadership and a unified voice advocating for rigorous industry standards.
Source: Steria.
