With a 26% increase in staff numbers and 22.7% increase in electricity consumption, CO2eq emissions fell by 1.9% in 2021. The independent report of myclimate.org highlights the quality and opportunities for improving our environmental approach. We’ll let you discover them in full transparency in the original 2021 report. 

Infomaniak greenhouse gas balance 2021

Our CO2 emissions decreased in 2021

Our impact has decreased, mainly in the categories “equipment” and “business travel”, driving down global emissions. Infomaniak’s emissions fell from 998 to 979 tonnes of CO2eq year on year.

Emissions per employee fell by 21.6%. This indicator makes it possible to take account of Infomaniak’s development by reflecting the increase in staff numbers.

The impact linked to the purchase of equipment fell by 9.5%, while 71% of Infomaniak’s total emissions come specifically from the purchase of electronic equipment. In this area, every improvement counts.

A year marked by de-confinement (Covid-19)

The end of lockdown was reflected in a 53% increase in the impact of commuting, which was amplified by an increase in staff. For the same reason, hours worked from home decreased by about 10% in 2021. Company excursions cancelled during the epidemic also led to an increase in the impact of food and beverages in 2021.

The impact of the purchase of workstations decreased by 68% while that of servers increased by 31%. This underscores the importance of our approach aimed at extending the service life of servers to 15 years instead of the usual 5 years in the industry.

The amount of electronic waste increased by 77%. The share of recyclable waste is increasing while that of incinerable waste is decreasing. We sold almost 1 tonne of used electronic equipment, representing so many new devices that do not need to be produced.

Even with a 24% increase in electricity consumption, its impact remains low given Infomaniak’s 100% renewable energy supply policy. This enabled us to avoid the emission of 676.2 tonnes of CO2eq in 2021.

We won’t stop there

We take action wherever possible to reduce our environmental footprint:

  • Starting in spring 2023, we will begin deploying Meyer-Burger solar power generators, manufactured in Germany, with the aim of producing as much energy as we consume.
  • The work on our future data center has begun. It will fully recycle the energy it consumes with a view to heating up to 6.000 homes in the City of Geneva. When fully charged, the data center’s thermal energy will avoid the emission of 2,785 tCO2 eq of gas or 5,225 tCO2 eq of pellets.
  • The heating at Infomaniak’s headquarters in Geneva has been reduced by one degree, resulting in potential energy savings of between 5% and 7% per year.

Since 2021, we have set up a database to aggregate and store the consumption data of each server. In 2023, we will develop a server performance indicator in order to take targeted measures and work with product-specific power consumption data. Alexandre Patti, Energy Manager at Infomaniak

  • Based on the findings of the 2021 report, we are implementing an indicator to track car-sharing rates. It will provide support to better manage the impact of commuting by private vehicles and encourage the transition to soft mobility.

We did not wait for the Confederation to set targets for reducing CO2 emissions. We have been taking action since 2007:

  • Our data centers are not air-conditioned and have an average energy performance indicator of 1.09, one of the lowest in the world.
  • Thanks to cloud technology, we are extending the lifespan of our servers to 15 years, thus limiting the (most significant) impact associated with their manufacturing.
  • Infomaniak offsets its remaining CO2 emissions by 200%.
  • We are offering a bonus of CHF 1,500 per year per employee to encourage the use of soft mobility.
  • We reject consumerist business practices that run contrary to the sustainable economy, such as Black Friday.
  • Equally important, we measure our approach through the ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 standards.

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