Case study: Swisscom’s policies, measures and initiatives for increasing its energy efficiency

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2015 Sustainability Report Swisscom identifies a range of material issues, such as business development, corporate governance, being an attractive employer, customer satisfaction, data protection, a fair supply chain, share performance and payout policy. Among these, in keeping with the Swiss Confederation’s 2050 energy strategy, increasing its energy efficiency stands out as a key material issue for Swisscom, as Switzerland’s largest telecommunications company.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The organization should identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Swisscom engages with:

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

Swisscom fosters dialogue with its most important stakeholder groups through various channels: via electronic media, over the phone, through surveys, information events, business meetings and conferences, as well as in customers’ homes and in Swisscom Shops. In 2015 – as in previous years – Swisscom took note of the concerns of the various stakeholder groups, prioritising them and among other things incorporating them into its CR strategy. Dialogue takes place with stakeholder groups depending on how close the relationship is and on the individual stakeholder group’s interests. However, the size of the respective stakeholder group is the decisive factor in what kind of dialogue is possible.

Swisscom systematically consults residential customers on their needs and their level of satisfaction. In this way, customer relationship managers are able to determine their customers’ needs by contacting them directly. Swisscom also conducts regular representative surveys on customer satisfaction. These include a question on the extent to which customers perceive Swisscom as a company that acts responsibly towards society and the environment. Quarterly surveys are conducted among business customers, which include questions on sustainability. Swisscom also maintains regular contact with consumer organisations in all language regions of Switzerland and runs blogs as well as online discussion platforms. As regards shareholders and external investors, besides the Annual General Meeting, Swisscom regularly fosters dialogue with shareholders at analysts’ presentations, road shows and in regular teleconferences. Over the years, it has also built up contacts with numerous external investors and rating agencies.

Every two years, Swisscom conducts an employee survey, the results of which provide ideas for new projects and measures. Also, in 2015 two roundtables were organized with the trade unions, comprised of an equal number of employees and representatives of the employer, as set out in the collective employment agreement (CEA) and six meetings with all employee representatives (ten employee representatives).

Swisscom maintains close contact with municipal authorities as part of the Dialog model, mainly regarding the topic of antennas, with the cantonal authorities (once per canton) and with members of parliament (once per session, i.e. four times a year). As regards suppliers, Swisscom’s procurement organisations regularly deal with suppliers and manage supplier relationships, analysing the results of evaluations, formulating target agreements and reviewing performance. Once a year, they invite their main suppliers to a Key Supplier Day. The focus of the event is on risk mitigation and responsibility in the supply chain. In the interests of maintaining dialogue with global suppliers, Swisscom also relies on international cooperation within the relevant sectors.

Also, Swisscom maintains close contact with the media, seven days a week. In addition to the Media Office, representatives of management maintain a regular dialogue with journalists and make themselves available for interviews and more in-depth background discussions. As regards partners and NGOs, Swisscom shares insights and information with partners within the framework of projects (for example, with WWF Climate Savers, myclimate, the Swiss Child Protection Foundation and organisations that address the specific needs of affected groups) and held, in 2015, two “Leadership Dialogues”.

In 2015, Swisscom and an international market research institute conducted a survey of the Swiss public on current sustainability topics in the information and communications industry. The representative survey (991 people, 28% response rate) asked participants to rate predefined measures in terms of the following four criteria: importance, how well they are suited to Swisscom, credibility and their effects on social and environmental sustainability. The findings of this survey prompted a re-prioritization of certain areas in the company’s materiality matrix.

What actions were taken by Swisscom to increase its energy efficiency?

In Swisscom’s 2015 Sustainability Report the following targets were set for increasing its energy efficiency, based on the company’s approach to materiality – on taking action on what matters, where it matters:

• Taking efficiency measures for the electricity consumption of networks

Swisscom continued the “Mistral” energy-saving project in 2015 for the cooling of its telephone exchanges. At the end of 2015, Mistral was being used to cool 821 (prior year: 761) telecom systems in local exchanges, which represents an increase of 7.9%. Swisscom has thus successfully completed the project, saving 47.5 million kWh a year. Mistral is a cooling technology that relies solely on fresh air, all year round. It replaces conventional energy-intensive cooling systems equipped with compressors and contributes to a massive improvement in energy efficiency. Mistral also eliminates the need for harmful refrigerants. The follow-up project, Mistral Future, has already been launched. Its aim is to double the energy efficiency already achieved in the cooling of telephone exchanges by adjusting air volumes and deploying new technologies. In 2015 Swisscom Switzerland cooled an additional 121 mobile base stations using fresh air and the consolidation of fixed-network platforms saved a further 4.2 million kWh. Swisscom also activated a new function for its GSM mobile networks that reduces transmitting power and thus electrical energy consumption at times of low network traffic. On average, this reduces the GSM network’s energy consumption by 2.4%.

• Taking efficiency measures for electricity consumption in data centres

With a power usage effectiveness (PUE) value soon to reach 1.2, the data centre in Berne Wankdorf is particularly energy efficient. The PUE value represents the ratio of total power consumed by the data centre to the power consumed by the IT systems running there. Measured against this PUE value, the energy consumption of the Berne Wankdorf data centre is 60% lower than that of conventionally built data centres. Instead of conventional cooling units that eat up electricity, Swisscom uses a new type of freecooling process that utilizes rainwater and works on the basis of evaporative cooling on hot summer days. The method won the Swiss Federal Office of Energy’s 2015 Watt d’Or award, which recognises outstanding achievements and particularly innovative projects in the area of energy and efficiency. Swisscom’s second and likewise energy-efficient data centre in Zollikofen (Berne) achieved an annual average PUE value of 1.3. In the Olten-Neuhard Swisscom operation building, the new energy-efficient cooling systems should reduce its PUE value to 1.4. The total average PUE value of all Swisscom’s data centres is approximately 1.53. The company increasingly uses shared servers in its data centres. This server virtualization requires less IT infrastructure and has already enabled additional savings of 7.1 million kWh in 2015.

• Taking efficiency measures for electricity consumption in buildings

Facility Management carries out the “Pioneer @ Swisscom Energiechecks” programme throughout the entire company. This programme of energy checks contributed to optimizing the operating conditions of 64 buildings in 2015, which helped Swisscom save 478 MWh of energy (prior year: 463 MWh). Swisscom is committed to modernizing existing, inefficient lighting. This not only reduces the company’s energy consumption, but also improves the quality of the lighting. Swisscom has therefore optimized the lighting in two large office buildings and, for instance, replaced all the lights in the cafeteria in the Kφniz business park with LEDs. These measures alone generated annual energy savings of 15 MWh.

• Reducing the amount of energy Swisscom uses to heat its buildings

Swisscom measures the consumption of heating oil, natural gas and district heating on a monthly basis in its 61 biggest buildings, which together make up over half of the total floorspace. These figures are extrapolated to calculate the overall annual consumption. During 2015, Swisscom consumed 170.5 terajoules (47.3 GWh) of fuel to heat its buildings (prior year: 47.8 GWh). The company’s fossil fuel-based heating mix comprises 64% heating oil, 14% natural gas and 22% district heating. Over the past six years, Swisscom has reduced the heat coefficient per m² in its buildings by 29%. While this resulted in a reduction in CO₂ emissions, the actual savings this brings are ultimately impossible to calculate due to the fact that the energy mix changes each year. Swisscom intends to further reduce the amount of energy it uses to heat its buildings. In pursuit of this objective, it systematically continued to implement measures throughout 2015 to reduce the energy consumption and CO₂ emissions involved in heating buildings. A detailed energy monitoring system has provided a more in-depth data set for the energy analysis and uncovered instances of disproportionately high energy consumption. In addition, Swisscom has renovated and modernized several heating systems across Switzerland in 2015. Swisscom also implemented, in 2015, 21 eco-relevant building projects. As evidenced by an internal environmental scorecard, this lets the company save 284 MWh of energy and reduce its CO₂ emissions by 138 tonnes. Last but not least, the energy checks helped reduce CO₂ emissions by 74 tonnes (prior year: 78). These renovations and modernizations allow Swisscom to save 854 MWh and prevent 212 tonnes of CO₂ emissions every year.

• Taking efficiency measures in fuel consumption

In 2015, the vehicles in Swisscom’s fleet covered a total of 59.5 million kilometres in the service of customers (i.e. not including private trips), which corresponds to a fuel consumption of 145.3 terajoules (39.3 GWh), 3.7% down year-on-year. Thanks to a progressive deployment strategy, the average CO₂ emissions per vehicle are to be reduced from 150 g CO₂ for each kilometre travelled (2010) to 110 g CO₂/km by the end of 2016. In accordance with the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), CO₂ emissions from vehicles in the Swisscom fleet according to the manufacturer’s instructions averaged 113 g CO₂/km as of the end of 2015, with 97% of the fleet classified in energy efficiency categories A and B. Swisscom also operates a fleet of 396 (+18.7%) hybrid vehicles, 60 (-9.1%) vehicles powered by natural gas, 15 (+33.3%) electrically driven vehicles and 33 (–11.4%) e-bikes. All electrical vehicles are recharged in Swisscom buildings and garages using electricity generated from renewable energy sources. In 2015, Swisscom employees used 127,521 (+5.2%) rail tickets for business travel and were issued 14,880 (+7.5%) half-fare cards and 3,504 (+4.8%) GA travel cards.

• Using sustainable ICT (Information and Communications Technology)

Swisscom not only encourages its customers to use sustainable ICT, but also uses the solutions itself. 18 Swisscom sites are equipped with the Telepresence virtual videoconferencing solution, including Fastweb in Italy. Also, many Swisscom employees are able to work with other colleagues via videoconferencing and desktop sharing, enabling them to complete some of their work from home or on the go. Collaboration platforms also offer a simple way of accessing knowledge. The launch of the Work Smart initiative has further embedded new working methods within the company and Swisscom shares its experience with other companies. A management guideline provides managers with useful tips on how to manage new working methods.

• Utilizing waste heat

Swisscom has signed two agreements in Zurich to supply waste heat from its operation building in Zurich-Binz. This led to 5.95 GWh of thermal energy being supplied to the neighboring areas as district heating in 2015 (prior year: 5.7 GWh). This measure saved 595,000 litres of heating oil (prior year: 570,000 litres) and avoided the CO₂ emissions that would have been generated. Waste heat from the new data centre in Berne Wankdorf is also fed into the city of Berne’s district heating system and directly heats neighboring homes and offices. This reduces the CO₂ emissions of these homes, offices and retail units. Swisscom’s operation building in Zurich-Herdern now meets the heating requirements of the entire building itself thanks to a new heat pump that utilizes the waste heat from its operations rooms. This enables Swisscom to save around 900 tonnes of CO₂ a year, which corresponds to 8% of the total CO₂ emissions attributable to Swisscom’s heating needs. Any remaining waste heat from the building is fed into the public heating network.

Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?

The GRI indicators/Standards addressed in this case are:

1) G4-EN3: Energy consumption within the organization – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 302-1 Energy consumption within the organization

2) G4-EN5: Energy intensity – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 302-3 Energy intensity

3) G4-EN6: Reduction of energy consumption – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 302-4 Reduction of energy consumption

4) G4-EN15: Direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Scope 1) – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 305-1 Direct (Scope 1) GHG emissions

5) G4-EN16: Energy indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Scope 2) – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 305-2 Energy indirect (Scope 2) GHG emissions

6) G4-EN17: Other indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Scope 3) – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 305-3 Other indirect (Scope 3) GHG emissions

7) G4-EN19: Reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 305-5 Reduction of GHG emissions

References:

1) This case study was compiled using published information by Swisscom which is located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses but made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

http://reports.swisscom.ch/download/2015/en/swisscom_nachhaltigkeitsbericht_gesamt_2015_en.pdf (January 2016)

2) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page

3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

4) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

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