Select from the following icons to learn more about our energy and climate change programs.
Energy efficiency in buildings (ebb)
Do more with lëss - Spot the orange dot
Green it
Green travel
Green cars
Energy efficiency in buildings (EEB)
Our energy management specialist reports to the Vice President Corporate Sustainability and oversees day-to-day management of the EEB strategy, working across our affiliates to implement our Green Building guidelines globally and support local programs through energy audits, technical notes, best practice sharing workshops and providing technical expertise.
Our network of facility managers provides a platform for information sharing and advice on common themes linked to EEB.
Progress against our EEB targets is tracked via the SGS Energy Rating Tool for Offices and Laboratories, and reported to the WBCSD.
As part of our target to reduce CO2 emissions intensity by 20%, we conducted 47 energy audits and self-assessments on buildings as part of our EEB Program in 2016.
Our building scope includes a range of laboratories operating a diverse range of activities.
A consumer testing services laboratory, for example, is likely to have a lower energy demand than a geochemical laboratory with powerful crushing machines; and an industrial laboratory may be high tech, or it may be focused on more physical processes such as welding or extraction. Such diversity challenges us to find innovative solutions for managing energy efficiency.
For example:
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SGS’s head office in Vienna, Austria relocated to a DGNB (German Sustainable Building Council) Gold certified building, offering improved energy efficiency, high level indoor quality standards and enhanced transport connections for our employees
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SGS India has installed solar panels at its automotive testing laboratory in Haryana, Manesar. Operating since January 2016, the current capacity of the plant is 60 kWh, which represents 5% of the total connected load (power generation potential) for the site
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SGS India started the design process of four other significant energy and water saving projects, including energy efficient lighting systems in its Gurgaon, Manesar and Navi Mumbai facilities, a variable frequency drive for an air compressor and the use of recycled water for washing processes at its laboratory in Chennai Ambattur, and a water treatment plant in its Tirapur facility
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SGS Netherlands has received approval to install solar panels at its plant in Visslingen in 2017. They are projected to produce the equivalent of 9% of the plant’s annual energy consumption
Across our network, we increasingly use video, audio and web conferencing to reduce travel costs, cut CO2 emissions, and improve work-life balance.
In 2016, we implemented Skype for Business as our primary web conferencing platform.
During the year, we placed more than 158,000 conference and video calls, which helped us save more than 7,900 flights.
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Do more with Lëss
Encouraging environmental behavior in the workplace forms a key part of our energy management approach.
Our innovative ‘Do More with Lëss’ behavior change campaign, launched in 2012, is supported by 22 affiliates, including SGS Chile, which launched the program in 2016.
Linked directly to our Sustainability Ambition 2020 to reduce CO2 emissions (as a proportion of revenue and headcount) by 20% (on a 2014 baseline), the campaign uses strategically positioned orange stickers to remind employees to take concerted action to improve our energy and resource efficiency.
Our popular campaign mascot, Lëss the polar bear, reminds employees about the importance of “Doing More with Lëss” in posters which reinforce the orange dot message. Since 2013, around 40,000 employees in 22 affiliates across our network have participated in the campaign, resulting, over the years, in tangible improvements in their energy efficiency and waste management impacts.
(See how SGS Chile is encouraging employees to Do More With Lëss)
2016 highlights include:
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SGS South Africa saved 131.2 kilowatts of electricity during the WWF Earth Hour annual global celebration held every March
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SGS Portugal supported the European Day of Battery Recycling in September by displaying posters and encouraging employees to use technology to locate recycling points.
The campaign focused on raising awareness of the country’s little known 20,000 collection points.
The organizing charity, Ecopilhas, developed an application for use on smartphones and tablets to help people locate their nearest collection points
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SGS India involved members of the Operations Council in planting native tree saplings at each of its facilities during a visit in August 2016
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SGS Energy Challenge was a picture contest launched across our global network in November 2016 to encourage employees to upload images of themselves engaged in actions to address climate change and other sustainability issues in the workplace.
Employees were encouraged to identify an opportunity for sustainable action within the workplace, such as reducing energy consumption or minimizing water usage and waste, and to upload it onto the Corporate Sustainability Yammer group.
At the end of November, nine images were selected based on the number of “likes” they received, and the employees were awarded with sustainable apparel. A special prize was awarded to the participant with the most creative and sustainable picture.
(See our Case Study on the SGS Energy Challenge global picture contest)
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Green IT
Our IT strategy focuses on four areas of activity: consolidate infrastructure to reduce the number of internally managed data centers; establish centers of excellence to promote shared services and consolidate IT management; develop a customer portal to enhance customer data and analytics; and deploy a single digitalized laboratory system – co-developed with ABB – across all laboratories.
Our Green IT Policy requires us to procure equipment responsibly, use IT to enable our operations to be greener, optimize the energy efficiency of our data centers and implement responsible disposal practices. Virtualization and centralization are used to reduce energy demand in our major data centers.
Cold aisles are used to contain the temperature-sensitive equipment in one chilled compartment, instead of air conditioning an entire room. Excess heat extracted from the cold aisle in Geneva, Switzerland is used to warm our offices.
Where data space is rented, options for energy efficiency include virtualization and purchasing renewable power; a leased data center at our Geneva HQ, for example, uses 100% hydroelectric power.
During 2016, we launched SGS Connect, a global telecommunications platform, which enables employees to make voice and video calls using office based and mobile equipment with improved functionality and performance.
The software utilizes Skype for Business to enable our 72,000 personal computer users to benefit from efficiency gains, reduced travel time and the ability to collaborate on projects when they are working away from SGS facilities.
As the project sponsor, the Chief Executive Officer joined the Chief Information Officer to introduce the software to employees via a training video.
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Green Travel
Across our network, we promote the use of video, audio and web conferencing technology (see Green IT above) to reduce travel costs, cut CO2 emissions, and improve work-life balance.
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Green Cars
Across our fleet of around 14,000 vehicles, we operate several green car initiatives covering the purchase of more fuel-efficient vehicles, vehicle maintenance and guidance on eco-driving behavior.
In April 2016, SGS launched a vehicle emissions policy, which mandates the selection of low-emission fleet cars.
We have set diminishing annual CO2 emission limits for the period 2016 to 2020, to ensure that all newly purchased or leased cars emit fewer average grams of CO2 per km annually than in the preceding year.
By 2020, average CO2 emissions per km for our worldwide fleet (excluding Australia, Canada and the USA) shall not exceed 95 grams. By end 2016, 60% of fleet cars were already aligned to our vehicle emissions policy.
Based on a model with conservative assumptions, we have estimated a reduction of 3,700 tons of CO2 emissions by 2020 and we anticipate that there will be some financial cost savings in the total cost of ownership (estimated at around CHF 1.36 million), especially with hybrid cars, which several of our senior managers are now driving.
Alongside these initiatives, SGS can make an even greater contribution by helping our customers to respond to climate change challenges through our services linked to energy efficiency and alternative energy.
These include energy management services and multiple services related to the energy efficiency of buildings, including renewable energy feasibility studies, energy audits, energy performance certificates and ISO 50001 certification.
(See Calculating the Value of our Sustainability Services for more information on how SGS helps customers to reduce their carbon intensity.)
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External Partnerships and Initiatives
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World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD): As a founding member of the WBCSD, SGS has for many years supported and actively participated in furthering the Council’s aims to generate business-led solutions to key sustainability challenges.
This has included important work on promoting energy efficiency in buildings and on ensuring access to water through the WASH pledge.
SGS is a signatory to the WBCSD Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) Manifesto.
Under this manifesto, we have committed to a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions for all offices and laboratories we own (by full-time equivalent headcount and by unit of revenue) that are at least 2,000 m2 by 2020, against a 2010 baseline.
Progress against our EEB targets is tracked via the SGS Energy Rating Tool for Offices and Laboratories, and reported to the WBCSD
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RE100: In December 2014, SGS became one of the first companies globally to sign the RE100 initiative, pledging to use 100% energy from renewable sources.
Led by The Climate Group and in partnership with CDP, RE100 is collaborating with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and others to get 100 of the world’s largest companies to commit to 100% renewable power by 2020.
The RE100 campaign highlights the business and reputational benefits enjoyed by companies who make the commitment to using power exclusively from renewable power sources.
It will also help companies who wish to switch to renewables by offering guidance on selecting and implementing the best approach to utilizing renewable power, and information on the financial implications, risks and rewards of different options
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Carbon Disclosure Project: In 2016, CDP named SGS Industrials Sector Leader and Country Leader in the Germany, Austria and Switzerland region for our high level of transparency on the measures taken to adapt and combat climate change using robust data.
SGS has reported its carbon data to investors through CDP for the past decade, and this award recognizes our performance on carbon data reporting and carbon emissions reduction
