Sustainable business operations
In 2030 Achmea’s business operations will be climate neutral. This means that in 2030:
• Carbon emissions (our carbon footprint) will be net zero. Remaining carbon emissions will, after all measures taken, be compensated for 40 years through large-scale reforestation.
• Energy usage (electricity and gas) in our buildings and datacenters will be minimized, looking for possibilities to generate our own energy locally.
• We will acquire 100% of our product and materials in a circular and energy efficient way.
Many measures are being taken to reach these goals in the coming years. Some of which are:
• Location Apeldoorn energy neutral in 2025.
• At all locations we will replace the fluorescent lighting with LED lighting (2023/2024).
• Strengthening biodiversity on our locations.
• Focusing on more sustainable and less traffic mobility.
• Reducing paper-usage and separating waste.
• Measures against climate change in procurement, in collaboration with our partners/suppliers.
• Making for a greener environment around our locations by sharing knowledge, supporting local projects and stimulating innovations.
Environmental policy internal business operations
CO2 footprint
Development carbon footprint business operations
The figure below shows the forecast carbon footprint from our business operations. This carbon footprint was temporarily lower in 2020 and 2021 because fewer journeys were made and employees stayed away from the office or only came in occasionally.
Reducing energy usage buildings and data centers
As part of our sustainability ambition we are striving for climate neutral business operations in 2030 and have sharpened our goals regarding energy reduction substantially. Our strategy to achieve goals is based on our new way of working and the deployment of sustainable energy generation. Because of the new way of working we are working from home more often than in the office. This will realize a net reduction of our energy use. We want to possibly invest in solar panels, geothermic and other means of sustainable energy generation which we can apply to our locations. By migrating our on-prem servers to the cloud, we are also reducing carbon emissions out of datacenters.
Goal carbon reduction energy usage building: in 2023, 2024 and 2025 we will reduce our carbon emissions (compared to 2019) with 31%, 36% and 42% respectively.
Reducing the number of journeys our employees make and making their travel more sustainable
We are making our employees’ travel more sustainable by, for example, implementing an electric vehicle lease policy and reducing carbon emissions from commuter and business journeys. We have a range of mobility schemes that encourage the use of public transport and/or bicycles, such as the provision of a public transport chip card including use of rental bikes and an allowance for journeys conducted on the employee’s own bicycle. At the same time, we have a clear vision of our new way of working that includes working from home. When it comes to international travel, our policy states that employees will in principle not travel by air within a radius of 700km.
Goal
CO₂ reduction in traffic mobility: in 2023, 2024 and 2025 we will reduce these CO₂ emissions (compared to 2019) by 47%, 54% and 58% respectively.
Separating waste
As of 2015 all of Achmea’s waste is gathered, disposed and processed separately. We are striving to further reduce waste to achieve our goal of having a “waste-free office” in 2030.
Reducing paper-usage
The last few years paper-usage has declined significantly. More and more customer contact is conducted in a digital manner and working from home has reduced our employees printing habits drastically. This fits very well within Achmea’s ambition to become a digital insurance company.
Trend CO2-footprint 2017 – 2022 (numbers x kton CO2)
| Year | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Green purchasing in 2022 |
| 1.1Natural gas | 3,3 | 3,0 | 2,7 | 2,4 | 2,3 | 1,5 | 100% |
| 1.2 Coolants and fuels for technical installations | 0,3 | 0,3 | 0,9 | 0,4 | 0,2 | 0,1 | |
| 1.3 Automotive fuels – lease |
9,0 | 8,0 | 7,6 | 4,1 | 3,8 | 4,5 | Fossil fuels 100% |
| 2.1 Electricity | 20,0 | 18,5 | 14,5 | 11,1 | 10,3 | 8,7 | 100% |
| 2.2 Air travel | 2,7 | 2,6 | 3,8 | 0,2 | 0,1 | 1,3 | |
| 2.3 Automotive fuels – business km | 2,9 | 2,5 | 2,1 | 0,8 | 0,9 | 1,6 | |
| 2.4 Public transport – business km | 0,0 | 0,0 | 0,0 | 0,0 | 0,0 | 0,0 | |
| 3.1 Paper | 0,6 | 1,6 | 1,2 | 0,8 | 0,8 | 0,6 | |
| 3.2 Waste | 0,7 | 1,2 | 1,1 | 0,5 | 0,2 | 0,3 | |
| 3.3 Automotive fuels – commuting | 15,7 | 15,3 | 14,8 | 3,3 | 1,5 | 3,7 | |
| 3.4 Public transport – commuting | 0,8 | 0,8 | 0,8 | 0,2 | 0,0 | 0,0 | |
| 3.5 Outsourced servers |
2,3 | 2,2 | 1,9 | 1,8 | 1,8 | 1,3 | |
| 58,3 | 56 | 51,4 | 25,6 | 22,1 | 23,5 | Gross | |
| Emissions compensated by supplier | 26,8 | 23,8 | 19,7 | 15,6 | 18,3 | 15 | |
| 31,5 | 32,2 | 31,7 | 10 | 3,8 | 8,5 | Net |
The values shown in the table are rounded numbers, therefore total counts may differ.
CO2 emissions/sales in $ million
| Year | GHG emissions intensity | GHG intensity/sales in $ million |
| 2022 | 23,5 kton = 23500 ton | 1,06 |
| 2021 | 22,1 kton = 22100 ton | 0,99 |
| 2020 | 25,6 kton = 25600 ton | 1,05 |
| 2019 | 51,5 kton = 51500 ton | 2,30 |
| 2018 | 55,9 kton = 55900 ton | 2,44 |
| 2017 | 58,3 kton = 58300 ton | 2,51 |
Energy consumption Achmea Buildings (2022)
| Fossil resources | Origin | Volume |
| Electricity buildings | Purchased from energy supplier | 16.628.958 kWh; 149.660 GJ(1) |
| Natural gas buildings | Purchased from energy supplier | 680.519 m3; 23.000 GJ(2) |
| Total | 172.660 GJ | |
| Renewable resources | ||
| Heating/cooling buildings | Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage locations Apeldoorn/Leiden/Tilburg | 20.881 GJ* |
| Solar energy | PV installations location Apeldoorn | 2.059.148 kWh; 9.532 GJ** |
| Total | 30.413 GJ*** | |
| Total energy consumption | 203.073 GigaJoules (GJ) |
1)Purchased with Groengarant certificate from Vattenfall
2)Purchased with ClimateNeutral gas certificate from Vattenfall
*10% of total energy consumption
** 5% of total energy consumption
*** 15% of total energy consumption
Our energy consumption
| Year | Natural gas, electricity and consumption of servers and lease auto’s |
In MWh |
| 2022 | According to CO2 footprint calculation (Natural gas/Electricity/Serves/Lease): 250800 GJ | 27.867 MWh |
| 2021 | According to CO2 footprint calculation (Natural gas/Electricity/Serves/Lease): 281600 GJ | 31.289 MWh |
| 2020 | According to CO2 footprint calculation (Natural gas/Electricity/Serves/Lease): 298000 GJ | 33111 MWh |
| 2019 | According to CO2 footprint calculation (Natural gas/Electricity/Serves/Lease): 423700 GJ | 47078 MWh |
| 2018 | According to CO2 footprint calculation (Natural gas/Electricity/Serves/Lease): 456100 GJ | 50678 MWh |
| 2017 | According to CO2 footprint calculation (Natural gas/Electricity/Serves/Lease): 482000 GJ | 53556 MWh |
Compensation
Socially responsible procurement
As a part of socially responsible procurement Achmea wants insight in the sustainability performances of our suppliers. EcoVadis is one of the tools we use to do so, a platform to rate and follow suppliers regarding corporate social responsibility.
Achmea’s sustainability goals play an important role during procurement process and are part of the criteria for selection new suppliers.
In addition Achmea uses the Declaration of sustainability for suppliers as part of the procurement agreement. Product and service specific agreements between the supplier and Achmea are also secured in the agreement.
Commitments
Paris Proof Commitment DGBC