Reducing our direct emissions

We have launched an ambitious plan to cut our direct greenhouse gas emissions by 3% a year between 2022 and 2024. We have also adopted a number of measures to help encourage more cautious use of energy, with the aim of reducing our energy consumption by 10% between now and the end of 2024.

To make our contribution to the worldwide goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, we need to rethink how we work, travel less and in different ways, reduce our energy consumption, adapt our IT practices and even optimise how we manage waste generated by our sites.

We are also fully supportive of the French government’s call for French companies to work together to achieve “energy sobriety”, applying restraint in how we use energy.

To turn these convictions into action, we have structured our approach using the methodology proposed by Science Based Targets, an international initiative to help businesses adopt a strategy to reduce their emissions in the short, medium and long term.

We have also incorporated this approach into our three-year strategic plan, “Covéa 2024 – Growing together”, as one of the priorities of our CSR policy.

This is also a challenge that needs to be addressed together, since the goal of a 3% reduction of our direct greenhouse gas emissions is factored into executives’ yearly bonuses and the Group profit-sharing agreement.

We have identified and quantified our sources of direct greenhouse gas emissions over the long term. These emissions broke down as follows in 2021:

The bulk of our emissions result from employees travelling to their place of work or in order to carry out their job, as well as ownership and use of equipment needed to perform our business activities.

On the basis of analysis of our annual greenhouse gas emissions, we have set ambitious and consistent targets for reducing our emissions:

• 3% a year between 2022 and 2024;
• 41% reduction by 2034;
• 78% reduction by 2050.

These timeframes provide reference points to track our emissions reduction curve, our low carbon pathway, which serves as a compass in the long-term implementation of our action plan.

Our short, medium and long-term targets will be achieved by means of better control of emissions relating to the Group’s operations, in other words, direct greenhouse gas emissions from our day-to-day activities.

We are devoting considerable resources to addressing this shared challenge and can count on the commitment of all our employees in implementing the many projects that make up our action plan, such as:

• Helping our employees to make the transition to working from home more.
• Introduction of the “sustainable mobility” scheme to encourage employees to use more environmentally friendly modes of transport between home and office.
• Gradual transformation of our company car fleets.
• Optimising workspaces and making the shift towards more flex office space in order to reduce the amount of space used.
• Installing photovoltaic panels at a number of our central sites.
• Taking out a green energy contract with EDF for all our operating and investment properties.
• Reducing our waste and reusing certain types of waste, in particular building waste within the framework of our real estate projects.
• Setting up collection points at the Group’s central sites for unused IT equipment to be recycled.
• Encouraging people to moderate their consumption at our company restaurants.

This energy efficiency plan, the result of the desire of Covéa and its brands MAAF, MMA and GMF to support the French government’s call for all businesses to play a part in achieving “energy sobriety”, should reduce our energy consumption by 10% between now and the end of 2024.