An initiative rewarded
Sopra Steria achieved a performance score of A, the CDP's highest. This distinction rewards the company's involvement and innovation in its environmental responsibility policy and actions.
"Across the Sopra Steria Group, a large network of players is working on implementing our environmental policy, convinced that our company can act to help fight climate change," says Vincent Paris, CEO of Sopra Steria. "I am very happy with this distinction awarded by the CDP that recognises our commitment to the transition to a low-carbon economy," he added.
Increasing use of renewable energy throughout the Group
For several years, Sopra Steria has been reducing its environmental impact by using energy from renewable sources. The Group announced that it has more than tripled the proportion of renewables in the energy consumption of its offices and on-site data centres, from 20.4% in 2015 to 69% in 2016. The Group's objective is to reach a level of 85% by 2020.
For Sopra Steria, using renewable energy requires renegotiating its energy purchase contracts and acquiring innovative instruments for both fuel and electricity consumptions:
For fuel consumption:
In the United Kingdom, Sopra Steria is one of the first companies to acquire "Green Gas" certificates from Natural Capital Partners. Through this initiative, the Group consumes biomethane, which comes from renewable sources, instead of natural gas, a fossil fuel.
For electricity consumption:
- In 2016, Sopra Steria acquired 17,884 MWh of hydropower electricity in France through guarantees of origin. Powernext, a registrar for guarantees of origin, and Origo, a distributor of guarantees of origin to Sopra Steria, certified the renewable origin of this electricity.
- Sopra Steria also acquired through Natural Capital Partners International Renewable Energy Certificates (I-RECs) for hydropower in India covering its consumption of electricity from the grid in 2016.
The Group reduced its (Market-based*) greenhouse gas emissions per employee in its offices by 46.7% and emissions by its on- and off-site data centres by 32.3%.
CarbonNeutral® certification contributes to a sustainable economy
Sopra Steria offsets its residual emissions by investing in two wind farms in the south of India (Harapanahalli Wind and Theni Wind). The Group’s business travel, offices and data centres are certified CarbonNeutral®.
*Marked-based: a method for calculating greenhouse gas emissions based on a system of emission factors arising from the supplied energy source.