Growing together.
Sustainability report
Business Transformation
04
The Sustainability Strategy
06
The PE Solution Portfolio
07
08 09
Sustainable Development
10
The crucial Issues
12
13
Carbon Management at PE
14
15
It’s all about People
16
17
Get back to us
18
Glossary
report’s scope and purpose This initial SD report provides an overview of PE INTERNATIONAL Group including its majority controlled worldwide offices for the year 1 January to 31 December 2009. It does so on a summary basis and is published separately of our Financial Statements. Comparability is limited due to the diversity of the service sector.
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sustainability at pe
» We encourage the adoption of sustainable
practices in business. We lead by example by practicing sustainability as individuals and as a company. We strive to incite a ripple effect creating an impact much larger than what we are capable of alone. We also encourage a healthy balance between all aspects of our lives for our sustainable happiness. PE Constitution, 2009
Welcome to Sustainable Growth Dear Reader! Sustainability is seen as an overarching mega trend, encompassing many issues such as carbon, water, social good, and developing economies. As we all had to learn during the years 2008 and 2009, non-transparent business activity is also un-sustainable and threatens the whole world’s economy. PE INTERNATIONAL is a catalyst and enabler of
holistic improvements in sustainability performance – even sustainable business transformation. Being proud of the leading role and position we have in this market, this report presents some examples of the positive impacts our projects and solutions have had for our clients. But what about ourselves? Being the avant-garde in sustainability, and being made up of people who are keen to advance sustainability within PE itself, how do we perform and how do we improve sustainability in our own organization? We believe that our clients and prospective clients, our suppliers and our partners, should know about what targets we set ourselves and how we perform in what we think are the most significant aspects of sustainable practice. In 2009, we worked intensively on defining the core values and principles which capture the spirit and energy of PE. Everyone who enters our offices feels that there is something special here. It was both demanding and enjoyable work to come up with those words which truly reflect our values and can be subscribed to by all PE staff, no matter where they are. One of our core values, of course, is sustainability itself and a logical outcome of this is the report in front of you. Sustainability as a core value signifi- cantly impacts leadership and management principles in an organization. It means fully lever aging employees’ potential such as their creativity, engagement and innovative capacity. It drives high performance in our organization. Ethics and success go hand in hand.
We are delighted to also report that outcomes from our projects outweigh – through their positive impact – the carbon footprint of our organization by considerable orders of magnitude, as you will read in the following pages. Although we are 100% carbon neutral by off setting our emissions, we believe this is far from being sufficient: we approach our clients with the strategy “reduce, replace and offset”. In the spirit of this, we have increased the use of green electricity at our offices and our hosting services and have set down additional goals for direct reduction of our environmental impact. In closing I would like to reiterate the purpose of this report. Through it, we at PE want to commence a superior, more transparent level of engagement with our stakeholders that will in turn, allow us to add greater value to our client’s businesses as well as our own. We welcome your full and frank feedback! Michael Betz CEO · PE INTERNATIONAL
go
on
Business Transformation.
04
Business Transformation
05
06
The Sustainability Strategy
06 05
The PE Solution Portfolio
08
Business Transformation. The Sustainability Strategy.
pe international at a glance PE is the leading global sustainability services provider focusing on strategic consultancy and integrated software solutions. The Group originated over 20 years ago from a spinoff of the University Stuttgart. Our technical base, which is built on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and sustainability management solutions, today is home to the largest group of senior LCA experts in the world. We have developed unique experience and expertise on sustainability issues in a wide range of industries. We presently employ more than 130 permanent and 25 contract staff, many of whom have been working for PE since its inception. In combination with our global reach – we have offices throughout Europe and in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, China, India, South Africa, Brazil and Japan – PE offers in-depth technical expertise in many market sectors with an under standing of local issues and concerns affecting our clients in different parts of the world. This local expertise and direct contact can be supplemented by world class specialist expertise from any of our global offices. Our client base comprises businesses and institutes from a wide range of market sectors including: construction, automotive, agriculture, consumer goods, electronics, food and drink, chemicals, primary material producers (metals, plastics, etc.), trade associations, government bodies,
Revenue share by region in 2009
Germany EMEA (excl. GER) Americas APAC
29 % 24 %
33 % 14 %
banking and insurance, among others. We develop long term relationships with our clients and actively participate in standardization bodies and other influential organizations (e.g. SETAC, Carbon Council, etc.) to help shape the agenda. PE INTERNATIONAL has a satisfied client community in over 70 countries and more than 1,000 multinational companies use our services and software solutions. Many of these are leading companies driving the sustain ability agenda in their sectors.
We have gained our unique experience from more than 4,000 projects covering fields such as GHG emission inventory studies, carbon footprint analysis, life cycle assessment, environmental and sustainability manage ment, auditing and reporting. With our large client base we are the market leader in product sustainability and enterprise carbon accounting solutions and value added services.
our corporate sustainability strategy and mission We believe that sustainability is not a short-lived trend. Sustainability will be a cornerstone of future competitive ness of businesses, and the key for their long-term success in the market place. We are also convinced that social and environmental responsibility is a mission that cannot be accomplished by adding end-of-pipe solutions to existing processes. Business needs a strategic approach to sustainability, and to integrate sustainability into core business areas. Products, processes and business activities – all have to fulfill sustainability requirements and principles. In the end, this means not only a change in the way we think about business, but also a transformation of existing business models. PE INTERNATIONAL ’s own corporate sustainability strategy
is built around our mission to help clients understand the impact of climate change and sustainability on their business, guide them in improving existing processes and help them innovate. We want to provide our clients with the tools and services for creating new products, business models and processes and empower them to transform their business to be successful and competitive in the long run.
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the focus areas 1
2
3
Sustainable Development at PE. We are ensuring sustainable development of our company and in the way we work by empowering our employees, managing our organizational environmental footprint and the footprint of our products and services, as well as communicating progress and challenges transparently internally and externally. Business Transformation. We are enabling business to transform their own organizations through the delivery of innovative products and services, and by facilitating the exchange of knowledge between organizations, and the implementation of best practices. Stakeholder Engagement. We know that we can only drive transformation through the engagement of our stakeholders. Therefore, we take an active role in the development of sustainability standards and frameworks, and are involved in leading innovative organizations and industry associations around the world.
AMERICAS Staff # 12
PE AMERICAS Boston, San Francisco (since 2006)
GERMANY Staff # 60
PE INTERNATIONAL Stuttgart (since 1991)
EMEA exkl. Germany Staff # 11
PE Central & Eastern Europe Vienna (since 2006) PE North West Europe Manchester, Copenhagen (since 2008) PE Office Turkey Istanbul (since 2009) PE INTERNATIONAL (South Africa) Johannesburg (since 2009)
APAC Staff # 12
PE Australia/Australasia Perth, AUS/Wellington, NZ (since 2006/2009) PE Asia Tokyo (since 2007) PE INTERNATIONAL (Malaysia) Petaling Jaya (since 2008) PE Sustainable Solutions India Bhilai (since 2009) PE Office China Ningbo (since 2008)
PE Subsidiaries & Offices Software Sales Partners
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Business Transformation. The PE Solution Portfolio.
our business approach
one-stop shop for enterprise sustainability
Sustainability is about balance and about holistic, longterm solutions. PE has never been a believer in short-term sustainability fads or pushed its customers towards them. Rather we have built on our core competencies in the areas of Product and Corporate Sustainability and integrated software solutions, and supported this with value added services for our customers.
Our Sustainability consultants bring high levels of expertise and considerable experience to their work on Sustainability Strategies, Management Systems, EcoDesign, Life Cycle Assessment, Carbon & Water foot prints, Training, Workshops and Stakeholder engagement. Today PE’s consulting dominates the market for prod- uct sustainability, i.e. LCA , EPD and PCF services.
We have built substantial relationships with our customers that empower them to make informed choices for better environmental, social and economic outcomes for the long term.
Through continued re-investment in our core solution portfolio, and the expansion of complementary value-added services we will continue to lead the field as smaller new comers and larger systems integrators enter the market. As a market leader in enterprise carbon accounting, we are in a unique position to continue our focus on environ mental and social indicators. Already our capabilities include toxicity, ozone depletion potential, social aspects, water and land use, and recyclability.
We have an outstanding track record and reputation, enriched by our global network of specialists with extensive experience of industry sectors as diverse as Automotive, Building & Construction, Financial Services, various manufacturing sectors and Mining & Metals. Our specialist capacity allows us to understand the industry-specific technical and social context, and match them with the best sustainability practices from around the world. This is complemented by our local market expertise that can integrate local requirements and regulations into the proposed solutions while providing on the ground face-to-face support.
towards a scalable platform The PE solution portfolio today encompasses software products, consulting services and sustainability data bases. In our daily work with businesses who are seeking solutions for product and corporate sustainability challenges, we are seeing the following developments: 1
Products and services are having to address the full scope of sustainability including environmental, social and economic aspects;
2
Software solutions needing to support both management of operational and product sustainability aspects.
In addition, we see a clear market need for comprehensive solutions to customer problems which include soft ware, consulting services in the sustainability domain and content. Sustainable business management needs a scalable platform.
»Our goal is to
provide a platform for business transformation that enables customers to innovate on the operati0nal and product level.
This platform interfaces with existing legacy systems, allows partners to develop add-on applications for specific sectors and use cases, and is a central in formation exchange for all stakeholders within and outside the organization. With our platform partners we provide services that we can’t even imagine today! Thomas Odenwald, CTO PE INTERNATIONAL
08 09
The core of our work in Product Sustainability is our GaBi Software and related sustainability databases, one of the strongest brands in the market and established in all industries. Launched in 1989, today GaBi Software is the globally recognized solution for Life Cycle Assessment, Product Carbon Footprint, and Design for Environment and Green Building. Supporting applications such as GaBi DfX, a tool for compliance and sustainable product development, and GaBi i-report, a desktop and web based solution for efficient and reliable internal and external communication of LCA results, enable ‘what if’ questions to be answered as a support for decision making.
SoFi Software is the platform for our work in Corporate Sustainability. Launched in 2004, today SoFi Soft ware is an all-in-one solution for Sustainability Management and Reporting Needs. The solution excels at the organization of large amounts of data for Carbon & Energy Management, Environmental Management and Sustainability & Supply Chain Management. With its modular approach, it is in the pole position in the fast growing ECA markets and will be further extended through continuous development.
the business value of pe solutions Much of our work with clients is focussed on helping them acquire objective, quality data on which to base sound decision-making. For example, Baosteel Group in China has been able to select the best technology options for reducing energy consumption and cost with the help of PE INTERNATIONAL’s solution. The PE solution analyzes current metered data, shows potentials for efficiency improvements and delivers benchmarks with best available technology options for decision support. Using sound data to inform decision-making for better environmental outcomes often leads to improvement of existing systems and practices in a way that yields improved resource efficiencies and reduced costs. Our work with Germany’s DekaBank on improving its ISO-certified environmental management system has resulted in substantial resource efficiency improvements and savings. For example, paper savings of 207 tons per annum alone amounted to Euro 170,000 not including energy, water and other resources. The efficiency gains are expected to increase as we move from this first phase of the project and continue to work with the Bank.
This combination of business value and beneficial environmental outcome is at the core of how we work jointly with our clients. For example, our work with the sports apparel manufacturer PUMA saw us use LCA scenarios as a major decision-making tool in determining the manufacturer’s new directions in packaging its products. This gave PUMA the ability to reject environmentally less desirable options at an early stage of the decision making process. They were then able to reduce the footprint of the final product and develop a new packaging concept – “The Clever Little Bag”. This is expected to increase sales through its innovative marketing appeal, while at the same time using 65% less material and generating 66% (10,000 t CO2) less green house gas emissions in the manufacturing process.
Sustainable Development.
10
Sustainable Development
11
12
The crucial Issues
05 12
Carbon Management at PE
14
It’s all about People
16
Get back to us
18
Sustainable Development. The crucial Issues.
governance, compliance and risk management PE INTERNATIONAL is owned by two groups of shareholders. The first group is the PE Management, led by Managing Director Michael Betz. The seven members of this group hold 84% of the company shares. The remaining 16 % of the shares are held by former PE employees or friends of the company. In 2009, PE started an employee participation programme, transferring the right to 7 % of the existing shares to more than 50 % of current PE employees worldwide.
The DNA of PE INTERNATIONAL
PE INTERNATIONAL is headquartered in Stuttgart/Echter-
dingen and has 14 subsidiaries worldwide, which are all majority-owned by PE. The subsidiaries are run as startup companies and are responsible for sales, recruitment and developing their local market, supported by the global PE expert workforce. Risk management and compliance are part of our current management and strategy development approach. We are also in very close and daily interaction with our managing directors of the PE companies, people whom we have known through our network for many years before they joined. With the growth of PE, we will further develop our formal risk management and compliance processes as necessary.
»The main purpose
for our work in the guiding coalition was and is to create and preserve a common understanding of our values.
For all our colleagues at PE INTERNATIONAL – globally and across all cultural differences. The guiding coalition represents all the employee stakeh olders of PE, encourages buy-in, and promotes integration and communication of all stakeholders. Facilitating and building teams and initiating change projects will be our next major tasks along our path to change. Coppelia Marincovic, PE Americas, Consultant and Stakeholder Representative in the guiding coalition
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what is material to our business? In this first report, we have decided to focus on the sustainability aspects that are the most material to our business and have the greatest impact. In assessing what is most important to the sustainability of our org anization we considered two viewpoints: our senior management assessment of business relevance, and our stakeholders’ assessment. In this first step, the stakeholder viewpoint was provided by the PE ‘guiding coalition’ (see section “It’s all about People”), which involves all employees. In the future, we plan to open up this process for broader stakeholder dialogue and include our clients, investors, suppliers and business partners in a structured approach. Based upon this broader input, we plan to refine our understanding, and report back in the form of a more structured ‘materiality matrix’ in forthcoming reports.
social issues In relation to the social dimension of sustainability, both PE senior management and the ‘guiding coalition’ see the sustainable development of our human capital as the most pertinent sustainability aspect. As PE currently operates mainly in industrialized countries and has a very limited supply chain, issues such as child labour and work safety are seen as less material. Client satisfaction is seen as a very important issue, and it is addressed in the stakeholder engagement section of this report. Corruption may become an issue with future global growth.
environmental and economic dimensions With regards to PE’s environmental footprint, using current definitions and applying sector standards for administrative units clearly shows that the most important issues can be reduced to a small number of topics. Based on our expertise in the Life Cycle approach to Sustainability, we are confident that the typical areas of concern such as paper use, water use and waste generation are eclipsed by other concerns that impact the environment more profoundly. These areas include stationary energy use within our offices, business travel, commuting and leasing of IT equipment, and we intend to focus on these aspects to reduce the organizational footprint. In order to measure these aspects in one dimension, we have re presented their impact in terms of GHG emissions, where they account for more than 93% of PE’s overall Scope 1-3 footprint. Based on the PE business model, helping our broad client base to improve their sustainability performance, it is clear that our products and services address climate change in dimensions way above our own footprint. Today, we are directly involved in CDM projects that will reduce the global GHG emissions by more than 1,000,000 t CO2e per year, which is more than 2,000 times our own footprint. These projects have additional positive effects for the local population in the social and economic dimension. With our services and solutions, we are helping clients to manage the GHG emissions of more than 50 % of the wordwide steel production, or design hundreds of millions of cars that are in use today (more than a million times the size of our own footprint). We understand the importance of managing our own footprint, but will put more emphasis on measuring the impact of our solutions and services in the future as well. In terms of economic sustainability, we believe that our strong growth is the key area of focus. We operate in a fast growing market, where static organizations are losing market share and are quickly marginalized. Securing our future through profitability and a healthy financial basis are other important aims in order to ensure PE’s current and future growth path for the long term.
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Sustainable Development. Carbon Management at PE.
our corporate footprint PE INTERNATIONAL has been tracking and evaluating its
carbon footprint since 2004. For 2009, we adopted the methodology used in the draft Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 3 Standard. Scope 1 and 2 emissions amount to 63 t CO2e. Scope 3 emissions amount to 426 t CO2e, or 87% of the total carbon footprint of 489 t CO2e. Business travel and commuting are the biggest contributors to Scope 3 emissions. Regarding the strategic context we consider ourselves leaders in the provision of software, databases and consulting for carbon accounting and management. Our origins are in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and carbon accounting is an integral part of LCA and hence a core competency of PE for 20 years. At PE we are engaged in a number of initiatives aimed at setting and further developing standards in the areas of carbon accounting and reporting, both for product and corporate applications. Senior staff are involved in the development of the two new standards in the Green house Gas Protocol Initiative. We were the first carbon calculation partner in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), having had our software independently certified to conform to the corporate reporting requirements of the CDP. As a ‘gold partner’, we are proud to be engaged in the development of future CDP reporting requirements. Apart from the above activities, we are active in a number of other carbon accounting and reporting initiatives and programs on a regional and/or country level. PE INTERNATIONAL has been carbon neutral since 2006.
This has been achieved by applying the sustainability principles of avoidance and reduction prior to offsetting any remaining emissions with high quality certificates. This approach is also conform to the principles of the new carbon neutrality standard PAS 2060. We are strongly motivated to further improve our own performance.
key drivers for our carbon efforts
A commitment to adhere to the sustainability principle of intergenerational equity.
A desi re to be at the forefront of carbon reduction and provide a role model to clients and peers.
A determi nation to meet the expectations of our own people and continue to attract talent into the future.
carbon initiatives The latest carbon figures have been prepared in confor mance with the new (draft) Scope 3 Standard and are therefore not directly comparable with previous GHG emission profiles. PE is currently working on harmo- nizing the different financial years, developing key performance indicators and setting new reduction targets. Our carbon footprint is being analyzed, reported and monitored through our own sustainability software SoFi. Our most recent results and the way we have implemented our carbon reporting and management system will be showcased in an interactive display on our web page. The carbon footprints of individual PE offices are being internally benchmarked to stimulate reduction initiatives and share ideas on options for improvement In selecting new PE offices, sustainability criteria are being considered including location (e.g., access to public transport), construction, maintenance and operation. GHG minimization is one of the key criteria. Most of the value of our products and services is generated from within our own organization. However, we do have a number of suppliers from who we purchase – pre dominantly equipment and services. In the future, we will engage with all key suppliers in terms of their GHG performance. We have in place a purchasing policy that considers the carbon footprint of products and services on a broad scale. We are currently working on a more formal policy of incorporating the GHG performance of suppliers and their products into our purchasing decisions.
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future targets PE also has a policy of continually increasing the propor tion of renewable energy used. In our headquarters, more than 50% of the electricity purchased is – guaranteed via contract – already generated from renewable resources. To speed up the process we have now committed our selves to running all of our offices globally with more than 3 staff on 100% renewable electricity by the end of 2011. Mindful that international travel constitutes 90% of our business travel emissions, PE has over the past five years increasingly substituted face-to-face meetings (both between subsidiaries and with clients) with net meetings and webinars, making use of hundreds of hours of virtual meetings a month to control emissions. It is PE policy to use these forms of electronic communication wherever and whenever possible if it does not impact on business performance for our clients. PE is serving clients based in over 70 countries worldwide. In order to provide local support, local context and local understanding, PE has a strategy of implementing local networks and subsidiaries wherever possible. This will reduce the need for long distance travel from our headquarters in the longer term Emissions from employee commuting are being con trolled through a combination of ongoing personal commitment of individuals at PE by walking or using public transport, the actual accounting of emissions with associated raised awareness, and other ongoing
initiatives such as office locations adjacent to public transport and the provision of push bike stands at a dedicated secure location at our head office. Carbon Footprint by scope PE Group
With every project we undertake and every solution we implement for our clients, we contribute to a reduction in GHG emissions where possible without compromising other environmental impact categories. Our work leads to a reduction in carbon emissions that is many orders of magnitude greater than our own emissions. Another of our aims is to make these benefits more measurable, both for ourselves and for our clients. Carbon Footprint per full-time equivalent (employees) PE Sites t CO2e / FTE
7,0
6,0 5,0 4,0
Others Scope 3
t CO2e
3,0 2,0
Commuting Leased assets Business travel Capital Goods
1,0
Scope 2
PE
Am
eri
cas
E NW PE
E CE PE
an rm Ge PE
rs he Ot
s
pit
al
go
od
ts see
Ca
As
sed
Le a
mm
uti
ng
el Co
Tra v ess
sin
y
Scope 3
e2 op Sc
Bu
op
e1
Scope 1
Sc
300 250 200 150 100 50
Our extended corporate carbon footprint (incl. scope 3) is relatively small when compared to others for office based consultancy companies, both on a FTE and a per turnover basis (4.9t /FTE; 54kg/e 1,000). This means that it will be more difficult to achieve significant and constant emission reductions over the coming years. In addition, we see that with our dynamic business growth and the increasingly global build-up of capacity and delivery of services the need for business travel may further increase. Nevertheless, we remain committed to strive for another 15 % reduction in overall emissions per employee over the next five years.
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Sustainable Development. It’s all about People.
teamwork, passion, and empowerment At PE, as for any consultancy, our people are the corner stone of our success. This is particularly valid in phases of strong growth such as the one we have experienced over the last ten years. We empower people to innovate, to be flexible and creative in every respect. In return, we offer organizational flexibility and a limited bureaucracy. This approach has its roots in our university-based origins and the large personal shareholding the founders have retained in the business and which has shaped our culture. Respect for each other has always been an important part of this culture. Despite the sustained organizational growth over the past years, our reliance on flexible working hours, individualized out-of office working arrangements, and innovative uses of technology give us the ability to provide a creative and productive environ ment from which our customers and employees benefit. Our low staff turnover rates are testament to an approach to human capital that works.
92
Employees (FTE) 2005-2009 PE INTERNATIONAL Germany
70
Subsidiaries
09
59
20
08
46
20
07
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challenge to combine two jobs with having a family.
The flexible part-time engagement with PE enables my wife and me to stay fully integrated in working life and spend as much time as possible with our kids. Our current model allows working at flexible hours at different locations and I am thankf ul that PE offers this opportunity, to the benefit of both sides. Alexander Stoffregen, Senior Consultant, PE INTERNATIONAL
This internal success is reflected in our global growth. Even at the German headquarters, English is PE’s business language. Despite the challenges that combining members of different cultural and professional backgrounds does pose, we are seeing the development of common values. This allows us to ‘think global and act local‘ as we deploy ever more diverse sets of skills and experience to the challenges our clients face. To continue successfully along this pathway while continuing to integrate new staff from different regions and cultures into the PE INTERNATIONAL family, we have adopted a Constitution which enshrines the core values and principles to which our staff commit. These values are Open Communication, Transparency, Respect, Fairness, Sustainability, Continuous Development, Creativity & Innovation, Integrity, Teamwork, Passion, Empowerment, Honesty, Diversity, and Accountability.
8
20
28 06
20
05
23
24
3
20
23
31
43
33
»Today, it is still a
After its initial spinoff from the University Stuttgart, PE was an employee-owned business which grew organically in order to build its human and intellectual capital. Part of our recruitment strategy has always been a heavy reliance on university students who, empowered through their practical experience at PE, often tend to join us as more experienced staff. PE today employs more than 130 permanent and 25 contractor staff from 27 nationalities in 14 countries.
Supporting this Constitution is a Change Manifesto which sets out why each value is important to PE and the proposed actions to improve our performance in each area. The ‘guiding coalition’, a team of representatives of all identified PE stakeholder groups facilitates these processes and works as a contact point for issues associated with protecting our culture and implementing our values and principles in day to day work.
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stakeholder engagement We believe in the development of long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships and extend this to all our stake holders. The most important stakeholder groups are our global customers, our employees, our business and technology partners as well as our suppliers. For all groups, we have established communications channels and this report is designed to further involve our clients, partners and suppliers in the assessment of important sustainability foci in the future. Many of our clients have been putting their trust in PE for more than 10 years now, contributing to new product developments and engaging with PE on a variety of sustainability projects to address their changing business challenges. Customer satisfaction takes highest priority at PE and our goal is to demonstrate reliability, trans parency and responsiveness in each and every client engagement. We have initiated a customer satisfaction survey to further improve communication. We are working with business and technology partners who share our values. An example is our partnership with the Management Consulting firm Five Winds Inter national since 1998, which led to the formation of the Joint Venture PE Americas in 2006. We are also developing a partnership with TATA Consultancy Services who has taken a leading role in the TATA Group to not only make environmental stewardship a priority for their business but also extend support to clients and the community at large.
While PE as a service provider is not a consumer of large quantities of physical products, we nevertheless have sought to engage with key suppliers to ensure that we lighten our own footprint. We currently have a sustainable purchasing policy in place that considers environmental footprint of products and services. We are working on a more formal assessment, which includes broad sustain ability criteria into our purchasing decisions. We expect to report back on the quantitative impacts of this in the next reporting cycle. Based upon our academic origins and our unique track record in carbon footprint development and sustainability methodologies we are represented on all leading industry and public bodies concerned with the standardization of carbon footprint calculation and sustainability standards.
n
We are an active member of the LCA Advisory Group Steering Committee of SETAC. Key to the LCA Advisory Group Steering Committee’s activities is the promotion of the SETAC-UNEP Life-cycle Initiative
n
We have been contributing to the ISO 14000 standard family and are currently involved in the ISO 14064 standard definition process through our official mandate from UNEP SETAC.
n
PE is a founding member of DGNB and today we are represented as member of the board and Executive Director of DGNB. PE participates in the WorldGBC board of directors since September 2010.
Additionally, we partner with industry associations such as worldsteel, Plastics Europe, Eurofer, UITP and Glass Packaging Institute as well as international organizations including UN Global Compact, Water Footprint Network, World Resource Institute, Global Reporting Initiative, Carbon Disclosure Project, ZeroWIN and many others.
»We have been
developing software solutions together with
PE INTERNATIONAL
for 8 years now.
And are delighted that our development work and hosting services contribute to the reduction of the environmental and social impacts of the many organizations using the SoFi Software Solution. Regarding our own footprint, we established a green IT policy 3 years ago, and we use renewable electricity to power our own office and IT infrastructure. Our supplier for hosting services, Hetzner Online, has been exclusively using renewable energy sources to power the servers in its data centers since 1st January 2008. Oliver Müller, CEO TEQneers
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PE INTERNATIONAL Get back to us.
giving back 20 years ago, few were thinking about sustainability and PE INTERNATIONAL was one of the first consulting and software companies whose solutions deliver positive environmental and social outcomes. Nevertheless, we remain conscious of the need to make our own, direct positive contributions. Recognizing that combating climate change requires a broad based response we seek to build capacity among practitioners. Since late 2008 we have distributed over 2,800 free copies of our GaBi Education Software to educational institutions and non-profit organizations in order to allow them to engage on the issue of carbon emissions accounting and reductions.
PE supports a number of projects and activities through aid organizations around the world. For example, we sponsor 12 children through ChildFund Germany, which supports locally led initiatives that strengthen families and communities, helping them to overcome poverty. www.ccf-kinderhilfswerk.de In lieu of our annual printed Christmas letter, we are choosing to send our greetings by email. This reduces costs and preserves resources enabling us to donate to the aid organization “Bread for the World” which supports people in Southern Bangladesh who are severely affect- ed by the rising number of storms and flooding in this region due to climate change. www.bread.org Finally, we have contracted the task of collating, folding, enveloping, and labelling our mailings to the Stuttgart Centre for the Physically Disabled (bhz), which employs 300 people with various disabilities. www.bhz.de
»In our first sustainability report, we have intentionally focused on the most significant sustainability impacts.
We believe that for these topics, we are on a sustainable path. Our ‘guiding coalition’ represents an innovative and empowering management approach; we have a clear carbon neutral strategy since 2006 and aim at further reducing our footprint per employee by 15 % over the next five years; and our recent customer satisfaction survey shows that 98 % of our clients would recommend our services. Going forward, we will broaden our stakeholder engagement with clients, partners, suppliers, and investors. And we will commit to a more detailed sustainability action plan. This report is made for you as our stakeholders. Help us make it address your information need even better! dr. robert Gabriel, Director Corporate Sustainability, pe international
We look forward to receiving your feedback: r.gabriel @ pe-international.com
glossary glossary € APAC bhz BSI
CCF
CDM CDP CEO CO2
CO2e CSR
CTO
DGNB
Asia Pacific (East Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania) Behindertenzentrum Stuttgart e.V (Stuttgart Centre for the Physically Disabled) British Standards Institution Corporate Carbon Footprint Clean Development Mechanism Carbon Disclosure Project Chief Executive Officer Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide equivalent Corporate Social Responsibility Chief Technology Officer Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen e. V. (German Sustainable Building Council)
ECA
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
EPD
Environmental Product Declaration
FSC
Forest Stewardship Council
EMEA
Europe, Middle East, Africa
EU
European Union
FTE
Full-time equivalent
GRI
Global Reporting Initiative
GHG
ISO IT
kg
Greenhouse gas International Organization for Standardization Information Technology Kilogram
LCA
Life Cycle Assessment
PAS
Publicly Available Specification
MD
Managing Director
PCF
Product Carbon Footprint
PE
PE INTERNATIONAL
Scope 1
GHG emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the company
Scope 2
GHG emissions from the generation of purchased electricity
Scope 3
Indirect GHG emissions from sources not owned or controlled by the company
SD Report
SETAC t
UITP
UNEP
Sustainable Development Report Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry ton International Organization of Public Transport United Nations Environment Programme
US
United States of America
WRI
World Resources Institute
WorldGBC FSC certified paper (www.fsc.org)
Euro
World Green Building Council
www.dartwork.de
PE INTERNATIONAL GMBH HauptstraĂ&#x;e 111-113 70771 Leinfelden-Echterdingen Germany
Phone: +49 [0] 711 341817-0 Fax: +49 [0] 711 341817-25 info@pe-international.com www.pe-international.com
Growing together. Sustainability Report ’09 Profile Information in brief
Further Information
Strategy and Analysis 1.1
CEO statement
See front page
Organizational Profile 2.1
Name of the organisation
PE INTERNATIONAL Group
2.2
Primary brands, products, and/or services
Sustainability consulting services, GaBi Software, SoFi Software
See p. 8/9
2.3
Operational structure of the organization
CEO supported by Business Line Directors and Managing Directors of PE subsidiaries
See p. 12
2.4
Location of organization’s headquarters
Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany
2.5
Countries of operation
Headquarter/subsidiaries/offices in 13 countries
2.6
Nature of ownership and legal form
GmbH and respective local legal forms at subsidiaries
2.7
Markets served
World-wide operations in almost all sectors
See p. 6
2.8
Scale of the reporting organization
SME, 130 employees
See p. 6/7 and 16
2.9
Significant changes during the reporting period
7 % of shares transferred to employees
See p. 12
2.10
Awards received in the reporting period
None
See p. 7
Report Parameters 3.1
Reporting period
1 Jan – 31 Dec 2009
3.2
Date of most recent previous report
First report
3.3
Reporting cycle
Annually
3.4
Contact point
Dr. Robert Gabriel
See p. 18
3.5
Process for defining report content
Senior management assessment of business relevance, stakeholders’ assessment
See p. 13
3.6
Boundary of the report
PE INTERNATIONAL Group (PE INTERNATIONAL GmbH and majority controlled worldwide offices)
3.7
Specific limitations on the scope or boundary of the report
None
3.8
Basis for reporting on entities that can significantly affect comparability from period to period and/or between organizations
None
3.10
Re-statements of information provided in earlier reports
None (first report)
3.11
Significant changes from previous reporting periods
None (first report)
3.12
GRI content index
Bookmark
Governance, Commitments and Engagement 4.1
Governance structure of the organization
Partly N/A
See p. 12
4.2
Is the Chair of the highest governance body also an executive officer?
N/A
4.3
Number of members of the highest governance body that are independent and/or non-executive members
N/A
4.4
Shareholders’ and employees’ mechanisms to provide recommendations or direction to the highest governance body
Regular shareholder meetings, employees can approach management via the Guiding Coalition
See p. 12
4.14
List of stakeholder groups engaged by the organization
Employees, customers, partners, suppliers
See p. 17
4.15
Identification and selection of stakeholders with whom to engage
Customer satisfaction survey, sustainable purchasing policy
See p. 17
Performance Indicators Indicators GRI
Information in brief
UN GC*
CDP
Further Information
Environmental Energy
EN3
P8
12.3
Direct energy consumption by primary energy source
90 MWh (for all sources)
EN4
P8
13.6
Indirect energy consumption by primary energy source
251 MWh (for all sources)
EN16
P8
11, 12, 13
Total direct and indirect GHG emissions by weight
63 t CO2-e
Break-down see p. 15
EN17
P8
15.1
Other relevant indirect GHG emissions by weight
426 t CO2-e
Break-down see p. 15
EN18
P7, P8, P9
9.7
Initiatives to reduce GHG emissions/reductions achieved
First report
Initiatives and future targets see p. 14/15
Emissions, Effluents and Waste
Compliance EN28
3
Fines and number of sanctions for noncompliance with environ mental laws and regulations
0 €, 0 cases
Labor Practices and decent Work Employment LA1 LA2
P6
LA7
P1
Total workforce
130 employees (92 FTE)
Break-down see p. 16
Employee turnover
1,6 %
Not broken down due to low value; see p. 16
Occupational Health and Safety Rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days, and absenteism, and number of workrelated fatalities by region
1 accident
Training and Education LA10
Training
21 hours per employee
Product Responsibility Customer Privacy PR8
Complaints regarding breaches of customer privacy/losses of customer data
0 complaints
Society Public Policy SO5
all
Public policy positions and participation in public policy development and lobbying
Memberships in standardization and sector organizations
For explanations and names of organizations see p. 17
Compliance SO8
Fines and total number of sanctions for noncompliance with laws and regulations
0 €, 0 cases
Economic Economic Performance EC2
P7
* United Nations Global Compact
Financial implications/risks and opportunities for activities due to climate change
Biggest driver for PE busines model. 7.735 € paid for CO2 certificates to achieve carbon neutral operations
Risks see p. 13/14 Opportunities see p. 8/9