Carbon Footprint

As an important component of sustainable enterprise and corporate social responsibility, Imtech has been calculating its carbon footprint since 2008. This score encapsulates the total CO2 emissions of Imtech’s international operations. The carbon footprint is expressed in so-called global hectares: the surface area required to produce the energy and raw materials that have been consumed.

The Imtech calculation currently includes scope I and scope II and parts of scope III such as commuter traffic. Currently, the calculation of the rest of scope III is on the programme, such as carbon emissions within the projects on location.

All local Imtech offices with more than 25 workplaces report via a certified application in accordance with the ISO 14064 standard. This is an addition to the ISO 14001 standard to monitor and validate the emission of greenhouse gasses. Imtech will officially publish its carbon footprint for the first time in its 2010 annual report.

At the same time, Imtech is working on a method that allows the company to formulate objectives. The ambition is at any rate to reduce the company’s footprint. The highes level in the organisation is committed to reach these goals.

The following measures have been taken to this end:

• Sustainable sourcing of energy, paper and printed material.
• A ‘green’ fleet, in which the only cars available for lease are ones with an A, B or C label.
• The company fleet uses fuel-saving petrol or diesel fuel that improves the operation of the engine, reduces polluting emissions (soot, HC, CO, NOx) and results in lower fuel consumption.
• Realisation of own green offices that serve as an example in the area of sustainable energy consumption and the reduction of CO2 emissions and other matters that have a negative environmental impact.
• Reduction of travelling within Imtech via the increased adoption of alternative conference methods such as telepresence: the latest form of video conferencing in which it feels for the participants as if they are together in the same conference room.

Compensation by means of carbon credits

Where it proves impossible to save energy or to make use of sustainable energy, Imtech will compensate its CO2 emissions with carbon credits. A share of these credits comes from the company’s own energy-saving projects in South Africa, which are generated by Imtech’s own CSR partner NOVA and are purchased via the Fair Climate Fund.