Ecolife calculates DNS Belgium's climate footprint every year and we can conclude from their report that we're on the right track. In 2023, DNS Belgium's climate footprint amounted to 124.7 tonnes of CO2eq, a drop of 4.08% compared to 2022.
Our climate footprint is measured as part of our sustainability policy. A company's climate footprint shows its impact on global warming in figures and is an important benchmark to know how well we're doing in terms of sustainability.
A drop of 4.08% compared to 2022 is excellent of course. Ecolife also recorded a drop of 33.16% compared to 2019 (187 tonnes of CO2eq), the reference year before the COVID 19-pandemic.
- Per FTE (full time equivalent), the footprint is 3.4 tonnes of CO2eq.
- Per domain name the footprint is 72 grammes of CO2eq.
Ecolife's calculation breaks down our climate footprint into three scopes:
- Scope 1 (direct emissions) consists of direct greenhouse emissions associated with the office or company vehicles. This relates to fuel consumption for heating, machines and mobility, and any refrigerant leakages from cooling installations. Scope 1 represents 33.65% of our emissions.
- Scope 2 (indirect emissions related to electricity) consists of indirect greenhouse emissions due to the direct consumption of purchased electricity on the site (including our data centres). These indirect emissions only represent a small share in our total emissions (8.16%).
- Scope 3 (other indirect emissions) comprises all other indirect emissions. This relates to emissions for the production of purchased products (goods and services), the processing of waste, commuting and business trips by car and any travel of visitors. Scope 3 represents 58.18% of our emissions.
Slightly more electricity used
The impact of company cars visibly decreased in 2023. By replacing diesel and petrol cars by electric cars, we achieved an 8.18% decrease in scope 1: from 41.4 tonnes of CO2eq to 31.03 tonnes of CO2eq. The increase in electric cars did cause a shift in emissions to scope 2.
Scope 2 showed a marked increase of 168%. Particularly in 2022 we used more electricity to charge our vehicles. And Ecolife's more accurate method to measure the electricity consumption in the common areas of our office building also resulted in an increase. As scope 2 barely represents 8% of our total emissions, the increase in absolute terms is quite limited. It concerns an increase of 6.38 tonnes of CO2eq, which is more than offset by the reduced emissions in scope 1 and 3.
Air traffic halved
Scope 3 - which represents most of our environmental footprint – shows a drop of 10.76%. A first important reason for this is the fact that we're flying less. In 2023, we flew half as many kilometres as in 2022. Air traffic represents 6.33 tonnes of CO2eq.
Whereas the consumption of company cars falls under scope 1 (fossil fuel) or scope 2 (electric cars), commuting and travel by car still have the biggest impact on scope 3. In 2023, we recorded a minimal drop of 1.4 CO2eq compared to 2022 whereas in 2023 (47%) we worked less from home than in 2022 (65%).
The future
A more sustainable vehicle fleet will continue to reduce our climate footprint in the coming years. The mobility budget that allows our employees to exchange their company car for other benefits can have a significant impact on this.
And by continuing to encourage cycling and public transport, we can also further reduce our footprint in scope 3.
Please read our new climate action plan for 2025-2030 this summer for specific ways on how we plan to approach this.
With this article, we support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.