Environment & Climate

GOPA AFC's commitment to the environment – ISO 14001 certified

As environmental aspects are becoming more and more important in our daily work, GOPA AFC strived for an Environmental Management System standard (ISO 14001) certification for its premises in Bonn. By implementing the Environmental Management System (EMS), GOPA AFC has achieved certification of its Environmental Management System Certificate in November 2020.

Deriving from GOPA AFC's Environmental policy, certain environmental indicators with respective target values and thresholds were defined, to further reduce our environmental footprint.

Measurable environmental indicators:

• Flight emissions: stay below 200 t CO₂-eq./year
• Electricity: stay below 2,000 kWh/month
• Water: stay below 11 m³/month
• Paper: stay below 10,000 print-outs and below 1,500 copies/month

General Aspects:

• Enhanced waste separation
• Striving towards purchasing more regional, sustainable and ecofriendly office material

For every environmental goal, GOPA AFC’s GreenTeam came up with a set of initial measures, which is regularly updated and monitored. In addition, our colleagues in Bonn have the opportunity to continuously contribute their ideas how to best attain our goals.   

GOPA AFC’s EMS initiatives and measures

Reduction of CO₂-emissions from flights:

• We strictly avoid flights within Germany. GOPA AFC also assesses whether flights to neighboring countries can be replaced by train rides.
• We choose airlines that minimize the environmental effects from civil aviation activities and have action plans on CO₂-emission reduction, carbon-offsetting programmes and recycling programmes.
• We help our employees to find environmentally-friendly transport alternatives to travel to the airport or office by promoting job ticket, job bike and BahnCard 50.
• We promote video-conferencing.

Reduction of energy:

• We replaced electronic paper shredders with a locked box for sensitive documents.
• We avoid stand-by mode and switch off our electronic devices when they are not in use. We installed plug boards from which we can switch off complete systems.
• We regularly delete the electronic waste bin and obsolete mails.

Reduction of paper:

• We have a container to collect scrap paper at each printer for further use.
• We have clearly labelled bins and removed obsolete bins.
• We store documents digitally instead of print-outs.
• If we print, we print duplex as default setting.

Enhanced waste management:

• We have introduced the organic waste bin.
• We have improved waste separation in kitchens, offices and the server room.
• We collect paper towels in sanitary rooms separately for recycling.

Reduction of water:

• We monitor the water meter monthly.
• All GOPA AFC employees are aware of water saving measures.
• We only switch on the dishwasher when it is fully loaded.

General aspects:

• We avoid sending offers in plastic envelopes.
• We keep and reuse cardboard boxes and envelopes.
• We purchase more regional, sustainable and ecofriendly office material.
• We have rechargeable batteries.

The evaluation of the consumption- and impact indicators for the years of 2021 and 2022 lead to the following results:

• Paper consumption (print outs/mean value per month): 7,865 (in 2021) | 6,778 (in 2022)
• Paper consumption (copies/mean value per month): 852 (in 2021) | 654 (in 2022)
• CO₂ emissions from flights (sum per year): 88 t CO₂-eq. (in 2021) | 81 t CO₂-eq. (in 2022)
• Energy consumption (mean value per month): 1,965 kWh (in 2021) | 1,934 kWh (in 2022)
• Water consumption (mean value per month): 10.15 m³ (in 2021) | 10.16 m³ (in 2022)

Holistic climate protection is based on the following guiding principles: to avoid unnecessary emissions, to reduce emissions, and to offset unavoidable emissions. To address this challenge, we have instructed the company ClimatePartner to evaluate our Carbon Footprint in compliance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. In total, GOPA AFC’s Corporate Carbon Footprint for the year of 2020 amounted to 179 t CO₂-eq. In 2021, 150t CO₂-eq. were emitted.

ClimatePartner also offers a mechanism for compensating for those emissions. GOPA AFC chose the Gold Standard project, “Clean cookstoves, Nyungwe, Rwanda” as compensation project for 2020. “Gold Standard” guarantees that the shares of the compensation project are traded internationally and will be deleted once they have been purchased by GOPA AFC, i.e. they will not be sold twice. The project introduces efficient cooking stoves made of local clay and sand. The so-called Canarumwe model is produced by a local cooperative and consumes two thirds less fuel than the three-stone fire. The stoves are offered at a subsidized price so that low-income households can afford them. For 2021, the project “Climate action through clean drinking water” was initiated in Sierra Leone. This carbon-offset project is helping to restore about 60 wells in the communities of Kono to avoid emissions from purification of drinking, cleaning and washing water. The availability of clean drinking water eliminates the need to boil water, saving an average of 10,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year.

We keep working on further avoiding and reducing emissions whenever and wherever possible to further reduce our corporate carbon footprint.