Sustainability Report 2015
Energy consumption
We collect the data on Hannover Re's energy consumption at the Hannover location broken down into electricity and district heating (both in kilowatt hours).
At the beginning of 2012 we switched our electricity supply to 100% renewables and have since used exclusively hydroelectric power from our external energy providers. Electricity consumption in the year under review stood at 8,868,345 kilowatt hours (this equates to roughly 31,926 gigajoules) and thus decreased again. The drop in electricity consumption is due to operation of a photovoltaic system at the Hannover location; all the power that is generated is fed directly into the in-house grid and therefore no longer needs to be purchased from external energy providers. The altogether 652 solar modules were installed in November 2013 on the roof of the office buildings in Hannover. In the 2015 financial year 122,740 kilowatt hours of solar energy were generated through operation of the system, roughly equivalent to the power consumption of 41 two-person households. This enabled us to avoid around 72 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Electricity consumption
Electricity consumption per employee was again lower than in the previous year. This reduction was achieved through an improved IT structure and more efficient devices. In November 2014 we replaced the existing department printers in Hannover with new state-of-the-art devices in the corridor areas. These new devices print more quickly, flexibly and reliably and also deliver lower paper consumption thanks to optimised print management. Printers used by individual offices and secretary's offices were reviewed and in some instanced eliminated. The total number of printers at the Hannover location was thereby reduced in 2015 from 280 to 206.
Our district heating consumption decreased again in 2015 to 2,746,698 kilowatt hours (this equates to roughly 9,888 gigajoules). The underlying data in the following chart have not been adjusted to allow for weather conditions, i.e. the actual energy consumption figures are stated.
District heating consumption
Energy-saving measures
With a view to further cutting Hannover Re's energy consumption at its Hannover Home Office, we systematically pressed ahead with the already existing measures in the year under review and initiated some additional steps.
In recent years we have successively raised the temperature in our server rooms to 26 degrees. Conservative estimates indicate that in so doing we have reduced the electricity consumption needed to cool the server rooms by around 5%, or some 50,000 kilowatt hours, since 2012.
In 2015 we began making initial plans to relocate our backup computer centre, which we currently operate ourselves. Hannover Re now intends to hand over operation of the existing backup computer centre to a professional data centre operator. The PUE (power usage efficiency) ratio for such "shared" data centres is significantly lower than can be achieved in a self-operated facility. The PUE metric denotes the ratio of the total amount of energy used by a computer data centre to the energy delivered to computing equipment and it thus determines the efficiency of the data centre's energy usage. This increased efficiency will result in a further considerable energy saving. The relocation of the data centre is planned for 2016.
In addition, we intend to move forward with the expansion of an energy-saving, intelligent LED lighting control system. The progressive changeover to this LED technology had already commenced in 2013, and the initiative was continued in light of economic considerations. When plans are being made for new or changed processes and projects, including for example new construction activities, we ensure that LED technology is installed and that sufficient consideration is given to environmental aspects in conformity with our environmental management system.
The members of Hannover Re's workforce are also encouraged to make energy savings. All our employees at Hannover Home Office receive annual training in efficient energy consumption and environmental protection at the workplace. Participation is compulsory for all members of staff.
Hannover Re makes increasing use of state-of-the-art communication capabilities and continues to expand them in order to conserve resources in its business activities. Our standard workstations have been made more energy-efficient and hence more environmentally friendly. Notebooks, PCs and workstation printers with high energy consumption and CO2 emissions were replaced with more modern energy-efficient devices. Following the roll-out of a new unified communication platform it is now possible to hold web conferences at all workstations so as to give further impetus to the reduction of business travel within the Group. The IT project to restructure and optimise PC workstations ("Next Generation Workplace") has thus been completed.
In order to ensure that not only small but also larger meetings involving several participants per location can be held in the form of a web-based conference, web conference rooms have been set up; along with a camera and video technology, these are also equipped with remote white boards, thereby making it possible to share sketches and drawings made at the meeting across all locations. This tool better replicates the feeling of a face-to-face meeting with the aim of further reducing business travel.
Our staff are encouraged to use public transport or cycle on their daily commute to work. In order to better combine their career and family life 28% of the workforce employed in Germany already makes use of the option of teleworking from home.