Corporate Report 2024 Environment - energy and resource consumption

In 2024, we needed 179,518 kWh of natural gas to generate heat for the offices in Zollikofen, over 20,000 kWh more than in the previous year. As in previous years, we were able to rely on heat recovery from the cooling systems of the Migros shop in the basement of the office. Thanks to Migros' heat recovery system, we were able to purchase energy totalling around 21,000 kWh in 2024. This corresponds to total emissions of around 34 tonnes of CO₂e. There is a flat-rate rental agreement for the office premises in Milan and the emissions are calculated based on the financial outlay. For 2024, this results in calculated emissions of just under 3 tonnes of CO₂e.

In terms of electricity, we saved around 15,000 kWh in Zollikofen compared to the previous year by purchasing 142,367 kWh. As this is not «green» electricity, we caused CO₂e emissions of just under 9 tonnes of CO2e. The photovoltaic system on the roof of SQS in Zollikofen fed 54,851 kWh of electricity into the grid. In 2023, the figure was 60,212k Wh and in 2022 as much as 66,457 kWh - i.e. 10% and 20% more respectively. According to the homeowners' association, the change can primarily be attributed to the change in sunshine duration. In 2022, the total sunshine duration in Bern/Zollikofen was 2143 hours, in 2023 it was 1993 hours and in 2024 it was 1542 hours. We have concluded a contract for the purchase of sustainable electricity for the office premises in Milan and therefore do not report any emissions in this regard.

Purchased goods and services recorded in the greenhouse gas balance include tap water, new laptops, printers and monitors, the paper used, including hand and toilet paper, postage and coffee. Together with the waste/recycled materials category, which includes household waste, aluminium, paper, glass, PET and electronic waste, these emissions amount to around 1% of total emissions. They are therefore not described in detail here, but can be viewed in the GHG report and the GHG balance sheet.

The consumption of hot and cold water at the Zollikofen office increased slightly compared to the previous year (from 328m³ to 339m³). The volume of 513m³ communicated in the 2023 Corporate Report is significantly higher because water consumption by employees working from home - which is difficult to estimate and cannot be verified - was taken into account.