La banque d'un monde qui change 2004 - BNP Paribas

Impact onthe natural environmentA small “ecological footprint”The first CO 2 surveyOne of the avenues for fighting global warmingis that companies are expected to controltheir emissions of greenhouse gases. BNP Paribasdevised, with the help of expert consultants,a methodology to estimate emissionsof greenhouse gases – mainly carbon dioxide –resulting from its operations. The survey involvedconverting all forms of energy consumptionwithin the Group into a common unit, kilogramsof CO 2 equivalent, which allows a cleareridentification of key issues and better controlover these emissions.A substantial scopeThis survey took into account data on electricityconsumption in buildings, business travelof employees by car, train and plane, as wellas commuting between the home and office,and the distribution of documents and internalmail within the network. Because only partialdata were available at a global level, the firstCO 2 survey was restricted to France,with a sufficiently substantial scope to allowmeaningful comparisons with other playersin the same industry.The calculation methods used aim to includethe emissions generated by the production,transportation and consumption of energysources. For liquid fossil fuels, the methodologycalculates emissions related not only to theirburning but also to the extraction, shipping andrefinement of the fuels from the standard crudeproduct. For electricity, the type of primary energyused by the producer was taken into account.Further information on measurement methodsand their error margins is provided under point 7of the Summary table relating to the NRE Act.Small margins of reductionThe findings of this survey confirmed earlierestimates and showed that the Group has a lightecological footprint, as shown by its emissionslevel of less than 2.4 tonnes of CO 2 per full timeequivalent employee in France.This emissions level compares favourably withresults published by several of BNP Paribas majorcompetitors. Although these data are still subjectto inevitable margins of error and should be usedwith caution, analysing them highlights thoseoperations which have the strongest effects.Consolidated data: estimates for Francein kg of CO 2 equivalent per employee• Electricalconsumption 20%• Business travel 54%• Home-to-officecommuting 26%Professional trips thus seem to be the principalsource of emissions. These trips are for themost part justified by necessary contactwith clients, business negotiations and projectstudies. They have for many years beenthe focus of a stringent cost-reduction policythat has caused the number of trips tobe optimised and many in-person meetingsto be replaced by teleconferencingand videoconferencing. Where feasible,train transportation is encouraged and planetravel is subject to documented approvalprocedures. Because this system has alreadyreached a considerable level of effectiveness,and considering the Group’s continuingdevelopment of its operations, there is littleprospect of finding substantial potentialfor reduction in the short term in this componentof CO 2 emissions sources.The same applies to commuting by car, whichalso has a substantial impact. Despite measuresaimed at encouraging the use of public transport,the amount of car trips is unlikely to decreasesignificantly in France in the coming years.One reason for this is that due to reorganisationin the back-offices of French Retail Banking,