Climate and energy

AXA is committed to climate protection and to using natural resources sustainably. Year after year, we've been reducing our carbon emissions in Switzerland further. We have set ourselves ambitious targets under our climate strategy. Commitments and partnerships focusing on sustainability support our approach.

  • Carbon-neutral business operations
  • Committed to biodiversity and society
  • Ambitious environmental targets

Our climate strategy 2021 – 2025

AXA is pursuing two focal themes through its climate strategy: further reducing carbon emissions and adapting to climate change. AXA intends to achieve these objectives in its role as insurer, investor, and company, as well as in its role as a member of society.

As an insurer, this means increasingly offering customers climate-friendly products and services. As an investor, AXA aims to continuously reduce the carbon footprint of its investments. As a company, it educates its employees on climate-related topics via the AXA Climate Academy. And as a social player, AXA aims to enable human progress in line with its objective by protecting what's really important, such as biodiversity in Switzerland through the Flora Futura initiative.

Protecting biodiversity

Two million square meters of biodiversity 

To mark its 150th anniversary in 2025, AXA is helping to enhance around two million square meters of land in Switzerland with biodiversity: one square meter for each of its customers. The initiative, called "Flora Futura," is a vital part of the company's new climate strategy.

Promoting knowledge of biodiversity

The AXA Research Fund, which is also active in Switzerland, supports research into biodiversity risks. The Fund has published a study, "Biodiversity at Risk" which highlights the interactions and mutual dependencies between nature, climate change, and the economy. The goal of this study is to raise public awareness of these connections.

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    Our commitment to greater biodiversity

    Biodiversity is a very important topic for AXA. We are therefore strongly committed to maintaining biological diversity.

    Find out more

AXA – a carbon-neutral company

AXA Switzerland has already significantly reduced the carbon emissions it generates through its operations. Thanks to our consistent carbon reduction and compensation programs, today we are a carbon-neutral company.

The ClimatePartner label

Our goal: net zero emissions by 2025

AXA Switzerland wants to achieve net zero emissions from its operations by 2025.  This means that we offset our remaining unavoidable carbon emissions solely through projects that use negative emissions technologies to draw the same amount of CO2 from the atmosphere and store it over the long term. We are going forward step by step in order to reach our climate target.

1. How high are our carbon emissions?

To reach our targets, we have identified where carbon emissions are generated in our business and how high they are. The calculation takes account of emissions relating to  

  • our office buildings
  • our vehicle fleet
  • business travel by our employees
  • use of our IT infrastructure
  • our staff restaurants
  • commuter traffic of our employees
  • the work of our employees who work from home, and 
  • our 340 branches

Our carbon footprint

Together with climate protection consultants ClimatePartner, we have drawn up our carbon footprint for 2021.

Carbon emissions generated by office buildings, employees, and the sales force of AXA in Switzerland in 2021

Carbon footprint AXA Switzerland 2021

 

2. Our goal: 21% reduction in carbon emissions 

The carbon footprint  helps us to identify our reduction potential and develop measures. By 2025, we want to reduce the carbon emissions we generate through our energy consumption and business travel (including our vehicle fleet) by 21% compared to 2019.

3. Offsetting our carbon emissions

We are offsetting the remaining carbon emissions of our business by supporting high-value and externally certified climate protection projects (ClimatePartner-ID: 13520-2206-1001), including a reforestation project in Uruguay and a forest protection project in Brazil from ClimatePartner. AXA Switzerland is also investing in the First Climate biochar program, which stores carbon within Swiss land and uses the Climeworks’ carbon dioxide removal service to filter carbon dioxide from the air and store it safely and permanently underground. 

Our environmental targets

We attach great importance to protecting the environment and conserving resources. Between 2012 and 2019, we almost halved our consumption of resources. We have set ourselves additional environmental targets for the period 2019 - 2025. In order to hit these targets, we continuously realize projects aimed at saving energy, paper, water, waste, and carbon. 

  • We are aiming to reduce our carbon emissions by 21% from 2019 to 2025.

    We are aiming to cut the carbon emissions generated by our energy consumption and business travel (including vehicle fleet) per full-time equivalent from 0.60 tons of carbon (2019) to 0.48 tons in 2025.

  • By 2025, we are aiming to cut the consumption of office and marketing paper by 20% compared to 2019.

    We are aiming to cut the consumption of office paper from an average of 15 kg per full-time equivalent (2019) by 20% by 2025. We use only recycled paper or paper from fibers of FSC-certified forests.

  • Our water consumption is expected to fall by 11% from 2019 to 2025.

    We have set ourselves the target of reducing average water consumption per full-time equivalent by 11% from 8 m3 (2019) to 7 m3 in 2025.

Energy-efficient buildings

AXA is a member of the Zurich Energy Model and we have been successfully implementing measures to improve energy efficiency in our office buildings since 2010.

Electricity from 100% renewable sources

Since 2009, we have been drawing our power from 100% renewable energy, mostly from Swiss hydropower. AXA also produces its own energy from solar power with its own photovoltaic systems on our office buildings in Winterthur, Lausanne, and Lugano.

Eco-friendly mobility

Our employees are encouraged to travel in an eco-friendly way and to take the train rather than fly or drive. We promote public transport,  bike stations, and electric charging stations, and we work together with Mobility as our car-sharing partner. We are also increasingly carrying out customer consultations via video.

Flexible working

Thanks to smart working, our employees can work flexibly from home, in the office, or in co-working spaces.  This saves many commutes.

Our commitments

Through our sustainable investments, offers, real estate, and partnerships, we aim to support our customers and make a contribution to climate protection.

Investments

Offers

Real estate

  • Our real estate portfolio is analyzed using ESG criteria (Environmental, Social, Governance) and the sustainability aspects of the properties are being constantly improved.
  • The energy consumption and emission targets of our real estate portfolio are geared towards the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Partnerships

  • As a member of the Swiss Climate Foundation, we support innovative energy efficiency and climate protection projects at Swiss and Liechtenstein SMEs. 
  • AXA is involved in many projects relating to the environment and society.

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