Aviva Group Ireland plc is committed to protecting our environment

Environmental sustainability is woven into the fabric of Aviva Ireland’s approach to how we do business and we target 6 core pillars – energy, water, paper, built environment, transport and waste.  Each pillar has shown improvements in key performance measures since the programme was launched and we continue to set challenging targets.
 
Energy
At Aviva Ireland’s head office – our largest location in Ireland, our energy consumption has been reduced to its lowest level and in June 2011 was at 5.95GWh. This is a drop of just over 7.75% since peaking in January 2009 and was achieved through the cumulative efficiencies gained from an improved building management system and employee focus on efficient energy management.  In Ireland, we have also renewed our contract with green electricity providers Energia, a company which provides us with 100% green energy at a cost effective price thereby balancing the needs of all stakeholders.

Aviva Ireland Head Office Annualised Energy consumption, kWh, 2009 and 2010
 

 
Water use
Given the UN estimate that as much as one fifth of the world is unable to get clean drinking water, water conservation is an issue of both national and international importance. In that context it is clear that minimising the unnecessary usage of water is a key environmental consideration and Aviva has tackled this issue head on. This year we have installed flow restrictors on taps throughout Aviva Ireland’s operation to help reduce water wastage. As part of the next phase we are actively reviewing the possibility of introducing water-less urinals in toilets throughout our main operations centres in Ireland.

Paper use
As a financial services provider the management of our paper use and consumption is an important part of Aviva Ireland’s CO2 emissions.  To ensure we actively reduce our carbon footprint we are constantly looking out for new ways in which we can reduce our paper usage.  By listening to colleagues and learning what their needs are we have taken some simple steps which have had dramatic effects.  The first of these was the introduction of Multifunctional Devices (MFD’s) pre-set to ensure that all internal printing is double sided. In addition, all our paper is procured from renewable sources and all our waste paper is recycled.  We are also rolling out paperless processes throughout the business and one such process - 'Email Gateway' - has reduced the printing of emails and to date has reduced the number of pages printed by 1.5 million pages.  

Sustainable buildings
Across Aviva Ireland minimising the environmental impact of the many buildings we occupy remains an important priority. In particular, we seek to ensure that any new buildings we commission or move into are built to recognised environmental standards.

For example, using lighting that operates from automatic sensors, Aviva has reduced the timing on our lighting by 50% over the last 2 years leading to reduced energy consumption. Aviva Ireland’s head office in Dublin is a new modern building that improves employees’ working environment and is very well-connected to public transport therefore reduces the need for car travel. We have adjusted the Building Management System in Cork which has resulted in a 8% reduction in energy consumption and these adjustments will be rolled out in Galway in Q2 2011.  

Aviva Ireland will also begin trials of PC software which will assist us in:
•    energy saving (eg PCs that have been unused for an hour can be configured to power down automatically)
•    desktop management (eg utilisation of PC estate can be monitored)
•    software delivery (eg PCs can be remotely switched on, have an upgrade applied, and then be switched off again)

Travel, transport and telepresence
At Aviva Ireland, we’re working to reduce the environmental impact of our business and our strategy is to minimise business travel wherever possible. Aviva has developed a Europe-wide telepresence and videoconference capability, including Ireland, to reduce and in some cases replace air travel.  This telepresence facility in Dublin offers many benefits to Aviva Ireland employees, such as:
•    Reducing air kilometres and CO2 emissions
•    Decreasing travelling costs
•    Cutting physical trips (and reducing health and wellbeing risks for our employees)
•    Increasing work efficiencies.

The success of telepresence has resulted in a decision by Aviva Group plc to create more telepresence locations around the world.  Our travel policy is that whenever possible employees will travel by train rather than air.

Waste management
Aviva Ireland has put in place a number of waste reduction measures and our aim is to divert the waste going to landfill by increasing the proportion of recycled waste. Among the actions we have taken was the decision not to provide personal waste bins for our employees. The result of this approach is that waste is brought to a central hub on each floor and this leads to 92% of our waste being recycled. We also took the decision to invest in reusable travel mugs for all employees before removing paper and disposable cups from self-service coffee and tea hubs.

Recognising the importance of environmental responsibility, Aviva Ireland has taken a series of steps which, though individually small, have collectively made a significant impact on our environmental footprint. Every day we recognise new ideas and initiatives to compound our success in achieving a strong and sustainable business throughout Ireland.