Environmental sustainability

As a software company, AEB has a low consumption of natural resources compared to companies in other sectors. The issues that concern us most here are energy consumption, land use, water consumption, and waste production. We’re constantly working on these fronts to reduce our consumption. Some actions we’ve initiated:

• Largely eliminated paper in offices
• Adopted a policy for electronic devices at the end of their useful life – laptops, mobile phones, etc. – to be donated, given to employees, or refurbished
  
• Switched from under-utilized fixed-lease office space to variable co-working spaces at several international sites 
  
• Minimized kitchen waste
  
• Reduced consumption of cow’s milk and meat in favor of more alternative options (oat milk, vegetarian dishes)

When it comes to climate action, AEB follows the principle of “first avoid, then reduce, then offset.” We began with a detailed analysis to determine the major sources of our emissions. Among the findings: employee commutes, fuel and energy consumption, business travel, and food. To reduce our emissions here, we’re taking the following actions: 

• Introduced sustainable energy management in our HQ by heating the office space with waste heat from our on-site data center, using our rooftop solar panels to produce electricity, etc.
  
• Further electrified our fleet and added new charging stations
  
• Subsidized sustainable commuting options like public transit and cycling
  
• Switched to green electricity at all sites with few exceptions

Even though AEB, as a software provider, has a relatively low carbon footprint: For all carbon emissions generated that cannot be avoided through our measures (see below), we invest in internationally recognized and certified reforestation projects in cooperation with our partner Treeo: In these, the trees absorb CO2 from the air and convert it into carbon and oxygen, among other things, during photosynthesis. Through our investment, we are demonstrably helping to cool the climate.

A special feature of the Treeo approach is that the carbon stored in the tree growth is recorded using scientifically based methods and continues to be tracked after ten years for use in timber construction and as biochar.

In addition, small scale farmers are responsible for the reforestation projects, whose income is tied to how well the forests are maintained and increases when more CO2 is sequestered. This is supported by a specially developed app for measuring individual trees, which records the biomass obtained through reforestation. Additional satellite data and a risk buffer of 20% protect the targeted cooling effect through CO2 storage against various risks.

We also support carbon sinks such as the “Pfrunger Ried” wetland.

The AEB footprint for 2023 amounted to 3,316 t CO2e. Compared to the previous year, this represents a slight increase, which was caused by the strong growth of the company.

In terms of per capita emissions, these fell by around 30% compared to 2021 and by around seven percent compared to 2022 to 4.91 tons.