Sustainability @ SUISA

Since the adoption of the “Sustainable Development Goals” (SGD) by the UN in 2016, it has been said at the highest level: The topic of “sustainability” must concern us all – citizens, state institutions and, in particular, companies. SUISA has been fulfilling its responsibilities in this respect for quite a while but is constantly looking for further improvements to its operations and the company building.

SUISA has been focussing on energy-saving measures since 2014 and has been certified as an “energy-efficient company” by the “Energy Agency for the Industry”. At the time, it had already purchased power strips and asked employees to switch off the standby power at their workstations and the lights completely when leaving the office in the evening. The caretaker also always replaces old appliances with more environmentally friendly ones. If a floor lamp breaks, an LED-powered one is purchased.

The legal form of the company already guarantees a certain degree of sustainability

SUISA is a co-operative. This company form is characterised by the broad participation of cooperative members. They shape the company together. According to the principle of one vote per co-operative member, the pure profit motive of a group of shareholders is less likely to occur in the co-operative. The business is geared towards continuity and resource-conserving but forward-looking activities.

Foundation of a sustainability group

To support environmental concerns, a sustainability group consisting of SUISA employees has been in place since 2023. Their purpose is to make suggestions to the company management for the sustainable organisation of our activities. The group has initially defined areas that are relevant to further reducing SUISA’s ecological footprint.

• Energy and environment: e.g. IT, heating, electricity; water, waste and cleaning management
• Transport/traffic: e.g. travelling to and from work, business trips, transport of goods (parcels, letters)
• Health: e.g. catering, physical and mental fitness, addictive substances

Workshop with environmental consultant

The sustainability group wanted to acquire more tools for dealing in depth with the desire for more sustainability in the company and for professional advice and support. Kistler Holistics from Stäfa was engaged to provide consultancy services and for an in-house workshop in September 2023.

Michael Kistler, a federally certified environmental consultant since 2008, suggested that SUISA’s strengths and weaknesses in the area of sustainability should be determined in advance by means of an assessment. Based on an extensive questionnaire on the three pillars of sustainability – economic, social and ecological – employees assessed SUISA’s environmental impact, use of resources, economic indicators and social aspects.

SUISA’s strengths include the areas of “transport, mobility”, “culture”, “equal opportunities” and “education”. SUISA makes a positive contribution to transport and mobility thanks to the high proportion of up to 50% working from home. It also supports employees who travel to work by public transport, bike or on foot with an SBB gift card.

At the workshop with environmental consultant, the sustainability group explored and discussed various fields of action and attitudes that had emerged from the evaluation of the questionnaire. In addition to medium to longer-term strategies for the future, a number of proposals emerged at the workshop with regard to immediate measures, 80% of which were deemed interesting and initiated by the management. The area of resource utilisation was particularly productive; some measures are being planned and two have already been implemented:

1. The switch to 100% recycling for toilet and household paper.
2. Centralised multi-waste bins with separate compartments for paper, waste and PET have recently been installed on every floor.

We are also investigating whether and how old floor lamps can be replaced with new LED lamps. The potential for heating (smart metering) and IT is also being checked out. This list is not exhaustive and is not intended to be: SUISA has been making various efforts to conduct its business activities in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner for some time now and will continue to further develop these endeavours in the future.