Environmental reporting
1) Environmental reporting and external verification
Environmental reporting was launched in France in 2002 and then gradually extended to 22 countries and 148 sites in 2007: Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Switzerland, Poland, Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Morocco.
The environmental reporting system is based on the IRIS environment component, a dedicated IT tool that is available for the entire environmental management network over the internet and intranet. The IRIS application is linked to the Group's central data collection and storage system. This platform looks at 70 quantitative and qualitative environmental indicators, broken down into seven categories: water, power, consumables, waste, transport, health risks, and general information. These indicators were set up to align with France's national reporting requirements, the new economic regulations ("NRE" law) and their international counterparts (including the GRI).
The information collected is consolidated for each region, then published in the Group's Activity and Sustainable Development report after being audited in view of the datasets and methodology applied by the Group's statutory auditors (external). This verification spans the organizational structures in place and existing procedures to ascertain their relevance, reliability, objectivity and character. Its conclusions has not revealed any significant anomaly that might call the establishment of environmental data procedures into question, according to the formal "moderate assurance" level of assurance.
Knowing the positioning of each company makes it possible to set relevant local objectives. For this reason, all of the countries in which AXA is present are expected to be incorporated into the "real" data reporting system in 2008.
The environmental reporting protocol
A single reference document defines the entire environmental reporting process used by AXA's administrative sites : the environmental reporting protocol combines all the information required to understand and use the process successfully: in particular, the indicators, scheduling and each person's role.
The protocol has a number of objectives:
- To formalize the procedure and thus encourage the subsidiaries to undertake their reporting duties autonomously;
- To be more rigorous, combining all the information required for successful reporting in a single reference document;
- To circulate information on the decisions made;
- To involve the entire network and provide a document that meets user expectations and needs;
- To help newcomers understand the topic with ease;
- To foster continuous improvement.
Sent out before the environmental reporting campaign begins, the protocol is provided to all AXA employees directly or indirectly involved in the environmental reporting process. It is revised and updated after each campaign, following an assessment report.
2) Environmental manager network
The AXA Group's Sustainable Development department coordinates a network of dedicated environmental managers and employees in local subsidiaries. AXA is working with these managers to analyze indicators, identify performance targets and promote the sharing of best practices, using an intranet site.