Sustainability

AXA, as a responsible company, is committed to address climate change through its core operations. An environmental management system is in place since 2012 including an annual reporting of Group CO2 emissions from energy consumption, car fleet and business travel. Water consumption, paper consumption, waste production and recycling are other dimensions monitored in the reporting.  

AXA’s environmental footprint is published in AXA Unique Registration document as part of the chapter 4 Sustainability. 

In 2020 the Group renewed its engagements and set an additional carbon reduction target and commit itself to offset the remaining emissions. This engagement is part of the AXA for Progress Index.

Between 2019 and 2022 AXA’s GHG emissions decreased by 48% (related to energy consumption, business travel, car fleet, and IT equipment and services).

In 2022, the total energy consumption for AXA was 236,986 MWh of which 133,840 MWh of renewable energy and 103,147 MWh of non-renewable energy.

2019-2025 environmental targets 

AXA’s 2019-2025 CO2 emissions reduction targets are based on the approach promoted by the “Science Based Targets” (SBT) initiative, which AXA joined in 2015. AXA used the "Decarbonation Sector Approach" to produce new set of targets: 

• - 25% reduction in AXA’s CO2 emissions (in absolute terms t.CO2 eq.) broken down into the following CO2 emissions reduction sub-targets: 
  -35% from AXA’s energy consumption linked to building and data centers,  
  -20% from AXA’s vehicle fleet emissions,  
  -18% from AXA’s scope 3 business travel emissions 

Under GHG protocol classification, AXA target translates into:  

• -25% Scope 1 (direct energy and fuel);  
• -35% Scope 2 (electricity and other indirect energies); resulting in -31% Scope 1&2 
• -18% Scope 3 (business travel). 

AXA Scope 1&2 target of -31% has been submitted to the SBTi in 2021. Approval is pending to the submission and approval of our Scope 3 investment CO2 footprint. 

This objective is part of a broader framework that integrates among others the new measures related to AXA’s IT activities and which translates into an overall reduction of the Group’s CO2 emissions of -20% by 2025 compared to 2019 (energy, car fleet, business travel and office automation and IT activities perimeter). 

To reduce its other environmental impacts, AXA also set targets on other components: 

• reduce unsorted waste by FTE by 10% 
• reduce water consumption by FTE by 10% 
• reduce office and marketing & distribution paper by FTE by 20%  
• reduce the Group's total energy consumption by 10% 

AXA is measuring the carbon footprint of its digital activities since 2020

AXA activities have gone more and more digital over the last years. The COVID-19 crisis further accelerated the transformation of the Group way of working, most employees working remotely full or part time. However, digital activities are proved to have a strong environmental footprint via the extensive use of energy and raw material to build ever more sophisticated devices. 

In 2020, AXA initiated a “Digital Sustainability” program led by AXA Group Operations, with Corporate Responsibility team support, covering all AXA entities. This program aims at measuring the carbon footprint of AXA’s digital activities, considering the different components (usage, equipment, data centers and services) in a holistic way. AXA’s digital impact is disclosed for the first time. 

AXA Group measures the carbon footprint of its digital activities, which amounts to 36,870 t.eq.CO2 in 2022 (Market-based). This footprint divides into four main categories: 

• 40,874 MWh corresponding to 5,947 t CO2 eq (Market-based) related to the electricity consumption of the servers directly used and operated by AXA Group Operations in its data centers. This is a subset of Scope 2 electricity of AXA; 
• 12,854 MWh corresponding to 4,126 t CO2 eq (Location-based) linked to the electricity consumption of the terminals used by employees and service providers involved in AXA operations (computers, monitors, cell phones, tablets). The proportion of consumption inside (Scope2) and outside (Scope3) AXA’s premises has not yet been determined; 
• 21,320 t CO2 eq related to the manufacturing of digital equipment that have been purchased by AXA. The calculation method is based on inventories, manufacturers and public data as well as equipment average lifespan (Scope 3 emissions);
• 5,478 t CO2 eq in connection with AXA’s purchases of digital services like cloud computing (Scope 3 emissions) 

Measuring is the first step to reduce environmental footprint. The next step will involve target setting and yearly monitoring. 

For complete information about AXA’s environmental footprint management, please refer to the Sustainability chapter of our Universal Registration Document.  

AXA’s operations being carbon neutral since 2020

As part of the AXA for Progress Index, AXA is committed to reduce by 20% its CO2 emissions between 2019 and 2025 and to offset the remaining emissions.

AXA is carbon neutral for its operations since full year 2020. The offsetting of full year 2022 CO2 residual emissions (112,728 t.eq.CO2) was done by supporting two projects in China and Indonesia described below:

• Rural biogas development in China:
  - The project will support up to one million low-income rural households in Sichuan with advanced biogas digesters and smoke-free biogas cookstoves, installed and maintained by local technicians,
  - The small-size biogas digesters avoid methane emissions from pig manure as well as carbon dioxide emissions from coal and firewood,
  - They provide families with clean, renewable and free biogas for cooking, heating, and lighting.
• Peatland Forest Restoration in Indonesia:
  - This project is a tropical peatland restoration and conservation initiative, covering over 150,000 hectares of critical peat swamp forest in Indonesia,
  - It protects vital habitat for a vibrant mix of flora and fauna, including five critically endangered, eight endangered and 31 vulnerable animal species (orangutan, gibbon),
  - Peatlands are vulnerable ecosystems and highly susceptible to forest fires so protecting them is key to strengthening community and biodiversity resilience to climate change.