Continuing the group's green transformation -improving our environmental performance

Environmental and societal challenges have become major sources of attention for the IT industry in recent years as expectations for a sustainable development continue to grow. 

Atos has designed a specific portfolio to help companies to integrate measures to reduce carbon as part of their business model. We are convinced that all parts of the company can contribute to the fight against climate change. In order to reduce its environmental footprint, Atos considers the whole perimeter of its impact and carefully addresses the full lifecycle of its activities.


Atos' environmental program aims to address all environmental impacts (air, soil, water, biodiversity) generated by its activities. It includes the following initiatives:

• Carbon footprint abatement scheme (measuring, reduction, carbon offset, management and optimization)
• Optimizing energy consumption and the development of renewable energy supplies 
• Development of new sustainable policies (waste, green IT, Green Data-centre, risks and the environment, etc.) and adjustment of internal policies (purchasing, travel, vehicle fleet, etc.)
• Environmental Certifications scheme (ISO 14001, EMAS, THPE [Very High Energy Performance], etc.)
• Increasing employee awareness (communication, training, events)
• Development of a network of partners enabling Atos and its clients to adopt best practices

Our Carbon Footprint Action Plan
Our objective is to reduce our carbon footprint by 15% by 2012 (2008 baseline). From 2009 onwards, the Group’s global carbon emissions already started to decrease by 3% from our 2008 position within comparable scope. In 2009, the Group’s carbon emission figure gave us a starting point upon which to create a plan to reduce emissions across the business.

In 2010 we estimated our total emissions for direct and indirect energy consumption to represent a 13% reduction compared to 2009 at comparable scope and well above the 2008 Group’s target. In two years the accumulated reduction of carbon amounts to a total of 16% at comparable scope. In addition Atos is developing an ecosystem made of Carbon expert companies (ex: ADEME, O2France, Carbon Trust, AECOM) to select the best partners for us and our clients.

Atos has also decided to implement the ISO14001 Environmental Management System in all countries where the Group operates (buildings and datacenters). Objective for 2010 is to have 35% certified by end 2011 and 80% certified by 2013.

The first Global IT Company to offer Carbon Neutral Hosting Services
We have now launched a Global Carbon initiative across all our data centers. To specifically address the carbon issue, Atos will carry out a Bilan Carbone® (based on the ADEME tool) in all our data centers. Supported by an external company (O2 France, accredited by ADEME), the program aims at auditing 15 data centers over 15 months (from Q4 2010 to end of 2011).

In 2010, Atos decided to offset all of its data centers. The project selected is a wind power project located in India and validated to the “Voluntary Carbon Standard”. The partnership has been signed beginning of 2011 with the Carbon Neutral Company.

Adhesion to the European Code of Conduct
In 2010, Atos in the UK signed the European Code of Conduct on Datacenter Energy Efficiency, with objective of a group’s signing in 2011. This code aims at informing and encouraging data centers operators and owners to reduce their energy consumption by being more efficient.

Deploying Green Policies Worldwide to Reduce the Impact of our Activities
During 2010 we developed and finalized a number of global policies concerning sustainability and corporate responsibility regarding Waste Management Policy, Car Fleet policy and a Smart travel policy.

Full details can be found in our 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report.