We make our CO2 emissions transparent so that we can reduce them

Why does zeb use a dashboard to track its CO2 emissions from business travel? 

Jannik Neuböck: We use this visualization for planning and control purposes, but also to raise employee awareness. By simply combining data from our travel booking system with statistics from emissions databases, our dashboard always shows us the current amount of CO2 we have emitted through business travel. However, visualizing the data is only the first step; we also need to evaluate it and ask ourselves: how and to what extent can our emissions be reduced? By integrating concrete targets into our Travel Emissions Dashboard, we always know where things are going according to plan and where additional measures need to be taken. All colleagues get to see this dashboard at least once per month. 

In order to set ourselves realistic targets, we need to know exactly how much CO2 we produce. 

Jannik Neuböck: Exactly. In the area of business travel, we have found a solution to determine our own CO2 emissions. Now, we need to find out how to reduce them by identifying the right levers. The dashboard was a quick win for us because the data was very easy to gather. Basically, we have no reason not to extend the dashboard principle to all our business processes. Data availability and quality are what’s important in that regard and thus constitute potential sticking points. One could say that we are at the beginning of an exciting development.

So, the Travel Emissions Dashboard is a proof of concept demonstrating that we can do even more? 

Jannik Neuböck: We hope so. For example, our Practice Groups have regular in-person meetings that require dozens of colleagues to travel. The dashboard has now inspired two colleagues to create a tool that can be used to predict the CO2 emissions associated with off-site meetings.  

We are also developing a carbon footprint tool for client projects. It is designed to enable project managers to forecast CO2 emissions in addition to the amount of work involved in the project. The logical consequence would be that at some point the “CO2 costs” become just as important as the financial costs.