Energy
Energy consumption is monitored monthly to track our progress against established targets. For 2008, we set out to reduce office energy consumption by 3% over 2007 levels. We considered the impact of additional staff on energy consumption and have thus tracked energy consumption data on a per head basis. Our 2008 energy consumption performance is presented below:

^ Energy consumption per head (excluding data centre) equals to monthly average energy consumption divided by monthly average headcount
Note: The energy consumption is based on the electricity utility bills received on a monthly basis.

In terms of the energy consumption per head (excluding data centre), we achieved more than the 3% reduction target for 2008.

The 3.7% increase in the monthly average energy consumption (which includes the data centre) is due to the increase in energy use at the data centre in 2008. This is mainly attributed to the build-up of applications in the data servers as well as the activation of an emergency power supply caused by a power outage in October 2008. The increase in data centre energy consumption would have been far worse if we had not implemented the virtualisation technology as part of our initiatives to green our data centre, which is covered in Section 7.2.iii: ‘Greening Our IT Infrastructure’

In terms of the indirect carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions resulting from the office energy consumption, 2008 saw a total of 210.8 tons of indirect CO₂ emissions which is a 2.5% increase over the 2007 emissions of 205.5 tons.

Note: The 2006 IPPC Guidelines for the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and the fuel mix data from the Electricity Market Company Market Report 2006 and 2007 were used as a basis to calculate the carbon dioxide emissions for 2007 and 2008 respectively.



Diagram 7.10 Office energy consumption per head

Water
Our offices consumed a roughly consistent level for 2007 and 2008. In 2008, we consumed 73.28 m³. Taking into account headcount, the consumption was 0.63 m³ per person in 2008, a 13.9% decrease over 2007, after our washrooms were fitted with water-efficient faucets.

Note: The water consumption is based on the water utility bills received on a monthly basis.



Diagram 7.11 Reduction in office water consumption by cubic metres per head

Paper
Paper consumption per head for 2008 increased 7% due to the high volume of documentation for the divestment exercise. In preparation for this, we did not set any 2008 targets for paper consumption. Nevertheless, that did not stop us from introducing the following initiatives to minimise the expected increase in paper use:

• internal awareness talks to employees on 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

• six new recycling bins.

• default double-sided printing for all central printers

In addition, since July 2008, all paper used in our offices has come from suppliers that adopt responsible forest management practices certified with the Forest Stewardship Council.



Diagram 7.12: Increase in the per-head paper consumption at the office HQ