EcoAct parent company, Atos has announced that it is bringing its net zero target forward seven years to 2028, positioning itself as an industry leader that can help others transition to net zero through digital decarbonisation.
With this more ambitious net zero target, Atos is committing to reducing the global carbon emissions under its control and influence by 50% by 2025[1] (scopes 1, 2, 3[2]), and to offset all its residual emissions by 2028. This new trajectory is 22 years ahead of the 2050 target set by the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 2°C by 2050 above pre-industrial levels, and 7 years ahead of the target previously set by the Group.
New accelerated net zero target for 2028
The decision to raise its ambition was motivated by the success of Atos’ decarbonisation plans, which have already materialised into a reduction of the Group’s global carbon emissions by 15% in 2020[3] (from 3.3 to 2.8 M tons CO2), of which an estimated 10% is structural improvement in addition to the conjunctural Covid-19 effect. It also reflects Atos’ commitment to further accelerate its customers’ digital decarbonisation. Atos is positioning itself among the most advanced technology companies worldwide in the fight against climate change and is helping to limit global warming to 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels.“It is time to accelerate the fight against climate change. By raising our own decarbonisation ambition, we will better support our clients on their journey by tapping into the power of digital technologies and their identified potential to reduce carbon emissions by up to 20 percent in other sectors. Our worldwide industry leadership in decarbonisation will directly benefit all our customers” Elie Girard, Atos CEO
Atos leads on digital decarbonisation
This new net zero target follows Atos’ already strongly executed decarbonisation plans over the last year, resulting from a strategy that encompasses all business activities and business units, and years of continuous investment in skills, competencies, and research. The Group’s decarbonisation efforts are focused on four main areas:- Real estate: optimization of office space and energy consumption across all regions, with significant efforts to adopt decarbonized energy. This has materialized into a 34% decrease of global CO2 emissions of Atos offices in 2020 vs. 2019 (19% excluding the Covid-19 effect), with an accelerated switch to carbon-free and renewable energy, powering 44% of all Atos offices in 2020 (versus 25% in 2019);
- Datacentres: improved energy efficiency materialising into a 15% decrease of global energy consumption of Atos datacentres in 2020 vs. 2019 and a switch to carbon-free and renewable energy, which now powers 55% of all Atos datacentres in 2020 (versus 32% in 2019);
- Supply chain: introduction of systematic decarbonisation criteria for the Atos supply chain, which has already led to significant gains (e.g. a 10% reduction in the energy consumption of all new PCs). Atos was listed among the top 7% of companies assessed for supplier engagement on climate change in the 2020 CDP Supplier Engagement Leaderboard;
- Products & solutions: Atos continuously improves the energy efficiency of its products, illustrated by the release in 2020 of the #1 greenest machine among the top 100 largest supercomputers in the world, provided to the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany.
