As a company operating in the reinsurance industry, we do not make any appreciable use of physical materials. Only the paper consumption at our offices is a relevant use of resources, and we therefore measure and manage this. It amounted to 25 tonnes (5,317,310 sheets) for the Hannover location in the year under review and – with a drop of 7.4% – was thus significantly below the level of the previous year. Our electronic administration system "Ruschlikon by ACORD" played a part here. The system makes possible the paperless processing of official documents. In 2017, for example, we were able to electronically process roughly 101,000 communications, including almost 36,000 loss advices and 220,000 attachments.

Above and beyond this, we were also able to cut paper consumption in 2017 by digitalising additional work processes: with the aid of our document management system we have successfully mapped posting releases while adhering to and documenting the principle of dual control. The implementation of a digital signature solution also generated savings.

More revealing than the paper consumption in absolute terms is the relative paper consumption per employee. Since 2010 we have consistently reduced our per capita consumption. Whereas in 2010 the figure was around 0.04 tonnes per year and employee, this number had dropped to 0.018 tonnes in the year under review. We have achieved this reduction inter alia by rolling out notebooks as part of our "Next Generation Workplace" programme. Instead of paper-intensive printouts, members of staff now frequently take their notebook to meetings. We avoid unintended print jobs by means of the "Print to me" solution implemented in 2015. Print jobs are not executed immediately, but instead have to be actively initiated by the user at the device. If this is not done, the computer deletes print jobs automatically after three days.

Paper consumption

Since 2012 we have used exclusively printer paper bearing the "Euroblume" European environmental seal. This quality seal is awarded to consumer goods which are manufactured with reduced emissions and low energy consumption as well as the restrictive use of chemicals and auxiliary materials. Furthermore, the paper used in our printers has the lowest possible wood content. We have used solely FSC-certified paper in the creation of printed products since 2011.