Emissions

Most countries across the globe, including Switzerland, have made a commitment to reducing their emissions in order to mitigate global warming. We will also be doing our bit in this regard by minimising CO₂ emissions from our business activities.

Helsana’s carbon footprint was calculated in 2023 and is based on the internationally recognised Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP). In the reporting year, Helsana restructured and improved data capture for its key environmental indicators as a key basis for the further optimisation of CO₂ emissions. This includes the introduction of data collection software that enables the consolidation and, consequently, the monitoring of all emissions at the level of the company as a whole. The 2023 carbon footprint is based on measured values and on extrapolated values where the data was not available in a sufficient quality. In 2024, we will continue to invest in the quality of our environmental indicators. Meters will be installed at our five main sites to optimise data accuracy and reduce the proportion of data estimates.

In the reporting year, our greenhouse gas balance sheet (GHG balance sheet) for Helsana’s business operations (Scope 1 and 2) shows greenhouse gas emissions totalling 1,116 tonnes of CO₂ equivalents (t CO₂e). By far the largest share of emissions is generated by our commercial real estate for heating (1,020.6 t CO₂e), followed by electricity consumption, including electricity for heat pumps (68 t CO₂e) and energy from district heating (22.8 t CO₂e). A very small proportion is attributable to fuel consumption for our company vehicles with combustion engines (4.5 t CO₂e).

As Helsana is a tenant at most of its corporate sites, the influence we can exert over the level of emissions is limited. We can, however, help to reduce emissions with the electricity products we choose. At present, around 76% of our electricity consumption on our company premises comes from renewable sources (68 t CO₂e). We have set ourselves the following target in this area: We aim to have switched 100% of the power supply for all company premises to sustainable sources by the end of 2024.

In addition to the Scope 1 and 2 emissions, our GHG balance sheet also includes emissions that occur upstream or downstream in Helsana’s value chain, known as Scope 3 emissions. These include emissions caused by our investment properties (category 13 of the GHGP), which account for a substantial proportion of our total emissions at 1,391.1 t CO₂e. The emissions from upstream activities related to purchased energy – such as from extraction, production or transportation – also fall under Scope 3 emissions (category 3 of the GHGP) with a contribution of 348.9 t CO₂e. Unlike with the company premises we rent, we have greater room for manoeuvre with our investment properties. We use this leeway to set emission reduction targets that are comparable with the Swiss climate targets (see section “Sustainable investing”). Other categories of upstream and downstream emissions that are relevant to Helsana include “Purchased goods & services (category 1 GHGP)”, “Capital goods (category 2 GHGP)”, “Employee commuting (category 7 GHGP)” and “Investments (category 15 GHGP)”. The other Scope 3 categories of the GHG Protocol are less or not at all relevant for Helsana. In the reporting year, Helsana reports the emissions from its investment properties and the upstream emissions to generate power for its company premises under the Scope 3 emission categories. The data for the other categories is not yet available in a satisfactory quality. Optimising this data will be a key component of the planned further development of our environmental management system.