Sustainable development
Sustainable development aims to meet and satisfy the needs and aspirations of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet those same needs. Sustainable development commonly encompasses the reconciliation of environmental, social and economic demands - the "three pillars" of sustainability.
ELCA has held the ISO 14001 certificate since April 2011. However, the company's commitment to the environmental dimension of sustainability goes back much further. While our reasons at the beginning of the ‘90s for selecting Swiss office locations near train stations were economy and time efficiency, ELCA quickly started to realise the ecological advantages. We have since been promoting the use of public transport by providing each employee with a half-fare travel card and reducing the parking spaces at office locations to a minimum. With advances in technology, we also promoted the distribution of electronic documents instead of using paper for most of our projects. Chat tools and videoconferencing equipment were also installed to reduce the need to travel to meetings.
Today we use a set of indicators to monitor the environmental footprint of our activities in the following areas:
- our consumption of materials that are produced by polluting manufacturing processes;
- our consumption of electrical and heating power;
- the amount of waste we produce;
- our greenhouse gas emissions.
Based on the information gathered, we have already been able to initiate actions to decrease our impact on the environment.
Our involvement in promoting environmentally friendly behaviour is part of our global approach to sustainable development. In addition to the environmental dimension of sustainability that seeks to use energy and raw materials in a rational way, the social dimension of sustainability has always been one of our core values. Good working conditions, personal development opportunities and individual empowerment are key factors in the loyalty of ELCA employees.
We also encourage our clients’ green IT initiatives. Our ticketing product SecuTix is offered in SaaS (Software as a Service) mode and includes a functionality that enables customers to promote public transport through combined offer tickets. Our strong authentication solution, ELCARDm, is based on using existing equipment and therefore does not need any additional or replacement materials. We support the virtualisation of environments, both in-house and for our customers, to limit the purchase of material and consumption of electricity. Last but not least, we develop many dematerialisation projects in the ECM and CRM domain that contribute to reducing paperwork.
Our commitment to creating innovative and strong value-added solutions helps us to build long-term partnerships with our clients. In turn, the loyalty of our customers guarantees our economic sustainability.
