With the support of ClimatePartner, TELAG, the Swiss market leader for contact centre services and customer relationship programmes and part of Capita plc, has made its business operations carbon neutral. This is the result of almost five years of consistent commitment to climate action, and is also the starting point for further measures.

TELAG had already decided to launch a comprehensive climate action programme in 2016. On the way to becoming the carbon-neutral partner of choice for contact centres and billing services in Switzerland, the company reached many milestones. They aim to avoid or reduce CO₂ emissions as early and comprehensively as possible. This was done by:

• Purchasing 100% green electricity
• 90% of the existing light sources were replaced by LED alternatives
• 94% reduction in single-use plastic cup consumption (140,000 saved per year) by switching to reusable cups
• Commissioning of an all-electric company car, which is charged with the aforementioned green electricity
• Persistent process and awareness adjustment for a paper-free workplace (from 480,000 pages of paper in 2017 to 150,000 in 2020)
• Implementation of a new waste and recycling process (less waste, consistent recycling)
• Elimination of five large printers and introduction of a digital document management system
• Change of provider and certification of a carbon-neutral website
• Reduction of unused office space thanks to hybrid collaboration models through subletting
• Deployment of new IT infrastructure with lower energy consumption at higher performance and longer service life
• Creation and implementation of a hybrid remote working model, as a long-term solution even after the pandemic

While TELAG's annual carbon footprint was still 730,000 kilograms in 2016, the company was able to reduce this to 254,684 kilograms of CO₂, or by 66 %, by 2020 through the steps mentioned above. The remaining CO₂ emissions, which cannot be avoided, will be offset by supporting three carbon offset projects.

Thomas Wittkopf, Managing Director of TELAG AG: "We are very proud of our employees who support the project of a carbon neutral TELAG so actively and thus make a significant contribution to the fight against the climate crisis. Even though we have now reached this important milestone, we are aware that we are still a long way from the final goal. ClimatePartner is an important sparring partner for us in this. The regular carbon footprinting by the climate action experts will show us where we are right and where we need to readjust."

Further information is available here.