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#Foreword
Many countries around the world committed to achieving carbon neutrality, and I4CE decided to do the same. We have done so to set an example, out of conviction, and to face the actual transition issues. Like the countries – or at least we hope so – we have an action plan that we review every year after having done our carbon footprint. What can we take away from I4CE's latest carbon footprint that we are publishing today? First of all, our emissions have followed a similar trend to global emissions: a rebound in 2021, as things "return to normal" after the Covid period. But we are not – and actually far from – back to our pre-Covid emissions. The trend is clearly downward, much faster than French emissions, for example.
As with countries, the main reason for the rebound in I4CE's emissions is the rebound in economic activity. In the Institute's case, however, this is not really a rebound, but rather a structural growth: our team has grown significantly in 2021 and will continue to grow in the coming years. This increase goes hand in hand with the increase in emissions from our offices and - even more so - in our purchases of materials and services. This requires us to further strengthen our sustainable procurement policy and to act more strongly on the energy consumption of our offices.
But unlike many countries, as travel resumed after the Covid lockdowns, and as I4CE expands internationally, our transport emissions have continued to fall. How is that? Thanks to the train, which has now become the standard travel mean. Our rule: no airplane if an alternative by train of less than 6 hours exists. The I4CE team travelled more than twice around the world by train in 2021.
Videoconferencing and more generally digital technology have also allowed I4CE to develop internationally while limiting its travel. But this obviously raises the question of the carbon footprint of digital technology. We have tackled this issue and are happy to announce the launch - today - of our new sustainably designed website. Unfortunately, there is no quality certification (yet), but we have done our best to reduce our website’s footprint. The homepage footprint has been divided by 4. So feel free to visit our website!
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