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REDUCE CRITEO’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTGeneral environmental policyAt Criteo, people care about the environment. Although there is currently no formal global environmental policy in place, the company is conscious of its ecological footprint, and aims to minimize it. Due to the nature of Criteo’s activities, the data centers account for its biggest environmental impact. In total, Criteo has 16 data centers worldwide, all of which belong to external service suppliers. Among them, 11 are data processing centers and the remaining five host PoPs (point of presence) servers, which have a significantly smaller energy consumption impact. Criteo is committed to sustainability. In fact, the building housing Criteo’s headquarters in Paris is NF HQE certified (certification attesting to high environmental quality). This building alone represents 31% of the total surface area of all offices worldwide. Similarly, the Criteo office in Beijing is ISO 14001 certified and the Singapore office is located in a building that has been awarded the prestigious Green Mark Platinum Award. At its current stage of development, Criteo mainly relies on local initiatives, led by individual offices or employees, to promote environmental responsibility. To raise and maintain employees’ commitment and awareness of the three R’s of the environment—Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle—Criteo invests in internal communication campaigns. Given the nature of its activity and business, Criteo does not produce any matter that may severely and directly affect the environment. Consequently, this report does not contain disclosures on the following environmental issues required under article R. 225-102-1 of the French Commercial Code: “Prevention of environmental risks and pollution”, “Pollution prevention, reduction and rehabilitation” and “Noise and any other specific form of pollution”. Circular Economy – Waste productionCriteo currently has no harmonized tool to consolidate waste production. However, the estimates indicate that the company produced an aggregated 274 tons of office waste worldwide in 2016, i.e. 147 kg per employee. Criteo also produced approximately 5,149 kg of waste electrical and electronic equipment (W3E or “e-waste”) from offices and 9,897 kg from data centers. All offices sort and recycle waste whenever possible. Criteo has equipped most offices with waste recycling bins, and some even have battery recycling containers, such as Beijing and London offices. In addition, clear signs on waste classification procedures are on display in most of offices to ensure that employees scrupulously follow them. To limit waste, the employees are encouraged to use mugs instead of disposable cups. Criteo is not currently able to estimate its recycling rate. However, the company intends to track its waste production and recycling ratio next year, for both W3E and office waste. Employees aim to limit paper consumption. The nature of Criteo’s business allows them to promote a paperless work model. If printing is necessary, employees are advised to reuse one-sided printed paper and print double side when possible (this has even been configured as the default printing configuration in Beijing, Singapore and Paris offices, among others). As a result, 6,814 kg of paper was consumed in 2016, with sustainable brands accounting for 66% of paper purchased. Criteo is also committed to avoiding food waste. Consequently, when social events are organized, food is ordered based on a pre-determined headcount. After team lunches, employees are encouraged to pack leftovers and take them home. Despite the fact that the Paris building has a well-equipped company restaurant, it is not directly managed by Criteo. Hence, other measures to limit food waste are limited. In addition, since 2016, Criteo has taken measures to reduce e-waste from their data centers by extending the shelf-life of their servers from the typical three years to five years. Therefore, when possible, new servers purchased will be kept for five years, which will contribute to the reduction of data center e-waste. Circular Economy – Water consumptionTo limit its ecological footprint, Criteo has deployed sustainable development practices regarding water use. In most offices, sensor-equipped faucets and two-level flushing toilets have been installed. In the Beijing office, where employees can take showers, a card swiping system is used to avoid irresponsible water use. Thanks to these initiatives, an estimated total of 24,375 m3 of water was consumed in 2016. Circular Economy – Energy consumptionCriteo has deployed numerous actions aimed at reducing energy consumption at both its offices and data centers. While Criteo does not own the buildings that it occupies, there is a company-wide commitment to limit energy consumption. In this spirit, energy saving initiatives are decided and implemented independently at each office location. In France, Singapore and Tokyo offices, lighting is automatically switched off at night. Similarly, in a few European offices, including the London office, lighting is motion sensor activated. Numerous projects are underway both in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe to install LED lighting where feasible. Air conditioning is also a source of energy consumption that Criteo aims to monitor and control. For example, in the London office, the air-conditioning system is automatically shut off between 7:00 pm and 6:00 am. One of Criteo’s biggest employee initiatives related to energy consumption is the Carbonite Project. The employees behind this project won the 2016 edition of Criteo’s internal Hackathon. Backed by Coeur des forêts, a non-profit organization that promotes fair trade and reforestation, the project aims to reduce energy consumption. The goal of the project is two-fold and comprises:
In addition, Criteo must size its infrastructure needs according to actual and forecasted growth. As part of this program, Criteo is working with several vendors for both services (Hosting/HW recycling) and hardware procurement. For each new Criteo project, the company releases a RFP to several potential partners, and one of the main criteria of the decision matrix is Eco Responsibility. Criteo attempts to gain deep vendor insight with regard to their environmental sustainability business practices and focus on questions as described below (non-exhaustive):
All of the above are an integral part of the questionnaire used in Criteo’s data center RFP. Thanks to these initiatives, Criteo has a yearly total on premise energy consumption of 4,969 MWh, i.e. 2,671 kWh per employee, 19% of which is sourced from renewable energy producers. Data center energy consumption for 2016 is estimated at 21,345 MWh. This estimation comes from an internal tracking system of data center electricity consumption that was established by the Carbonite project (please see Methodological Note for further information). Criteo estimates that 14% of its data center energy consumption comes from renewable energy sources. Climate ChangeAt Criteo, the most significant GHG emissions come from the electricity consumed in its offices and data centers (Scope 2) and during business trips (Scope 3). The total release of GHG from electricity consumption is estimated to be 1,324 tCO2e for premises and 12,897 tCO2e for data centers. GHG emissions due to business trips amounted to 8,035 tCO2e in 2016, although Criteo tries to limit them by avoiding flights whenever possible, attending video conferences instead of physical meetings, and choosing public transportation over individual cars or taxis. Besides the GHG resulting from its direct energy consumption, Criteo’s most significant indirect source of GHG emissions is the leakage from refrigerant system used to cool down data center rooms. In order to gain a better understanding of its data centers’ impact on the atmosphere, Criteo is trying to estimate total CO2 volumes released during refrigerant leaks. Criteo is working closely with its service provider to gather enough information to produce a reliable status report for the upcoming years. To further reduce its carbon footprint, Criteo is also looking at ways to prevent the use of private cars. Most of Criteo’s offices are located in areas easily accessible by public transportation, without a parking lot, therefore discouraging employees from commuting with their private cars. In China, a shuttle bus service is in place to transport employees to and from the metro. In Japan, the local team subsidizes monthly transport passes to ensure the burden is not transferred to Criteo’s employees. BiodiversityAt Criteo, people value biodiversity. Although Criteo’s industry is not likely to impact biodiversity and it has very little control over this environmental aspect, Criteo is trying to do its share. To that end, employees have placed birds’ nests on the roof of the London office, and are considering other similar value-added initiatives in other offices. Due to the nature of its business, Criteo does not produce any matter that may severely and directly affect biodiversity. Consequently, this report provides no further disclosure on biodiversity, as required under article R. 225-102-1 of the French Commercial Code. |
