Besides supporting our customers and being an active owner Nordea also places strong focus on improving our own way of working. We want to play an active role in contributing to societal goals through our climate action, social responsibility and governance and culture.
We work continuously and closely together with our suppliers. Supplier engagement being essential to advancing our sustainability performance.
By the end of 2022 we have already reduced carbon emissions from our internal operations by 57% compared with our 2019 baseline. Travel emissions have played the largest part of the reduction, since we decided to halve our travels compared to 2019 enforced by a new Travel Guideline. However, as the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, the emissions are expected to increase in some areas as working habits return to normal but we believe we are on track towards achieving this objective.
See examples below on how we are working towards reaching our goal.
In 2020 we introduced a new company car policy which means that from 2021 onwards we have only allowed electric and plug-in hybrid company cars. This has been well received by our employees, with plug-in hybrids accounting for approximately 2/3 and electric 1/3 of all new company cars.
We can now rely much more on digital meetings, which means that we will not return to pre-pandemic travel levels. In addition to reducing travel overall, the updated travel guidelines also require us to travel more by train to further reduce our carbon footprint.
Nordea has been replacing physical letters with customer-friendly digital solutions through our Paperless Banking Programme. Between 2017 and 2022 the programme has digitalised approximately 60% of all customer letters, which means fewer carbon emissions connected with distribution.
Despite our best efforts to limit our internal carbon footprint, some emissions still remain difficult to reduce. For these, we purchase carbon offsets to reduce equivalent emissions elsewhere. We supported the generation of renewable energy through the purchase of carbon credits for 2022. We will continue to fully offset the residual emissions from our internal operations. Going forward, we will be shifting to a long-term carbon removal portfolio, which we will periodically review to align with evolving best practices for achieving net-zero emissions.
In 2022 we decreased our energy consumption by 11% compared with 2021. Over 70% of our large head offices are LEED or BREEAM certified to ensure energy efficiency. One of the drivers of our internal carbon footprint is the data centres and technology used to run the business. Although the data volume remained at the same level, our data center consolidation strategy had a significant impact with CO2 emissions being reduced by 9% compared with our 2019 baseline.
We are also working towards making our workplace more sustainable. For example by offering more vegetarian options and serving local and seasonal produce as much as possible. We aim to inspire our employees to reduce their own carbon footprint. To this end, we rolled out an e-learning programme to educate our people on sustainability themes, offering recycling solutions together with external partners, as well as an IT accessories recycling programme, making it easy and attractive for our people to significantly reduce their own e-waste.
Our community engagement strategy is about creating positive change through our employees with a focus on building financial skills and fostering entrepreneurship. See examples below.
Nordea employees can spend two paid working days per year volunteering. In 2022 over 2,000 Nordea employees delivered over 7,900 hours of volunteering
Every year Nordea employees have the opportunity to visit schools, where they are invited to teach financial skills. Read more about this on the different country pages.
By increasing awareness and knowledge we promote health, ensure a great working environment and manage illness, supporting a sustainable workplace.