Our responsibility: making things happen with software
We want to make our world greener and more equitable. That’s why our social responsibility activities focus on three issues: fighting climate change, protecting endangered species, and working for social justice and equal opportunity. We want to make a sustainable difference in these fields.
Becoming multipliers for sustainability
Our sustainability initiatives do not begin and end within our four walls. Our goal is to act as multipliers among our customers, suppliers, partners, and employees.
Matthias Kiess and Steffen Frey of AEB’s Board of Directors talk about how that works – and how everything they’ve already done and are now doing is just the beginning.
United in achieving the 1.5°C target
Climate action: avoid, reduce, offset
Our climate action plan is designed to help achieve the 1.5°C target of the Paris Climate Accords. We follow the logic of “avoid – reduce – offset” and see offsets as the last option, focusing our efforts on avoiding emissions in the first place.
Just an interim goal: AEB achieves climate neutrality through offsets
For the emissions that cannot be avoided, we have invested in an internationally recognized and certified climate action project: We have offset our greenhouse gas emissions by buying certificates from the Gold Standard afforestation/reforestation project in Uganda, earning the right to call ourselves climate neutral (download certificate).
Our offset project: planting trees in the Kikonda Forest Reserve
The project in Uganda covers an area of over 10,000 hectares and offsets some 18,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents each year. It also helps advance other UN Sustainable Development Goals such as quality education, clean water, and decent work. The project has received Gold Standard certification from TÜV Süd.
Our carbon footprint
AEB ran an initial assessment in 2021 of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by its business operations. The data collected was for 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, things were still largely “normal” at AEB when it came to greenhouse gas emissions. The amount of business travel and the use of company offices and company cars were at a much higher level than in 2020 or 2021. The goal was to take this higher level of consumption as the baseline for our offsets.
The measurements included not only carbon dioxide emissions but also emissions of the six other greenhouse gases cited in the Kyoto Protocol, which were converted into carbon dioxide equivalents.
Transparency to guide further action
The main benefit of the carbon footprint is to bring transparency to the major sources of emissions so that it’s possible to envision and implement other effective climate initiatives.
Our social commitment
Equal opportunity through education
Educational opportunities for the disadvantaged: That’s the goal of the AEB-Stiftung, the foundation we established in 2017. Because education is not just the key to individual success and the best way to elevate children out of poverty. It also helps them develop into tolerant, open-minded human beings who practice sustainability. This helps people peacefully coexist in a spirit of mutual respect and responsibility.
The AEB-Stiftung is currently engaged in expanding schools in socially vulnerable areas of Uganda and Brazil and is active with the mentoring organization Kinderhelden in Germany. Our support goes beyond just financial assistance to include a great deal of personal commitment and professional expertise on the part of AEB employees.
Sustainability in our DNA: our activities
Vocational training in Uganda
Only 5% of those who graduate from public school in Uganda go on to a university, and only 15% attend a vocational school. So it’s not surprising that experts estimate youth unemployment to be around 80%. We’ve partnered with Adept to provide financial support and share technological expertise with St. Bruno Secondary School in Masaka’s heavily impoverished northern district of Ssaza.Vehicle fleet
We’ve had a company car policy for over ten years designed to reduce emissions from our vehicle fleet. Our company headquarters and AEB offices offer free electric and hybrid vehicle charging. We even add our own self-generated solar electricity to the energy mix used to charge the cars.Sustainable cuisine
More creativity, less meat – and where we do use meat, we source it directly from the farm. AEB’s on-site “Kantino” cafeteria in Stuttgart also buys locally and has policies in place to ensure that as little food as possible is thrown away.Suppliers and partners
Sustainability is a key criterion in the selection of partners and suppliers and in our procurement processes.Public transit and bikes for lease
We subsidize the use of public transit for the sustainable mobility of our workforce. We also give employees the option to lease bicycles under the “JobRad” program.Educational equity with KinderHelden
The nonprofit “KinderHelden” offers mentoring to children that have had a difficult start in life, and we support them through volunteering and financial assistance.100% green energy
All our offices in Germany use green energy from regenerative sources.Green data centers
The key component of the sustainable energy concept of our data centers is a water storage tank: The water cools the server rooms by absorbing waste heat and is then circulated through the company headquarters for heating purposes. The cool night air in the summer cools the sprinkler tank, which then helps keep the data center and the whole building cooler during the day. A photovoltaic system supplies both data centers with electricity during daytime hours.School and sanctuary in the slum
The residents of “Cracolândia” – the notorious neighborhood in São Paulo that is one of the world’s largest open-air drug markets – endure conditions that are unimaginable for us. The AEB-Stiftung has partnered with educare, providing funding and employee volunteers to build and run a preschool. Children here find not only a place of learning but a sanctuary and afterschool partner.A home for bees
Our bee colonies in the garden of AEB headquarters make a small contribution to biodiversity. Bees are essential for the pollination of flowers, trees, and shrubs, which would not exist without these insects.
