VP Bank’s business ecology

As a general rule, VP Bank Group sends out client asset statements only once a year; daily and quarterly statements are printed and dispatched only at the express request of the client. In recent years, this has resulted in a considerable reduction in the use of paper for forms and statements. For example, the number of printed forms has declined steadily from 655,000 in 2005 to 229,400 in 2013, as has the number of envelopes from 1,500,000 in 2004 to 811,051 this past year.

Paper consumption has steadily decreased from 49.59 tonnes in 2008 to 38.11 tonnes in 2012, and now stands at the lowest level since 2004. e-banking has contributed greatly to this reduction thanks to its e-post functionality, the use of which has more than quadrupled over the same time frame, in sharp contrast to the use of paper.

VP Bank Group prints its publications – including this annual report – on environmentally certified paper. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification guarantees that the paper originates from wood harvested in exemplary, environmentally friendly forestry operations. Since 2010, payment order forms have also been printed on FSC-certified paper. In its choice of printing firms, VP Bank Group gives preference to those which offer climate-neutral printing services.

Thanks to the introduction of order cards and referral to documents in electronic form, the number of printed copies of the Bank’s annual and semi-annual reports has declined by roughly 65 per cent over the past six years. Since 2010, the electronic communications of VP Bank Group have included the footnote “Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail”.

For the Vaduz and Zurich offices, the number of e-mail documents has increased continuously: in 2007, the total was approximately 130,250; by 2011, it was already more than 696,270 and in 2013 about 1,204,603. Compared to the 2012 figure, the latest yearly increase was in excess of 28 per cent. Since 2012, the Luxembourg office is included in these statistics.

Water consumption once again declined by roughly 7 per cent versus the previous year and now lies below all figures recorded since 2004. This reduction was equally attributable to all facilities of VP Bank Group in the Principality of Liechtenstein. Water consumption per employee has dropped from 16.3 m3 in 2005 to 11.3 m3 in 2013.

Through numerous initiatives, VP Bank Group is focusing on the prudent consumption of energy. Those measures extend from the environmentally friendly manner in which the renovation of the Bank’s headquarters in Vaduz and the construction of the new service centre in Triesen were accomplished, to the use of geothermal energy for heating and cooling, right through to the use of motion-activated lighting.

Total power consumption at the Bank’s Liechtenstein facilities has been on the decline for five years, and in 2013 stood below the level last seen in 2004. This is thanks to efficiency-enhancing measures, amongst them an optimised cooling aggregate in Triesen for office air conditioning, which was installed in 2012. In 2013, a new climate control system was also installed at the main office in Vaduz. The purchase of leading-edge servers had a positive influence on power consumption as well.

For more than 15 years, a photovoltaic power generator has been in operation on the roof of the building in Vaduz. It supplies environmentally friendly energy that is fed into the Bank’s power grid. Owing to a rejuvenation of the control system for this installation, power generation from photo­voltaics increased continually from 2009 to 2011. However, over the past two years it has decreased, mainly due to unfavourable weather conditions.

VP Bank Group has made massive savings on heating costs. Heating oil consumption has declined by more than 50 per cent versus the previous year. The major contributor to this drop was the newly optimised heat recovery system at the Giessen building in Vaduz, which went into operation in March 2013. 

VP Bank Group focuses on energy efficiency. Consequently, a functional specification document was created for the procurement of new cooling units, which stipulated that the new equipment was to be fitted with electronically controlled expansion valves and heat-recovery capabilities. 

These modifications afford greater energy efficiency, and store energy that can be used for room heating and hot water generation. By means of a modern “recuperator”, natural gas consumption was reduced by more than 66 per cent versus 2012.

The differing types of buildings at VP Bank Group call for an overall concept that brings all of its Liechtenstein facilities up to the same level in terms of power technology. The goal of this concept is to harmonise all of the existing installations, optimise the distribution of power and efficiently exploit any ambient heat loss. To that end, energy flow meters were installed in 2009 in order to record and optimise the flows of energy from heating and cooling. The evaluation is adjusted to take seasonal fluctuations into account. The results are taken into account in the measures for fine-tuning the Bank’s overall energy supply. 

In addition, the energy supply project foresees the continued use of leading-edge technologies that enable heating on the basis of heat recovery. An initial implementation phase has been under way since the start of 2013. A renovation of the main office in Vaduz is planned for 2014. It will involve the installation of a new central cooling aggregate with heat-recovery capabilities and a new heating system. The equipment is scheduled to commence operation in spring 2014.

Once the system is put into service, the lion’s share of the overall concept will have been realised. A subsequent step will be to plan the use of groundwater in Vaduz. By implementing this measure, the existing subterranean water can be used for cooling purposes in summer and heating in winter. Initial discussions with the Environmental Protection Agency have already been held and a pilot hole has been drilled. The goal is for implementation to be completed by 2016. A separate, more detailed energy report for the Liechtenstein facilities will be drawn up.

In the autumn of 2012, a new service contract for photo­copiers was signed. The old copiers were replaced during the course of 2013. The new devices are made of recyclable components and use environmentally friendly polymerised toner, which, in its production, generates 40 per cent less CO2 emissions than conventional toners. Another major advantage is the lower TEC (typical electricity consumption) rate, which expresses the average weekly power consumption of electronic products based on their normal office use. 

This new generation of equipment is an all-in-one solution (printer, scanner, copier and fax). It switches more rapidly to the sleep mode and requires considerably less energy than previous models. That in turn helps VP Bank Group to reduce its operating costs and fulfils the goal of continually applying new technologies to minimise energy consumption and hence further reduce CO2 emissions. An external service provider has been commissioned to handle the maintenance of these devices.

Ever since 2004, waste separation has been the order of the day at VP Bank Group. Newspapers and magazines are collected and recycled separately from correspondence paper and the like. Glass, cardboard, polystyrene, PET bottles and green waste each have their own receptacles. The total amount of waste generated in 2013 (171 tonnes) was the lowest since 2007. Also, the per-employee figure of 0.36 tonnes was the lowest amount in nine years.

The residual paper disposed of by VP Bank Group is shredded in an in-house recycling unit and compressed into briquettes. With this process, roughly 28 tonnes of paper briquettes are produced per year. They are collected by a local recycler and taken to an incinerator.

Responsibility for the Bank’s environmental sustainability is borne by the Logistics & Security unit. The head of the unit represents VP Bank Group in the Swiss Network for Sustainability and Management. VP Bank Group is also involved in the municipality of Vaduz’s operational mobility management, where it contributes to a professional exchange of experiences gained in this area.

The Mobility Management project group of the Liechtenstein Chamber of Commerce and Industry is another body in which VP Bank Group actively participates. VP Bank Group is also a member of “Öbu”, the Swiss network for sustainable business operations and a think tank for environmental, social and management topics.

VP Bank Group has been participating in the Carbon Dis­closure Project (CDP) since 2008. CDP is an international non-profit organisation that has the goal of motivating com­panies and communities to lower their CO2 emissions and use water in a sustainable manner. On behalf of investors, CDP Switzerland gathers data and information on CO2 emissions and climate risks, as well as the reduction goals and strategies of the largest exchange-listed Swiss companies. The findings are published in an annual report.

Six years ago, a mobility concept was introduced at the head office in Vaduz. It features financial incentives for using public transportation as well as a graduated fee structure for employee parking spaces. The concept is self-financing: rental proceeds from the parking spaces are used for bonus payments to employees who waive the use of personal cars and parking spaces.

This concept also motivates employees to form carpools. In addition, VP Bank Group offers the cost-free use of Mobility Cars, an arrangement that has met with an enthusiastic response. A favourable trend was to be seen again in the total number of kilometres driven for business purposes in employees’ own vehicles: in 2013, it was 68 per cent lower than the total before introduction of the Mobility Car concept in 2007. The use of a videoconferencing system has helped to further reduce the business travel activities of employees.

Employees are also offered a free pass for bus and railway transport within Liechtenstein. The revenues from the Bank’s mobility management are in part used for the reimbursement of public transportation tickets. 90 employees benefited from this in 2013.

The bottom line of the Mobility concept is impressive: all goals have been achieved – a reduction of automobile traffic, the fostering of environmental awareness, the promotion of public transportation, and an elimination of the shortage of parking spaces. This concept is exemplary throughout the region. In March 2011, VP Bank Group’s mobility management approach received the “Zurich Climate Prize”, which honours measures aimed at improving energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions. 

In September 2013, VP Bank Group was honoured as an especially bicycle-friendly company by the government of the Principality of Liechtenstein.