In 2018, we launched "Project Zero" at Santiago to reduce our company and travel-based CO2 emissions to zero within 10 years. Through a comprehensive program aimed at CO2 savings, we have achieved significant progress so far. 

While some of the improvements made over the years have been amplified by disruptions related to COVID (virtual meetings, fewer on-site appointments, etc.), the significant CO2 reductions in 2023 were solely due to the measures we initiated. In 2023, we managed to decouple the growth of Santiago Advisors from the growth of our emissions for the first time. 

Despite our team growing by about 25% and with travel volumes for customer meetings, events, training sessions, etc., increasing again after the COVID years, we were able to reduce our overall emissions by around 10% and per capita emissions by about 30%. 

What are the reasons for our savings? 

1. Flights: At Santiago Advisors, we have now almost completely replaced domestic flights with train travel, even on longer routes of more than 400 km. 

2. Company Cars: By offering an attractive mobility bonus, we have further reduced the number of company cars. Today, only 20% of colleagues have a company car, compared to almost 100% in 2018. 

3. Events: Our event locations (especially for the summer event) are selected with a stronger focus on CO2 aspects. Additionally, we aim to minimize the number of flights for attendees. 

In addition to our ongoing efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, we are currently considering compensating for the remaining emissions in a different way than before (in past years, we compensated for all emissions via atmosfair). 

Many thanks to all who have made this great success possible. In particular, the commitment of colleagues who endured long train journeys with sometimes significant delays to avoid domestic flights deserves the highest recognition.