Environmental protectionThe sustainable use of resources and environmental protection are issues close to our hearts
Environmental protection measures
CDA introduced the following measures in the past and will continue to apply them in the future in order to limit the environmental impact of its business activities. The measures concerned relate to the areas of power consumption, heating, water, waste, paper and business trips.
In order to limit our consumption of power and heating and therefore reduce the related CO2 emissions, at CDA we use only energy-saving lighting, hardware and photocopiers. Our employees are actively encouraged to switch equipment and lights on only if and when these are actually needed. Furthermore, our office windows are airtight and made of multi-panel insulating glass, the outside walls of the building are efficiently insulated and we use a modern form of gas central heating. The radiators are equipped with thermostats, which our employees set at a sensible temperature. During the winter, we follow the recommended method of giving the rooms a brief and intensive airing to keep them well-ventilated.
We reduce water consumption by using economical dishwashers. The office lavatories are all equipped with a stop button on the flush.
It goes without saying that we separate our waste and ensure its correct disposal. Having said that, we do our best to avoid waste in the first place. For example, we solely buy beverages in returnable bottles for our office employees. We also use rechargeable batteries at CDA in preference to disposable ones, and we opt for reusable storage media such as USB sticks rather than CDs.
We have various mutually complementary methods of combating unnecessary paper usage. These include: increasingly saving documents and emails electronically; printing documents out using both sides of the sheets of paper; setting the printer to condense several pages onto one sheet of paper; working with "previews" rather than printouts, especially in the case of tests; using up paper that has only been printed on one side for rough notes or similar.
In the case of business trips, if possible, we use public transport rather than cars. We try to keep business trips to a minimum by performing installation, configuration and maintenance work via remote access to our customers' systems. If several CDA employees are to take part in a seminar, we try to arrange for it to take place at our offices to avoid so many people all having to travel. If several employees do have to drive to the same destination, we try to organise carpools wherever possible. The company cars are all equipped with satellite navigation devices to avoid unnecessary extra mileage.
