Environmental report
CEA - Comparative environmental impact activity
With the CEA (Comparative Environmental Activity) method, we help you align your actions with planetary boundaries and turn your regulatory obligations into a sustainable strategic advantage.
The CEA method was born out of a desire to avoid causing negative externalities on other environmental aspects by implementing a plan to decarbonise the company's activities. In other words, to answer the question: ‘If I opt for nuclear-generated electricity, which is a priori less carbon-intensive than hydroelectricity, does this really reduce my environmental impact?’
Our service: a comprehensive environmental assessment, without the need for additional data collection!
The CEA method transforms your carbon footprint into an overall environmental impact assessment, reusing the same data.
Using the information already used for your greenhouse gas emissions, you get a 360° view of your impacts:
- resource consumption
- air and water pollution
- biodiversity loss
- footprint on land and oceans
A total of 20 impact categories are covered and weighted in ecological load units (ELU).
Thanks to a benchmarking system, your results can be compared to the Swiss average, which facilitates interpretation and highlights priority areas for action.
What this brings to your business
By choosing the CEA method, you benefit from:
- A broader vision: your decarbonisation decisions are assessed across all environmental dimensions.
- Risk management: the method incorporates double materiality (your impact on the environment and the environment's impact on your business).
- Identified opportunities: you prioritise your efforts where they have the greatest overall positive impact.
- Transparent communication: you meet the expectations of customers, investors and regulators with verifiable data.
- A competitive advantage: you demonstrate sustainable leadership and anticipate future regulations.
This approach is relevant for any company, organisation or institution wishing to measure and understand its environmental impacts, enabling the development of a holistic approach to sustainability.
Why go beyond carbon footprinting?
To measure your overall environmental impact and compare yourself to the Swiss average in each of the 20 integrated dimensions.
Our tool also allows you to compare several activities with each other (petrol vs diesel vehicles; gas vs fuel oil; etc.) using 20 environmental indicators, weighted to obtain an overall score, expressed in ecological load units (ELUs).
In other words, thanks to a proven scientific approach, the CEA method broadens the perspective beyond CO₂ emissions, offering a comprehensive approach to environmental sustainability. It integrates all of your environmental impacts (resources, pollution, soil, water and biodiversity) to avoid ‘false solutions’ which, by optimising a single variable (CO₂ for example), merely shift the problem elsewhere.
Broaden your horizons !
Identify your real levers for action and turn your regulatory obligations into a sustainable strategic advantage.
Example: identifying hotspots
A solution that is attractive from a CO₂ perspective may reveal other unexpected environmental impacts.
- A structure made of wood and polycarbonate vinyl can reduce carbon impact by nearly 50%.
- However, polycarbonate has a considerable impact on persistent pollutants in water. Nevertheless, once all factors are taken into account, this solution remains the best in terms of overall environmental impact.
The result: the company can ensure it avoids greenwashing by offering solutions that are attractive at first glance but conceal harmful impacts elsewhere.
Example: comparing energy alternatives
Should we favour hydroelectric or nuclear power?
Using the CEA method, it is possible to compare the two options by taking several environmental factors into account. We thus discover that:
- Oil-fired heat production has the greatest impact on land use.
- Hydropower and nuclear power have different profiles: hydropower requires more land, while nuclear power generates more specific waste.
As a result, the company chooses the option that best fits its strategy and overall environmental priorities, rather than limiting itself to a carbon-based approach.
A simple and effective solution
The strength of the CEA method lies in its simplicity for you:
- No additional data collection: we use the information already gathered for your carbon footprint assessment.
- A turnkey tool that transforms your existing data into a comprehensive environmental assessment.
- Clear, visual and easy-to-interpret reporting, both for your internal teams and your external stakeholders (customers, investors, etc.).