Environment

At Dassault Systèmes, we have outlined a twofold strategy to fulfill our commitment, first by setting an emissions reduction target covering the full value chain that is in line with climate science – with scopes 1 and 2 aligned with a 1.5 degree Celsius pathway and scope 3 aligned to SBTi best practice guidance – and then by offsetting the impact of any residual emissions by investing in projects that permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to achieve climate neutrality by 2040. This strategy was established according to a baseline of 2019 emissions data, and prioritizes reduction pathways in purchased goods and services, capital goods, business travel, and employee commuting. 

In addition to our commitments on emissions, we have also committed to working with other stakeholders to tackle climate change. We joined global initiatives to promote sustainable development, such as the European Green Digital Coalition, the United Nations Global Compact, the Science Based Target initiatives (SBTi), Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) supporters’ network, Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) as well as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. We are ranked in the Corporate Knights 2021 Top 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World as well as Clean200, the annual list of publicly traded companies offering sustainable energy transition solutions.

Find out more about our Targets.

Our approach to climate change takes into account both our environmental footprint and the handprint of our products and services.

• Footprint:  Our approach to managing our direct footprint include many levers:
  • Real Estate and Facilities: Select eco-efficient workplaces, sort ordinary waste and deploy ISO 50 001 certification when relevant,
  • Procurement: Purchase low carbon energy, evaluate the sustainability performance of purchased products and initiate dialogue with key suppliers. More detail on our purchasing policies can be found here.
  • Information Technology: challenge data centers’ energy efficiency, extend hardware lifespan and manage e-waste
    Read Chapter 2 of our Annual Report for a more complete description of our environmental actions and KPIs.
• Handprint: we recognize that climate change and pressures on natural resources means managing risks as well as capturing the enormous opportunities related to the sustainable transformation of the economy. A key tenant of our climate and environmental risks mitigation strategy is the development of solutions that enable our clients to minimize their own environmental footprint. This includes offering solutions for virtual prototyping to avoid wasted materials in the product development and testing phase, or creating intelligent cities designed to optimize use of resources within urban areas.

Identifying and mapping Dassault Systèmes’ key Sustainability issues is the point of departure of our Sustainability strategy. To conduct this mapping, we rely on internal input and also external expertise, notably the framework provided by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

The SASB Materiality Map highlights the most material Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues for the sector. These are presented in the table here.

Following a detailed review with internal stakeholders, these issues are indeed considered as material not only for the sector broadly but also for Dassault Systèmes, and as such are addressed in more detail in the Chapters 1 and 2 of our Annual Report. 

One of the most critical risks identified by both SASB and our internal stakeholders is the management of energy consumption and its related impact on the climate. This risk is reviewed regularly as part of the Sustainability updates provided both to the Sustainability Committee, group Executive Committee, and the Board of Directors via the dedicated Sustainability lead.

At Dassault Systèmes, we recognize that to manage our climate risks, which is one of our most critical risks as outlined above, we need to measure our impact and set out targets. We report on environmental targets and KPIs in Chapter 2 of our Annual Report.

Metrics

We use the “GHG Protocol” to analyze our carbon intensity per employee. The assessment of greenhouse gas emissions includes:

• Scope 1, related to emissions from owned or controlled sources such as natural gas, fuel for generators and company cars.
• Scope 2, related to indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling.
• Scope 3, related to other relevant indirect emissions in our value chain, such as purchase of goods or use of goods sold.

Note on Scope 3 emissions from Use of Goods Sold:
Our Use of Goods Sold (Scope 3) is mostly indirect and therefore out of scope for the GHG Protocol for corporate reporting, however 3DS voluntarily estimates and reports this number: our Use of Goods Sold in 2021 (exc. Medidata) is 530 771 tCO2-eq. 

See the chart below to view our carbon intensity per employee in 2021 vs. 2020 vs. 2019: