01 Introduction and strategy 02 Measuring and managing sustainability 03 Climate change related disclosure 04 Strengthening our foundation 05 Our universal principles 02.6 Own operations Energy efficiency and energy consumption We achieved a 32 percent reduction in energy consumption in our office buildings per employee against a target reduction of 20 percent in office buildings per employee by year-end 2025 (2021: 26 % reduction) against a 2019 baseline. See table ENV-3. Our operating entities are developing targeted approaches to reduce energy consumption. Environmental Management Systems and certifications We apply targeted Environmental Management System (EMS) and energy efficiency processes based on ISO14001 and ISO50001 standards to improve environmental management governance practices at our major locations and entities. This began in 2017 with the certification of our Allianz SE location in Munich. Mandator y requirements of certification help strengthen our approach – for example, it is a requirement of ISO14001 to have a Board-level sponsor for our EMS. At Allianz SE, this sponsor is our Chief Operations Officer. Our main locations also pursue certifications such as LEED, BREEAM, etc. Opportunities to secure environmental and sustainability certifications at other loc ations will continue to be evaluated based on local context and operations. Water consumption We achieved a 39 percent water reduction by year-end 2022 against the 2019 baseline on the way to our 2025 target of 10 percent reduction per employee (2021: 41 % reduction) See table ENV-7. This reduction was achieved through water saving measures applied across our lo cations combined with COVID-19 related measures. Minimizing our water consumption is a key principle under our Group En vironmental Guidelines. Our office-based operations mostly do not result in significant water use but w e understand the increasing need to use water efficiently, especially considering the impacts of climate change. This is especially important in areas at risk of water-stress such as India and Singapore. Approximately two-thirds of Allianz employees are situated in c ountries with medium to extremely high water-stress. 1 Managing waste We aim to minimize the waste we generate and to re-use and recycle materials wherever possible See table ENV-8. There was a 48 percent waste reduction in 2022 against a target reduction of 10 perc ent per employee by year- end 2025 against a 2019 baseline (2021: 41 % reduction). Our office-based operations mostly generate household-type waste. W aste reduction awareness campaigns are in place across Allianz entities to address the behavioral change of employees. Tackling waste from single-use- plastic has become a par ticular focus. We have developed global guidelines to systematically work towards operations that are single-use-plastic free. We introduced this topic in our reporting for the first time in 2021. We have defined ‘ Action on plastic’ measures at three levels: Level 1: Assessment of baseline usage of single-use-plastic across our operations. L evel 2: Definition of targets and action plans per operating entity , including allocation of resources and launch of implementation. Level 3: Progress assessed and reported to the project management sponsor, action plan checked and r eviewed within reporting period. 71 percent of operating entities (by headcount) had completed at least level one b y the end of 2022 (2021: 67 %). Allianz is also partnering with the international marine conservation or ganizations, to support cleaning the oceans and rivers from plastic, while contributing to circular economy. See section 02.7 on our corporate citizenship activities for further information. 1 According to our most recent assessment conducted in 2019. Allianz Group Sustainability Report 2022 83