With heart and mind - BTC is also on the honest path when it comes to Sustainability Management

Regarding sustainability at BTC, this only applies to BTC AG and BITS.

The Business Technology Consulting Group is located in a strong group association of EWE. The BTC sustainability organization is in line with the corresponding structures of the shareholder. In addition, the BTC Group supplements central projects with specific measures in the IT sector.

For the companies of the EWE Group, and thus also for BTC, sustainability has traditionally been a very high priority. As a company, BTC is only successful in the long term if, in addition to financial success, ecological and social goals are achieved at the same time. Therefore, responsibility for economic as well as ecological and social concerns is an integral part of the corporate culture.

Sustainability is not a compulsory exercise, but an ongoing discourse. BTC is on this path.

As part of the EWE Group, BTC is making a contribution to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations. The focus is on the four for which all companies in the Group can make particularly large and effective contributions:

• SDG 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
• SDG 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote broad-based and sustainable industrialization, and support innovation
• SDG 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
• SDG 13: Take urgent action to address climate change and its impacts

Sustainability in the supply chain/subcontractors

Through a close network of partners, the Business Technology Consulting Group ensures a high level of expertise and know-how in its business areas and in its target markets. Our customers benefit from close partnerships with sales, implementation, platform partners and industry specialists as well as product developers. With our partnerships, we offer our customers and partners a large network for consulting, service and special solutions to complement BTC competencies.

At BTC, we use a supplier management platform. Supplier applications are reviewed and evaluated by the strategic buyer. In addition, the process of supplier qualification through to supplier development is part of BTC's Integrated Management System and is ISO 9001 certified.

We take responsibility for our business activities beyond the boundaries of the company and therefore introduced a code for our strategic suppliers in 2015, which has been an integral part of the General Purchasing Conditions since 2019: Our Supplier Code contains principles on human rights and working conditions as well as occupational safety, health, environmental protection and business integrity. The code applies to suppliers directly commissioned by Corporate Procurement in the course of procurement and tender processes. In this context, directly contracted suppliers are also required to commit their subcontractors with regard to compliance with the provisions of the Code and to ensure this.

In order to proactively counter potential human rights violations, a Group-wide risk analysis was developed and started to be implemented in the 2019 reporting year. The risk analysis aims to identify significant human rights risks in order to derive appropriate measures from them in the following year. The direct supply chain is also included in the human rights risk assessment. As part of the human rights risk assessment, we were guided by the human rights frameworks listed above. In 2019, an IT platform was introduced to monitor supplier management. This can record which suppliers have committed to compliance with the Code of Conduct for Suppliers.

Climate-Neutral BTC

Environmental and climate protection are equally important for society and the economy. The companies of EWE AG, and thus also the companies of the BTC Group, thus bear a special responsibility for this and have therefore adopted the goal of becoming climate neutral by 2035 in December 2020. Climate and environmental protection and the careful use of resources are already part of everyday life. The company strives to continuously reduce internal energy consumption, avoid environmental pollution from its business activities and promote biodiversity. For us, energy efficiency and renewable energies are the key to climate neutrality. To effectively support the energy transition and further reduce the carbon footprint of the energy sector, we are consistently expanding the share of our electricity generation from renewable energy sources. In this way, economic success is to be combined with responsibility for protecting the environment and climate by the companies of the EWE Group . The success of the measures introduced is regularly evaluated by means of a carbon footprint based on the GHG Protocol including Scope3 emissions.

As a group with a high level of energy expertise, the EWE Group has established a central energy management system in accordance with the principles of ISO 50001, which supports the individual companies in implementing their energy policies. In the course of this, the BTC companies have undergone energy audits in accordance with the DIN 16247 standard.

The scope of energy management also includes the Group's own data centers, which BTC IT Services GmbH also uses. The continuous improvement process for the permanent avoidance of energy use and associated emissions underpins the aforementioned international standard requirements. In addition, the unavoidable use of electricity is covered 100% by renewable energy sources. The corresponding external monitoring is carried out by TÜV Nord.

Integrity & Diversity

BTC's sustainable business success is based on the passion, commitment, competence and health of its employees. Therefore, the strengthening of fair and attractive working conditions, a modern human resources strategy and further training opportunities are of particular importance. In addition, BTC sets high standards for promoting the health of its employees and creating a working environment that maintains their health and well-being. BTC and its employees and managers have also committed themselves in the Code of Conduct to treating each other with respect and fairness.
As an employer, we at BTC also see it as our responsibility to enable our employees to work in a safe and healthy manner. With the "Arbeitsschutz mit System" (Occupational Health and Safety with a System) certificate, we pursue the goal of ensuring that our employees are not only healthy, but also stay healthy.

The AMS certification of BTC according to the requirements of the Verwaltungs-Berufsgenossenschaft based on the NFL / ILO-OSH 2001 certifies that we run a systematic and effective occupational health and safety management system in our company. The assessment also demonstrated that the requirements of OHSAS 18001:2017 are met.

Diversity has been practiced at BTC since the company was founded: Our corporate culture is based on the knowledge that the character and uniqueness of each employee make a decisive contribution to the development and success of the company. Each and every one of us makes a valuable contribution to the customer, in internal projects or in the staff departments, regardless of age, gender, origin or religion. The diversity of our employees has made us what we are today - therefore, for us, diversity means not only a challenge, but above all a perspective. As part of our diversity management, we want to recognize, value and make targeted use of differences and commonalities in a diverse workforce. That is why we have been an avowed signatory of the Diversity Charter, an initiative to promote diversity in companies, since 2009.

For BTC, entrepreneurship is synonymous with integrity and law-abiding, honest business practices. Integrity is the essential prerequisite for business success and helps to avoid legal and economic risks. Compliance-compliant behavior is therefore a matter of course for the Group. The trust and satisfaction of our customers and partners are built on this. In addition, data protection, information security and cybersecurity are becoming increasingly important in view of the increasing digitalization of business life. BTC attaches great importance to handling personal data carefully, protecting it from misuse and securing corporate data against unauthorized access. Individual business units of BTC and other BTC companies are organized in accordance with the requirements of ISO 27001 and are regularly audited on this basis.

This is a mandatory requirement for the development of data-based business models and the operation of secure, reliable and efficient energy service providers for which BTC regularly acts as a service provider.

Sustainability Reporting & GHG Accounting

BTC has a team of SAP, AWS and Microsoft specialists to accompany customers individually on their way to innovative sustainability reporting. In current projects, the implementation of the EU regulation on the so-called taxonomy plays an important role, as does the accounting of greenhouse gases. Currently, co-innovation partners are still being taken on board at BTC.

For BTC customers, the balancing of greenhouse gases is the focus of sustainability reporting. Relevant sources, such as the introduction to climate management or the collection of good practice in climate management of the United Nations (German section of the Global Compact), describe two generic approaches to IT support for the preparation of emissions balances:

Either one chooses the path of "Excel-based tools" or that of "SAP essays tailored to company-specific requirements." Consequently, SAP is named by the Global Compact as an established provider of data management for sustainability software solutions. The particular advantage lies in its ability to integrate with other resource planning applications, which are based on SAP solutions at many corporations. Since reliable data storage and audit-proof data processing, especially with regard to Scope 3 data, should be ensured for the preparation of a greenhouse gas balance, the solutions in our customer projects are partly based on SAP applications.

On the other hand, to make data collection user-friendly and consistent, BTC extends the relevant SAP components with Microsoft Power Apps. At its core, BTC AG develops solutions that create user-friendly data entry processes and intuitive analysis options through smart system architecture and integration.