Ringier Axel Springer Polska Reduces Carbon Emissions with Infrastructure Built on AWS

Setting carbon-neutrality goals

Digital media company Ringier Axel Springer Polska reaches over 40 million users worldwide. The company’s mission statement is “We empower free decisions,” and it views sustainability as an important part of that.

Ringier Axel Springer Polska is part of the United Nations Global Compact. In February 2022, Axel Springer Group, of which RASP is a part, the company has calculated direct and indirect emissions resulting from its business activities and, from 2020 onward, offset its carbon footprint in three scopes.

It also seeks to educate the public about the importance of sustainability. “As a media company, we can make a positive impact on the climate,” says Anna Białkowska, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and sustainability manager at Ringier Axel Springer Polska. “We’ve reduced our own carbon consumption from electricity purchases by more than 90 percent, and we encourage our users to pursue sustainable practices as well.”

Launching green initiatives

In 2016, Ringier Axel Springer Polska began migrating to AWS to promote business efficiency and develop new services, and as of 2024, it uses more than 102 AWS services. The company quickly discovered that improvements in compute efficiency carry substantial sustainability benefits. For example, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Graviton processor—a family of processors designed to deliver the best price performance for cloud workloads running in Amazon EC2—uses up to 60 percent less energy than comparable instances using other processors. Ringier Axel Springer Polska operates in the Frankfurt Region, which is matched by on 100 percent renewable energy. “After the migration to AWS, our carbon emissions from IT systems migrated to AWS dropped to almost zero,” says Wojciech Struski, chief IT architect at Ringier Axel Springer Polska.

Ringier Axel Springer Polska promotes sustainability internally by using energy-efficient buildings, segregating waste and removing plastic bottles in company offices, and switching to hybrid vehicles, and it has launched green initiatives as well. It created the free Zero Emission Academy to give entrepreneurs access to knowledge about reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

It also leads the #LongLivethePlanet campaign, which aims to educate Polish people about protecting the planet through tests and interactive activities. For example, one test invites people to answer questions about water footprints and offers advice on efficient water use. “We are working to reduce our negative impact on the environment,” says Białkowska. “But our greatest strength is the power of our voice, which we use to encourage and inspire millions of Polish people and thousands of companies to take action.”

Continuing to reduce emissions

Moving forward, Ringier Axel Springer Polska will continue to use AWS to further reduce its carbon footprint and make its infrastructure more efficient. The company also plans to convert more of its print business to digital formats. “Efficiency and sustainability are always connected,” says Struski.