Environmental Impact Report

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT

(Cover)

MICHAEL ANDREWS (1928–1995)

School III: Buatterfly Fish and Damsel Fish

Price realised: £3,125,500

Christie’s London, March 2024

Christie’s is pleased to present its fourth Environmental Impact Report, demonstrating a 57% reduction in carbon emissions against our 2019 baseline year, based on current industry measurement standards from SBTi, the UN-aligned regulator.

Christie’s remains the only global auction house with a demonstrative sustainability strategy and this commitment continues to be impactful across the five operational areas of our programme. As both our activities and the emissions measurement methodologies change over time, these components will continue to fluctuate, but the overall downward trajectory is clear.

This methodical and transparent approach will remain as we work to sustain emissions reductions as part of our 2030 objective and prepare for even more ambitious progress up to 2050.

Ben Gore Chief Operating Officer

(Opposite)

PIERRE BONNARD (1867-1947)

Bord de mer, pins et rochers rouges

Price realized: $2,954,000

Christie’s New York, November 2023

2023 has been confirmed by numerous organisations as the hottest year on record and the impacts of climate change are no longer distant threats. At Christie’s, we recognise our position of influence and responsibility in shaping a sustainable future as we strengthen our commitment to a net zero transition.

We are on track to meet our current Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) near-term objectives by 2030 and have achieved a 57% absolute emissions reduction against our 2019 baseline year. Our overall emissions have gone up by 11% since 2022 but, as measurement methodologies change and data quality improves, it is reasonable to expect ongoing changes. With our 2023 report, we have restated our 2022 spend-based emissions, particularly for actual emissions for IT procurement instead of basing them on spend.

Our commitment to collaboration across our industry continues to bear fruit as we work with our suppliers and peers. Our Active Membership of the Gallery Climate Coalition is a testament to our determination to help foster change across the Art Market.

For example, 2023 was the first year of our Sustainable Shipping Standard, enabling Christie’s to collaborate with our top ten shipping suppliers and encourage alignment with our sustainability goals. We look for even broader participation and engagement when we repeat the programme for 2024, as well as continued traction with suppliers in areas such as packaging and IT.

In our endeavour to embed our climate strategy into the core of our business, we have adhered to best practice by assessing our climate-related risks and opportunities in line with the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework; this ensures we have a strategic and well-rounded approach to our carbon reduction planning.

Christie’s remains focused on maturing our approach and solutions to track our emissions and decarbonisation, for which transparency is critical. We are committed to continually improving the quality of our greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting data and methodologies, a commitment which not only ensures accuracy in our environmental assessments but also empowers us to make informed, data-driven decisions that drive positive change and contribute to our sustainability goals. Additionally, we recognize the value of sharing our learnings and best practices with the broader industry and hope to inspire others to join us on this journey towards a more sustainable future.

Our Ambition Christie’s sustainability strategy is driven by three goals— zero-impact, nature stewardship, and collective action— which continue to guide our approach across the business. We are mobilising this strategy and reporting on our progress through our pledge to Commit, Communicate and Collaborate.

(Opposite)

EDWARD HICKS (1780-1849)

Peaceable Kingdom

Price realized: $4,575,000 Christie’s New York, January 2020

COMMIT

We remain comitted to achieving our environmental goals

Christie’s is on track to meet our current SBTi near-term target to reduce absolute scope 1, 2, and 3 GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 from a 2019 base year. Overall, we have seen a 57% decrease in our emissions against 2019. The increase from 2022 to 2023 of 11% can be attributed to the rise in business travel activities and packaging emissions from our shipping activities. All other areas of the business have shown good reductions in emissions, as we continue to work on decoupling business growth from emissions rise.

As part of our zero-impact commitment, we have submitted our first SBTi-defined net zero target. Our 2050 target is awaiting approval from the SBTi, and we will communicate any further developments.

To achieve our environmental goals, we are delivering on a range of sustainability programmes across our core operational areas:

• In Buildings, this year we have achieved 97% renewable energy procurement coverage, and we are refining our approach next year to reach a full coverage. For waste disposal, we have also achieved 88% landfill diversion against our 90% target at our larger sites in London, New York, Paris, and Hong Kong.

• In IT, we have started to engage with our top IT suppliers to understand their sustainability progress and improve reporting, which will support our decarbonisation efforts moving forward. We are also continuing our efforts on cloud migration in our data centres and consolidation of data storage to reduce emissions.

Le

Price realized: $74,010,000

Christie’s New York, November 2023

• In Shipping, we continue to explore further opportunities to use sustainable packaging such as DNA EARTHBOX, RokBox, and reusable boxes for jewellery and watches. In the first year of our Sustainable Shipping Standard programme, we worked with our logistics partners to ensure they are aligned with our sustainability targets. (Above)

CLAUDE MONET (1840–1926)

bassin aux nymphéas

• In Business Travel, we have committed to reducing our business travel emissions over the medium-term by applying the travel policy we initiated in 2022. Last year, we prioritised employees and clients reconnecting in person. While travel was conducted in line with our policies, efforts in 2024 are re-doubling to ensure every trip made is considered essential to the provision of our services.

COMMUNICATE

As part of our commitment to transparency, we continue to strive for more accurate data and clear communication of our progress

• In 2023, Christie’s conducted our first climate risk and opportunities assessment in alignment with the TCFD framework. The assessment was necessary for us to continue to develop our sustainability strategy through mitigating risks and identifying strategic opportunities, in line with the new legislation. Our approach to climate-related risk is still evolving and this is an important first step on our journey.

• We are continuously refining our approach to calculating carbon emissions, seeking opportunities to enhance data quality and methodologies. This approach extends not only to current reporting periods but also to previously reported years, resulting in restatements of previous figures. In 2023, we restated the 2022 figures for spend-based emissions related to IT and Shipping, significantly affecting our IT emissions. We also restated the 2019 to 2022 figures for Buildings as we obtained better historical data for heat and steam activities.

COLLABORATE

We continue to strengthen the partnerships with our suppliers, clients, peers, and art institutions to tackle industry-wide sustainability challenges

• As previously mentioned in this report, we continued working with our key suppliers in shipping, packaging and IT to pursue both meaningful change in our collective business operations and the provision of more accurate emissions data. This involves these important partners willingly making changes to be in alignment with our sustainability goals.

• Our collaboration with one of our shipping suppliers, Crozier, continues as we support the use of sea freight to decarbonise our shipping emissions. Presently, we have arranged with Crozier to provide regular sea containers for two of our high-volume routes: London – New York and London – Hong Kong. These containers are also accessible to Crozier’s clients and the broader art market, fostering decarbonisation efforts across the industry.

Report Highlights

The diagram below shows the change in Christie’s emissions both within our SBTi boundary and outside of scope, from our 2019 baseline.

Emissions Reduction Against Science-Based Targets, in Tonnes CO2e

Out-of-Scope

2022 2023

Remaining Emissions X ktCO2e

in

* This year, we restated the emissions in base year 2019 and added 312 tonnes CO2e, due to our restatement of heat and steam emissions.

The emissions within the boundary of our science-based targets have been categorised under five core operational areas. Emissions in boundary across scopes 1, 2, and 3 were calculated to be 23,095 tonnes CO2e, representing an increase of 11% above 2022 levels, predominantly driven by the recovery and increase in business travel and shipping activities. Looking back to our baseline year 2019, our emissions in 2023 were 57% lower.

It is important to recognise the significant emission change from 2021 to 2022 that was stated in last year’s (2022) report. Due to the restatement of 2022 figures, the updated change in emissions from 2021 to 2022 is now a 20% reduction for in-boundary emissions.

In keeping with the guidance from our current SBTi target, the out-ofscope emissions are excluded from our science-based targets as they are deemed outside Christie’s direct control, and data visibility of these activities is limited. Despite this, pending the approval from the SBTi we are

updating our near-term target to include 100% of our emissions, furthering our commitment to decarbonisation across our supply chain. While it is not currently required, we have been monitoring 100% of our emissions since 2019 and implementing reduction initiatives for both our emissions within the current SBTi boundary and out-of-scope.

Currently, Christie’s has five areas which together make up the boundary of our science-based targets:

• Buildings: 3,476 tonnes CO2e: energy used in buildings, waste, water, paper, and employee commuting.

• IT: 3,111 tonnes CO2e: IT procurement, data centres, post and telecommunications, e-waste, and on-blockchain activities.

• Shipping: 7,467 tonnes CO2e: inbound and outbound freight, exhibition tours, other internal logistics and storage, and packaging.

• Publishing: 593 tonnes CO2e: production and distribution of printed material.

• Business Travel: 8,448 tonnes CO2e: mainly due to staff air travel.

The diagram below shows the change in Christie’s emissions within our SBTi boundary by emissions scope as per the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

Emissions by Scope, in Tonnes CO2e

Buildings

Energy: direct emissions from the consumption of natural gas, other fuels, and refrigerants (scope 1); indirect emissions from the generation of the electricity we purchase (scope 2).

Others: scope 3 emissions from employee commuting, from the paper we purchase for our buildings, and from the disposal and treatment of waste and water waste generated in buildings.

Buliding Emissions* in Tonnes CO2e

* Note: all years have been restated with updated heat and steam data.

In 2023, we have seen noteworthy progress in reducing our emissions in Buildings despite our workforce continuing to return to the office. We have achieved a 17% reduction in emissions since 2022 and 64% since 2019.

INITIATIVES

• Emissions associated with our energy emissions have decreased by 18% since 2022. Continued procurement of renewable energy has kept electricity emissions low, this year we achieved 97% coverage against our 100% renewable energy target. Furthermore, through proactive building management from our engineering teams, we have reduced actual natural gas energy consumption (kWh) by 26%.

• Christie’s continued to expand our capital expenditure programme, with significant investment in our Paris and London sites. Our ongoing LED project ensures efficient lighting by replacing outdated systems. Furthermore, we have conducted energy surveys at some of our smaller sites, leveraging insights from past initiatives to explore potential applications and optimise energy usage across our operations.

• We have made real strides in our waste management programme across our sites in London, New York, Paris, and Hong Kong, resulting in a 65% decrease in waste-related emissions from 2022 to 2023. This year, we conducted waste audits across our top sites, significantly improved the data quality of our emissions calculations and implemented internal employee campaigns advocating for environmentally conscious waste management practices at our sites. As a result, we have achieved an 88% landfill diversion rate across our main sites, significantly improved from 28% in 2022. Going ahead, we are committed to preserving this progress and will persist in our efforts to achieve our 90% diversion goal.

• Next year we look to improve the data quality concerning increasingly significant emissions sources in Buildings, such as employee commuting. This will enable us to assess their impact more accurately and implement more targeted initiatives. (Above)

NICHOLAS ROERICH (1874-1947)

Blue Morning

Price realized: $126,000

Christie’s New York, September 2023

IT procurement: the indirect emissions from our software and hardware purchases, as well as the services needed to upkeep and monitor them.

Data centres: the emissions from running our two data centres.

Post and telecommunications: the emissions from our procured postal and telecommunications goods and services.

E-Waste: the emissions from end-of-life treatments of our electrical and electronic equipment.

On-blockchain activities: including but not exclusively the emissions associated with NFT-related transactions and Christie’s 3.0.

IT Emissions in Tonnes CO2e

* Restatement of 2022

As referenced earlier in this report, we have restated our 2022 spend-based emissions. This mainly affected IT procurement and resulted in a large reduction (-78%) from previously reported emissions. By working closely with our top ten suppliers for the emissions relating to 2023, we were able to re-examine the data for the previous year and move from spend-based estimations of emissions to actual activity-based reported emissions, resulting in the following reduction:

2022 previous IT was 16,555 tCO2e out of a total 33,602 tCO2e

2022 restated IT now 3,585 tCO2e out of a total 20,719 tCO2e

As we adjust to the changing methodologies affecting the data against which we measure our emissions, we are always looking at ways to improve, keep up with GHG accounting best practice and collaborate with our suppliers. Fluctuations in results must be expected over time.

INITIATIVES

• IT procurement: Procurement of software, hardware, and the associated services account for most emissions in this category. Limited data availability from suppliers means this category is highly estimated. Due to the materiality of these emissions, we are now prioritising improving the data quality of IT procurement-based emissions and have been engaging with our top ten IT suppliers to understand their carbon accounting maturity and disclosure which will enable us to use better data in our calculations. We will then be able to make an improved assessment of the impact of our IT procurement.

• NFTs: Following our launch of Christie’s 3.0, our own on-chain platform dedicated to selling exceptional non-fungible-token (NFT) art in 2022, we have had a full year of using the energy-efficient proof-of-stake mechanism on the updated Ethereum 2.0 network. This decision has resulted in blockchain-related emissions reducing by nearly 100% to 5 kgCO2e in 2023 (down from 2.03 tCO2e in 2021), while blockchain transactions have nearly tripled. This achievement not only underscores our commitment to environmental sustainability but also demonstrates the potential for innovative technological solutions to drive positive change in the digital landscape.

• Data centres: Our ongoing cloud migration programme and the decommissioning of physical infrastructure at data centres has yielded an impressive 36% reduction in our energy consumption (kWh) and a 29% decrease in emissions from 2022. Looking ahead, we are committed to further leveraging cloud technologies wherever possible and actively exploring opportunities to consolidate our stored data, thus driving down emissions even more effectively.

Shipping

Freight: of artwork for internal logistics between Christie’s sites, before the sale (i.e., from the seller to the auction room) or after the sale (i.e., shipping organised on behalf of the buyer).

Packaging and storage: indirect emissions from the production of packaging materials (e.g., crates) and from outsourced storage.

Shipping Emissions in Tonnes CO2e

*Note: The restatement for shipping relates to the emissions calculated through a spend-based methodology. As most of our Shipping emissions following a process-based methodology, this has had a minor impact on last year’s related figure (6,642

to

In 2023, our shipping emissions increased by 19% compared to 2022. The rise is mainly attributed to increased packaging emissions, driven by a rise in shipments. Currently, we have low data coverage of our packaging emissions leading to a less accurate figure which may not reflect our current packaging initiatives. Going forward, we are working towards improving data coverage and the overall methodology. For freight, despite the rise in the number of shipments of 31%, emissions have only increased by 4% leading to a 20% decrease in freight emissions per shipment. This is due to improved data quality in wine shipment tonnage calculations, enabling a more accurate methodology application. Overall, against our 2019 base year, we maintained an absolute emissions reduction of 50%.

Packaging

• In 2022, we piloted a Repurposed Crate initiative internally, but complexity hindered adoption. Success came with third-party suppliers managing empty crates, eliminating the need for Christie’s to provide oversight. In London, we are donating empty crates to both Crown and Crozier and implementing a policy where our main suppliers default to repurposed crates, and only make a new crate if there is no repurposed crate available. Furthermore, we ensure that reusable crates are put into use, leveraging the Rokbox loop initiative where possible.

• Our alignment with the Sustainable Packaging working group remains steadfast as we actively seek new opportunities to transition to more environmentally friendly packaging solutions. Among our initiatives, we have targeted reducing the use of plastic bubble wrap and have expanded the use of reusable cases for jewellery and watches, promoting sustainability without compromising quality. To ensure a cohesive and efficient approach across all aspects of packaging, we have partnered closely with our marketing team to standardise practices for catalogue distribution.

Freight

• Our Sea Freight programme is in partnership with Crozier and provides regular sea containers for two of our high-volume routes: London – New York and London – Hong Kong. This initiative will help us target our highest emitting routes and move towards decarbonising our supply chain.

• 2023 was the first year for our new Sustainable Shipping Standard, a collaborative effort developed in partnership with our strategic logistics partners. This standard provides suppliers with a framework to align their sustainability efforts with Christie’s objectives and industry best practices. Following the initial implementation, we conducted a thorough review, identifying any gaps and assessing response quality to pinpoint areas for improvement. As a result, we refined the questionnaire to improve clarity for suppliers and ensure their understanding of the requirements they need to meet. Looking ahead, we plan to extend this standard to our tier two suppliers.

• This year we have worked with our logistical partner in the UK to ensure electric vehicles (EVs) are used within London for ‘last mile’ delivery. We have also liaised with them to ensure when they replenish vehicles these are hybrid or EVs. We have started to record distance travelled in 2023 and will track this metric moving forward. This initiative is also now up and running in Paris, Milan and Geneva and we look to put this service in place in New York.

PUBLISHING EMISSIONS CONSTITUTE:

Printing: of the material we use in support of our sales (mainly auction catalogues), including indirect emissions from paper, other materials, and printing.

Distribution: sending printed material by air or other transport types.

(Opposite)

KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760-1849)

Fugaku sanjurokkei (Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji)

Price realized: $3,559,000 Christie’s New York, March 2024

While publishing remains an important part of our business and client experience, the related emissions now account for just 3% of our total SBTi boundary. Emissions from publishing is driven by the number of prints and the transportation of publications. In the past, the volume of publications printed was closely correlated to the number of auctions held. However, our policy to carefully evaluate the need for printing while maximising the digitisation of our publishing has successfully broken this link.

INITIATIVES

• We have upheld strict limitations on what we print ensuring emissions remain low. This has led to an 89% decrease in emissions from print runs and an 86% decrease in emissions from distribution of publishing materials since 2019. We use recycled paper wherever possible without compromising on quality. To limit paper use, we preserve printed material primarily for high value sales.

• We use DHL GoGreen Solutions plan to primarily distribute catalogues, ensuring environmentally conscious logistics are applied throughout distribution. In the future, we will look to collaborate with them further to retrieve more accurate data and explore ways to decarbonise our transportation of publications further.

Business Travel

(Opposite)

NICHOLAS ROERICH (1874-1947)

Price realized: $214,200

Christie’s New York, March 2024

Air travel: staff travelling to visit clients, undertake valuations, attend auctions and events, or meet with colleagues.

Other types of travel: staff travelling in company cars or in personal cars used for business trips, as well as by train, public transport, etc.

Travel Emissions in Tonnes CO2e

Business travel plays a critical role in our company’s operations, facilitating activities such as maintaining and developing client relationships, and travel to auctions, fairs, events, and exhibitions. Consequently, it remains a significant contributor to our carbon footprint, accounting for 37% of our emissions. In 2023, we enforced our travel policy, which determines travel necessity, promotes rail travel whenever feasible, and states the flight class each employee can take based on journey length. We have still seen a 42% increase in business travel emissions from 2022 to 2023. In the first half of 2023, as the global economy returned to normal, we prioritised the need for our employees to reconnect in person with both clients and internal teams, often for the first time since pre-pandemic. The development and strengthening of personal relationships through face-to-face interactions has been invaluable for Christie’s clients, suppliers, employees and company culture. However, the increased travel has been a moment-in-time business requirement and, moving forward, Christie’s will emphasise the need to return to a more balanced approach. Overall, our travel emissions have reduced by

Karakoram, from the Mountain Suite

38% against our 2019 base year and we will continue to closely monitor business travel to ensure emissions are tightly controlled.

INITIATIVES

• We are collaborating closely with our travel provider to uphold the travel policy and produce regular and ad hoc reports. This approach enables us to monitor travel emissions throughout the year and implement any necessary adjustments. Additionally, more frequent travel reporting facilitates effective communication and guidance for employees regarding their travel choices.

• While we have seen an uptick in emissions, the travel policy has proved effective in increasing rail travel by 23%.

• We continue to move towards greener transport methods in our fleet and offerings for employees. Whenever contracts allow, we are replacing company cars with either hybrid or electric vehicles. Additionally, we have introduced green car services available in London and Paris, this has resulted in a 54% increase in distance travelled by green taxis compared to just a 1% increase in standard taxis. Moving forward we are looking at options to roll this out across our other European sites.

ESG Pension Fund Investment

Internally at Christie’s, we work with pension providers to offer a competitive and compelling range of investment options to employees including, where possible, funds with ESG and sustainability options. In the UK, the Defined Contribution default investment option is a strategy that includes a 2030 Net Zero emissions Target. Christie’s also engages with relevant third parties to ensure that sustainable investment options are considered for the company’s defined benefit pension plans.

(1844-1910)

Price realised: $43,535,00

Christie’s New York, May 2023

(Above)

HENRI ‘LE DOUANIER’ ROUSSEAU

Les Flamants

TCFD (Taskforce for Climaterelated Financial Disclosure)

This year Christie’s has taken steps to align with the pillars and recommendations of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure. Being one of the first in the industry to take this step reflects Christie’s dedication to a Net Zero transition. In line with our belief that knowledge and transparency drive environmental progress, we have shared a summary of findings from the first iteration of this process. From this process we have created a roadmap over the next three years to further embed climate risk in the decision-making processes. The disclosure is structured around four thematic areas: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.

• For governance, Christie’s International Board of Directors has actively considered the TCFD recommendations as it progressively takes action to align its governance processes with these guidelines. Christie’s currently employs a comprehensive risk management framework and following the TCFD assessment, Christie's is in the process of integrating climate-related risk identification into this framework.

• For strategy, Christie’s is committed to an ongoing improvement of climate risk management by exploring resource allocation, policy updates, training, and expertise acquisition. Through climate scenario analysis, we identified key risks (carbon cost and infrastructure risk). Christie's has committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050 and has recently submitted its Net Zero 2050 science-based target for approval in 2024, to help manage its emissions trajectory in alignment with climate science recommendations.

• For risk management, looking forward, a formal risk assessment re-identification will be conducted annually for climate risk. Christie’s is committed to ensuring that it has a robust internal process with clear stakeholder responsibilities to allow it to manage, mitigate and track the trajectory of climate-related risks.

• For metrics and targets, Christie’s plans to utilise risk-relevant targets to manage its climate-related risks and opportunities. These targets will be supported by risk-relevant metrics that are reviewed internally on a regular basis. At present, Christie’s key climate risk metric is its annual GHG emissions. Christie’s emissions can be found under ‘Report Highlights’ section in this report. In terms of targets, Christie’s Near-Term Science-Based Target aligns with an emissions reduction trajectory that keeps global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Christie’s has now gone a step further by submitting a long-term Net Zero 2050 aligned SBT in 2024, which is awaiting approval by the SBTi.

About This Report

This Christie’s Environmental Impact Report has been prepared by Christie’s in association with Accenture. It includes a detailed account of Christie’s carbon footprint arising from all operations and relevant supply chains. This was compiled through the exhaustive analysis of data relating to operational activities, including procurement data. Christie’s key personnel were interviewed to interpret and categorise this data, and emissions from areas where data was not available were estimated using modelling methods developed by Accenture specifically for Christie’s, aligned with best practice in GHG emissions accounting. We provide a comprehensive breakdown of total carbon emissions arising from all activities in our boundary from 2019 to 2023.

All data collected and analysed within this report has followed the World Resources Institute (WRI) GHG Protocol principles of relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency, and accuracy.