BANKING ON CLIMATE NEUTRALITY
Banking may not be the most carbon-intensive sector in terms of its direct operations. However, through their lending decisions, policies and investment choices, financial institutions can have enormous influence on the scale of emissions in other sectors.
The banks that have joined the Climate Neutral Network combine commitments to reduce and offset their own emissions, and various forms of engagement with customers aimed at reducing their climate impacts.
Deutsche Bank has calculated its emissions at 460,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide for the baseline year of 2007, roughly the equivalent of Spain’s greenhouse emissions in the same year. It has committed to reduce its footprint by 20 per cent for each successive year, so that by 2012 the bank will be climate neutral.
cent, its heating energy requirements by 67 per cent, water consumption by 43 per cent, and electricity consumption by 55 per cent.
Among the measures it has taken towards that goal is the conversion of its headquarters in Frankfurt to the most eco-friendly high-rise building in Europe, described as the “Greentowers” project. Thanks to innovative and state-of-the- art technology, the building has cut is CO2
emissions by 55 per
As in other sectors, looking for ways of lowering emissions has produced cost savings for the bank, for example the greater use of video-conferencing instead of undertaking expensive business trips. Achieving higher sustainability ratings in the various indices ranking ethical investments can also bring new business opportunities.
As for the lessons learned so far from the climate neutrality process, Anja Kloss says it’s important for the policy to have strong support both from the senior management and the workforce of the organization.
“A climate neutrality strategy is a ‘top down’ as well as a ‘bottom up’ process. That means your strategy has to be positioned within the highest management levels, and at the same time you have to involve your employees. Without management backing you can’t implement a climate neutrality strategy, and without really ‘taking along’ your employees you can’t achieve a change in their behaviour,” says Kloss.
Deutsche Bank’s project manager for group sustainability, Anja Kloss, says that putting a climate strategy into action across a large international corporation like this is a big challenge.
“Firstly, you have to reduce your carbon footprint, which involves technical solutions as well as a change of behaviour on the part of your staff,” says Kloss. “Secondly, you have to start buying renewable energies. And then you can go on and carry the climate protection message to all your stakeholders. It is a complex process that demands a lot of energy and communication.”
Deutsche Bank’s climate neutral strategy goes beyond reducing its own footprint and offsetting its emissions with Gold Standard CDM projects. It has set itself up as a “climate ambassador”, taking the message of climate neutrality to its customers, shareholders and the general public. Kloss says opportunities to influence behaviour more widely include financing innovative climate-friendly projects, and developing investment products specifically aimed at sustainable activities.
Finally, the bank takes part in the Carbon Disclosure Project, an initiative bringing together more than 2,000 organizations from 66 countries to measure and publish their emissions and strategies to reduce them—information increasingly important in the world of ethical investment funds.
Anja Kloss quotes the words of Lord Adair Turner, chairman of Britain’s Financial Services Authority, speaking about the importance of the Project: “The first step towards managing
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