The Bank recognises our environmental impact and is mindful that making a positive contribution to the economy through consideration of environmental issues across each channel of our organisation is fundamental to running our business in a responsible and sustainable way. In order to achieve this, we are focussed on managing climate risk, supporting the transition to a low carbon economy and taking action to reduce our environmental footprint.
permanent tsb has in place an employee led Green Team, a cross functional working group who together, work on green initiatives and awareness campaigns that support our green agenda.
With the support of the wider Sustainability Steering Committee, the team are focused on environmental programming across the following areas:
With a focus on continuous improvement, the Green Team meet at regular intervals inviting new ideas and encouraging new ways of thinking.
Actions taken in 2020 to reduce our environmental footprint are outlined below.
Given the increased focus on sustainability, both in Ireland and around the world, the Bank commissioned Ernst and Young (EY) to conduct a comprehensive sustainability assessment of permanent tsb in 2020. The comprehensive assessment covered a number of topics, including: the transition to a low carbon economy, green products and services, the regulatory landscape; responsible procurement; and, perhaps most notably, climate risk and the effect that it will have on all areas of our business.
Following the assessment, the Bank mobilised a Sustainability Committee with representation from Senior Leaders from each part of the organisation. Led by the Board, the Sustainability Committee commenced work on turning the findings of the EY Report into an action plan for the Bank across a number of dedicated work streams. This work will continue through 2021 and will cover the following in relation to climate risk:
We are conscious of the effect that climate change has on the Bank and view it as manifesting itself in two ways, firstly, through the operations of our business and secondly the financial risk it brings to the economy in the longer term. Climate Change presents both risks and opportunities to meet new customer needs for permanent tsb and we are preparing for both.
In November 2018, following a significant programme of work, the Bank joined more than 54 of Ireland's leading companies in signing the Business In The Community Ireland’s (BITCI) ‘Low Carbon Pledge’, committing to reduce our Scope 1&2 carbon emission intensity by 50% by 2030.
To deepen our commitment, in 2020 the Bank conducted a review of our value chain from a Scope 3 perspective and implemented a programme of work to measure and track our impact in relation to selected indirect emissions (water, waste and business travel).
Using employee FTE as an intensity measure, we estimate that we have achieved a 55% reduction in Scope 1&2 carbon emission intensity per employee since 2009, our baseline year for the pledge. This reduction reflects an increase in the use of renewable energy by electricity providers, efficiencies in energy use by the business through projects such as our LED lighting upgrade and the impacts of Covid-19 last year, which saw a large portion of our workforce begin to work remotely.
We will begin reporting on our selected Scope 3 emission intensity from 2021.
As we look to the future, we are committed to going further by conducting an in depth review of all areas of our business, with a vision to setting science based carbon emission reduction targets that are in line with the Paris Agreement by 2024.
Following an in depth piece of work, permanent tsb identified the use of energy as the biggest contributor to our emission intensity accounting for c.70%.
With this in mind, in 2020 we took additional action to support our emission reduction targets and to minimise the impact that our business has on the environment, including:
To further support the above, in 2017 permanent tsb switched energy provider and we are now using 100% renewable energy.
A large part of reducing our environmental impact is minimising waste, with a target to reduce our impact by 5% annually.
permanent tsb’s waste management supplier is committed to maintaining their environmental ethos by ensuring that no waste goes to landfill and that it is diverted and recycled through multiple resources.
The Bank has in place recycling facilities across all of our sites, including our Head Office building, administration sites, customer services centres as well as recycling bins in our Branch Network.
Actions taken in 2020 include:
permanent tsb continues to enhance its Procurement and Sourcing Frameworks to ensure that they support our sustainability goals and objectives. Our Procurement Policy sets out a framework for engaging with our suppliers including a commitment to procure goods, services and works from suppliers who can support the needs of our business in a sustainable manner. It sets out the key social, ethical and environmental standards that we want our suppliers to achieve and is supported by our procurement processes, supplier on boarding procedures and ongoing due diligence practices.
The Bank’s Procurement Policy is reviewed annually, communicated as required and made available to our colleagues on our internal website.