American Chamber of Commerce in Romania
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Honored with Business Superbrands Award 2007/2008
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RBS Romania and the environmental impact
Source : RBS Romania
Company: RBS Romania
Business Sector :Banking
Contact Person: Georgeta Bora
Address: 10 Montreal Square - WTCB 2nd Floor, 011469 Bucharest 1, Romania
Email: georgeta.bora@rbs.com
Website: www.rbs.ro
Phone: (40) 21 20 20 425
Fax: (40) 21 31 91 169
Implementation year: 2006-2008
Summary
‘RBS Romania and the environment’ describes the actions taken by the bank to minimise the impact of its activities on the environment, including measures regarding product and service innovation, environmental risk, employee engagement and group footprint. These initiatives are part of the corporate responsibility strategy of the bank.
Description
Project Focus:
The ‘RBS Romania and the environment’ program is focused on: - Offering products and services with a sustainability component to our clients; - Integrating social, environmental and ethical considerations into the risk management processes; - Minimising the direct environmental footprint of the bank, by reducing the resources consumption and the waste generated through the bank operations; - Increase the awareness and education on sustainability for the bank’s employees to generate a behavioural change;
References:
Most of these initiatives were developed in cooperation and support from the bank’s head-office, the corporate responsibility team. The direct environmental footprint component was realised in cooperation with producers and distributors of green services and products, such as the partnering recycling company, the provider of energy efficiency light-bulbs or of the videoconferencing system. The project beneficiaries are the clients and the employees of RBS Romania.
Contacts, Links:
Business Sector :Banking
Contact Person: Georgeta Bora
Address: 10 Montreal Square - WTCB 2nd Floor, 011469 Bucharest 1, Romania
Email: georgeta.bora@rbs.com
Website: www.rbs.ro
Phone: (40) 21 20 20 425
Fax: (40) 21 31 91 169
Implementation year: 2006-2008
Summary
‘RBS Romania and the environment’ describes the actions taken by the bank to minimise the impact of its activities on the environment, including measures regarding product and service innovation, environmental risk, employee engagement and group footprint. These initiatives are part of the corporate responsibility strategy of the bank.
Description
For us at RBS corporate responsibility is about understanding the issues that matter most to our stakeholders and delivering our business with integrity and transparency.
The environmental impact of the bank is one of the ten priorities identified at group level.. RBS has developed an environmental policy to express its commitment to address both direct and indirect environmental impacts. This approach includes four directions: 1. Product and service innovation
2. Environmental risk
3. Employee engagement
4. Group footprint RBS Romania has implemented a variety of programmes aimed at minimising the bank’s impact on the environment.
1. Product and service innovation – RBS is committed to serving unique needs and to offering creative solutions through our sustainable development products and services, such as our Eco-markets platform of financial solutions, with products and services related to climate change and the carbon trading market (http://www.eco-markets.com/). In Romania RBS offers clients the possibility to realise transactions under the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, like trading EU allowances, swap between allowances and carbon credits.
2. Environmental risk - RBS integrates social, environmental and ethical considerations into its risk management process. The bank has developed global policies to assess how our involvement with clients from such sectors as mining and metals, oil and gas, forestry and tree plantations, defence, gambling, dams, could affect the environment and the community. All these policies are applied for the operations developed in Romania.
3. Employee engagement
- Employee education and engagement is a priority for RBS Romania, different awareness campaigns on resource and energy efficiency being organised for the employees of the bank.
- Trainings on sustainability topics were held for over 400 bank employees in 2008. These seminars ensure understanding of current sustainability issues, the bank’s strategy and actions on corporate responsibility, as well as the individual actions that can contribute to a positive change.
- The campaign “Turn off your computer”: in June 2007 the RBS employees were encouraged to save energy by placing “Turn off” stickers next to their monitors and printers.
- The World Environment Day on 5 June was an opportunity to organise environmental awareness campaigns for employees both in 2007 and in 2008. In 2007 the bank distributed energy efficient light bulbs to all the employees who were advised to use them at home and to recycle them at the end of their life-time. In 2008 the internal awareness campaign was developed under the message: “Towards a low carbon economy. Kick the CO2 habit!”. An RBS mug with the message “YourWorld. Doing your bit for the environment” was offered to every employee of the bank in order to encourage the reduction of plastic consumption. A workshop was held by WWF to raise awareness on climate change and the importance of individual actions to minimise environmental footprint.
4. Group footprint
RBS aims to minimise its direct impact on the environment by reducing waste and optimising the internal resource use. Different initiatives were implemented in this area between 2006 and 2009.
- The recycling programme: since March 2006 RBS Romania has implemented an environmentally driven resource efficiency employee campaign to recycle paper, PET and cardboard. This programme was relevant due to the current status of the recycling system, not yet fully functional in Romania. In three years of activity, until December 2008, in the RBS head-office in WTC Bucharest we succeeded in recycling 52,28 tonnes paper, 6,49 tonnes PET and 6,69 tonnes cardboard. The amount of recycled paper is ‘saving’ 784 trees (equivalent of cutting down these trees). The programme included the agreement with a recycling company, installing special bins, communication and education for all RBS employees, as well as continuous measurement and evaluation.
- Recycled paper for the bank’s internal operations was introduced in June 2007: A4 paper and envelopes. Starting with December 2008 Supreme Recycled paper is used for all the bank’s operations.
- Energy efficient light bulbs are used in all RBS offices to optimise energy consumption.
- Computer shut-down software was implemented in July 2008 as a measure to further minimise the impact on the environment through reducing the energy used by computers. All computers in the bank (except critical ones and remote laptops) are being automatically shut-down through special software during non-business hours, respectively between 22:00 and 7:00 on week days and also at the weekend.
- Environmental certification for the head-office building in Bucharest: RBS Romania will soon move in a new head-office building that will be one of the first environmentally certified buildings in Romania. BREEAM certification is the world's most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings.
- Videoconferencing system is implemented in six RBS locations in the country in order to reduce travel - related time and costs, where applicable. This measure does not only provide environmental and cost reduction benefits, but also improves internal communication within the bank.
These initiatives are in line with the existing RBS Group programmes:
- RBS is the largest global financier of renewable energy, with over $2 billion committed in 2006 alone. In this way RBS is financing the transition to a low carbon economy.
- RBS only lends to projects that conform to the highest international environmental and social standards.
- YourWorld program was launched for the bank’s employees to encourage behavioural changes - http://www.rbsyourworld.com/. - 55 mln GBP were invested in energy efficiency programs to reduce environmental footprint;
- 100% of the electricity in UK and Ireland comes from renewable sources;
- 25 mln GBP were invested in technologies such as videoconferencing to reduce the travel emissions, to reach more than 700 videoconferencing studios.
- RBS achieved the leading independent environmental certification for the Gogarburn headquarters in Edinburgh.
The bank’s global efforts in managing environmental impact are recognised externally, RBS being a leader in corporate responsibility in the financial sector: Climate Disclosure Leadership Index, Dow Jones Sustainability Index, FTSE4Good Index, Innovest (AAA rating for managing social and environmental risks and opportunities).
Project Focus:
The ‘RBS Romania and the environment’ program is focused on: - Offering products and services with a sustainability component to our clients; - Integrating social, environmental and ethical considerations into the risk management processes; - Minimising the direct environmental footprint of the bank, by reducing the resources consumption and the waste generated through the bank operations; - Increase the awareness and education on sustainability for the bank’s employees to generate a behavioural change;
References:
Most of these initiatives were developed in cooperation and support from the bank’s head-office, the corporate responsibility team. The direct environmental footprint component was realised in cooperation with producers and distributors of green services and products, such as the partnering recycling company, the provider of energy efficiency light-bulbs or of the videoconferencing system. The project beneficiaries are the clients and the employees of RBS Romania.
Contacts, Links:
Georgeta Bora, Corporate Responsibility Coordinator, RBS Romania
Tel: +40 21 20 20 425
Mobile: +40 723 278 290
Email: georgeta.bora@rbs.com
RBS Romania website on Corporate Responsibility http://www.rbsbank.ro/corporates/docs/country/romania/aboutus_corporateresponsability.jsp
RBS Group website on Corporate Responsibility
id=CORPORATE_RESPONSIBILITY
