ING continues to be climate action leader, says CDP
ING maintains its A-list status in CDP’s annual list of the world's businesses leading on environmental performance. This result shows ING’s continuous commitment on climate action leadership, being recognised by CDP as an A-list company for the fifth year in a row.
The score reflects much more than our own operational environmental performance. It reflects our commitment and progress made on many other indicators: governance; risk management; opportunity management, including (financial) products and services; and climate change strategy, including our metrics and targets.
It also reflects the choices we make as a lender and the role we can play by financing change, sharing knowledge and using our influence.
With our Terra approach, we are steering our €600 billion lending book towards the Paris Agreement's goal to keep global warming to well-below two degrees. In September 2019 we published our first progress report on Terra, disclosing ING’s pathway towards climate alignment in the sectors most responsible for climate change.
We apply strict social, ethical and environmental criteria in our financing and investment policies and practices. We also say ‘no’ to certain companies and sectors, like with our aim to reduce our exposure to coal power generation to close to zero by 2025. ING was the first bank to commit to exiting coal.
A steady progress towards bold environmental goals
ING strives to be a leader in environmental performance. We monitor and manage our operational environmental impact closely, and believe setting ambitions help us become a more resource-efficient company.
With the help of our Environmental Programme, ING has decreased our total carbon footprint by 44% as of year-end 2018 compared to 2014 while also increasing coverage of our emissions monitoring. This brings us one step closer to our 2020 target of 50% reduction.
By year-end 2018 we increased renewable electricity to 98% of our total electricity consumption. This also brings us closer to our commitment under RE100 to procure 100% renewable electricity for all ING buildings where we have management control worldwide by 2020.
Also, sustainability is reflected in ING’s new office in Amsterdam. The design of our Cedar building has been awarded the highest sustainability rating by BREEAM-NL. It was partially built with the concrete from the previous building on the same location. Around 3,000 square meters of solar panels provide energy for the building, while triple glazing and insulated window frames help to save energy.
CDP is a global non-profit that drives companies and governments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard water resources and protect forests. Voted the number one climate research provider by investors, it works with institutional investors with assets of $96 trillion. CDP leverages investor and buyer power to motivate companies to disclose and manage their environmental impacts. Over 8,400 companies with over 50% of global market capitalisation disclosed environmental data through CDP in 2019.
CDP uses a detailed and independent methodology to assess these companies, allocating a score of A to D- based on the comprehensiveness of disclosure, awareness and management of environmental risks and demonstration of best practices associated with environmental leadership, such as setting ambitious and meaningful targets. Those that don’t disclose or provide insufficient information are marked with an F.
The Climate A-List and full company scores are available on CDP’s website.
