Sberbank : Sber aiming for zero carbon footprint of its branches by 2030

Sber is set to fully compensate for the carbon footprint of its branches by cutting the use of paper, buying new office machines, recycling plastic bank cards, and reducing energy use.

In 2020, Sber reduced paper consumption by 742 million sheets, the equivalent of cargo carried by 60 railway cars. In 1Q21, the metric reached 107 million sheets. Furthermore, Sber has waged a war on plastic, especially the one office equipment is made of. This type of plastic is almost unfit for recycling and is hence especially unsustainable. For instance, in the ongoing year, Sber is dropping the purchase of 13,000 shredders and will not buy new printer cartridges, but will refill the old ones instead.

You can take your plastic bank cards for recycling to as many as 2,500 Sber branches, which collected some 800,000 cards in the first quarter alone. This is approximately four metric tons of plastic, which will then be utilized for making window profiles to be used at Sber. The company already recycles plastic making environmentally friendly pens out of plastic cups (5 cups = 1 pen).

Our power management efforts and installation of telemetry solutions across the bank have resulted in energy consumption that saved RUB85.8 mn in 1Q21.

On top of that, Sber is adopting a responsible approach to waste throughout the company - as many as 1,010 offices and 83 cash and CIT centers sort waste.

While many believe that ESG is fad, it's not. It's here to stay. It's a revolution, an entirely new mindset, and a dramatic change in business practices. Investors seek to inject funds into strategically stable companies. The companies that will be making a profit for a long time. And a company can only be stable in the long run when it is backed by its customers, employees, and government. This is why many companies have started an active integration of ESG agendas into businesses, and Sber is no exception. We intend to have our branches reach carbon neutrality by 2030; this means we'll fully compensate for the carbon footprint of our operations.

However, if we take into account the carbon footprint of all our customers in addition to Sber, then this goal approximates the carbon neutrality of the entire nation. While the country has its forests, fields, and meadows to make up for the carbon dioxide emissions, our clients don't have forests. Our customers include industrial enterprises and agricultural producers, which are sources of carbon pollution too. Therefore, our mission is to reduce Sber's carbon footprint but also help our customers minimize the negative impact on the environment.

We see the loyalty of our clients, employees, and investors grow as we engage in ESG systematically, run environmental and social projects, develop green tech, and cultivate a nature-loving approach. This is our social mission aligned with our ESG strategy as part of our general Strategy 2023. We see how clients find this important. They stay with us for a long time, they are ready to buy more products and even pay premiums for green or social offerings if the money is later invested in achieving environmental and social goals.

Alexander Vedyakhin

First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Sber