Sustainability Pages

Environment and Climate Change

Transition to a sustainable, green and circular economy

Loans and services for the Green and Circular Economy

Mass segment 

On 1st February 2023, CIB Bank introduced the dedicated Green Interest Discount, which provides a low-interest loan for the purchase and construction of low-energy consumption real property, provided that the property has at least “BB” energy rating and its primary energy consumption does not exceed the value of 80kWh/m2/year. This gives customers access to the Bank's most favourable interest rate without any income-related conditions.

Small business

In the small business segment, in line with the ESG guidelines and the National Bank of Hungary's Green Recommendations, a key focus will be on the digitisation of services, thus the online account recommendation platform will already be available to small businesses in the second half of 2022, furthermore, we are currently rolling out the fully online application of the CIB softPOS product and online corporate account opening, and plan to expand online loan application system to other products in the future. Digital solutions reduce the use of paper: all contracts and declarations are signed digitally and stored by the bank. By opening an account online, the administration time is reduced by about 40 minutes. All these actions have saved resources and reduced the number of branch visits needed. In the long term, the bank is also committed to environmentally sustainable banking and is continuously exploring further solutions and products, in line with market demands.

Corporate

In the corporate segments, the bank encourages its customers to invest in green and circular investments and developments through preferential pricing. This includes developments related to renewable energy, investments targeting energy efficiency as well as efficiency technology upgrades. The measures are detailed in the Taxonomy section.

Corporate products supporting sustainability introduced in 2023:
•    Széchenyi Restart Investment Loan MAX
•    Agricultural Széchenyi Restart Green Investment Loan MAX
•    Agricultural Széchenyi Green MAX+
•    Széchenyi Green Investment Loan MAX+
•    EXIM JEA Green loan purpose
•    EXIM BGH JEA Green 
•    EXIM BHG Green Investment
•    S.Loan offer
•    Circular Exonomy and Green investment loans

Green culture and initiatives

Riding a bike to work

Riding a bike to work continues to be popular, and the bank’s bicycle storage facilities were used to full capacity last year.

Earth Hour

Among the environmental initiatives the CIB Group first joined Earth Hour, the WWF’s international climate protection initiative, 13 years ago, in 2010. This continued in 2023, with the non-essential external lighting in the head office switched off not just for an hour, but for the whole weekend, to underline the importance of climate change and the environment. A total of 14.7 kWh of energy was saved (2022: 13.5 kWh).

World Environment Day

To mark the International World Environment Day (5 June), the theme of which in 2023 was the reduction of plastic waste, the Bank joined its Parent Company’s initiative, including a series of campaigns involving its employees and customers:
•    plastic cap collectors were placed in the staff tea kitchens of the Petrezselyem utca head office and in the customer service areas of the five busiest branches. Employees and customers could bring in their plastic caps until 15 December 2023, which the Bank sold with the help of its waste collection partner and donated the proceeds to the Bethesda Children's Hospital Foundation. The total amount of the subsidy was 1,00-0 HUF.
•    In addition, the Bank’s employees were able to participate in an international webinar with a presentation by 17-year-old activist Haaziq Kazi entitled #BeatPlasticPollution. 
•    Between 1 June 2023 and 31 July 2023, a promotion was launched, whereby customers who have benefited from the Green Interest Discount and fulfilled the related conditions became entitled to a HUF 20-0 refund after disbursement, furthermore, the Bank will plant 1 tree for each disbursed loan transaction, to be completed by 30 May 2024 at the latest.

International Day for Combating Food Loss and Waste

29 September is the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste’, and, in line with the initiative of Intesa Sanpaolo International Division, the Bank made available to its customers a donation function on the CIB Bank Mobile Application between 29 September and 13 October, through which donations could be sent directly to the Hungarian Food Bank Association. The goal of the Hungarian Food Bank Association is to distribute the food surplus, which is accumulating in extraordinary quantities, to those in need. In doing so, they not only reduce food waste and help to reduce the environmental impact of food destruction, but also use the saved food to directly support those most in need. In the framework of the campaign, the bank's customers donated HUF 981,277 through the CIB Bank mobile application.

On the occasion of this world day, the Bank's employees participated in an international webinar where useful information was disseminated on food waste.

Tree planting

In February 2022, the Welcome promotion was launched, which means that existing customers have the opportunity to recommend CIB Bank to their friends, family members and business partners, and the recommending CIB customer or the new customer can also receive a credit. In February 2022, the promotion was extended to include not only the bank’s customers but also the environment: for every new referral customer the Bank will plant 1 tree.  

The promotion was carried out between 04.02.2022 and 31.03.2023 and covered the planting of more than 17,000 trees. Some of the trees (8,068 in total) were planted by the end of March 2023, while the remaining trees (9,266) will be planted in equal parts in the autumn of 2023 and early 2024.

Direct environmental impact

Greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption

The management of CIB Bank has declared its commitment to reducing unreasonable energy consumption and to increasing energy efficiency, and as part of our social engagement, to the comprehensive fulfilment of the requirements of the relevant EU Directives, as well as to the maintenance and continuous development of a modern, integrated energy management system. In operating an efficient energy management system, the primary objective is to maintain the trust of the customers, preserve the reputation of CIB Bank and secure and improve the market position.

ISO 50001 at the CIB Bank

Recognising that energy management has become a key factor both in business and from a social point of view, CIB Bank introduced the ISO 50001 energy management system standard at the company in 2016, which helps embed energy management into its corporate culture. Besides being a legal requirement, the introduction of this standard is also a means of improving the company’s energy efficiency through regulated and monitored energy management and is therefore justified by both management expectations and professional reasons. In December 2022, CIB Bank successfully renewed its ISO50001:2018 certification for another three years.

Its goal is to reduce energy costs, greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of harmful environmental impact. The standard aims to integrate energy management activities into a single system and is based on the “plan, do, check, act” (PDCA) process cycle.

^{Based on data as of 31st December 2023
*The share of Scope1 and Scope2 changed due to a reallocation of consumption.}

^{*In 2022, the closure of the Medve Street headquarter had a one-off impact.}

The solar collectors installed on the roof of the office building the Petrezselyem Street HQ and in the Medve Street HQ, as well as at the CIB24 buildings, provide hot water to the three central office buildings. The solar collectors have been under repair recently, and therefore the energy generated by them has been minimal, with the longer-term fall in output being due to system failure in recent years. Solar collectors are operational in 2023, after the fault has been rectified.

^{Based on data as of 31st December 2023}

The Bank’s successful environmental programs related to energy consumption and climate change
•    Interior lighting were upgraded in two bank branches
•    There were minor mechanical engineering investments at branches to improve subsystems (fan coils, radiators, thermostats)
•    Modernisation and programming of lifts are delivering savings at the Budapest head office
•    Energy savings resulting from IT cooling modernisation and office space ventilation zoning 
•    Installation of heat pump system for the head office has improved cooling/heating energy use
•    A heat pump cooling/heating system was installed in the Baja branch to improve energy use efficiency.
•    According to the amended Car Policy issued on 19.07.2023, only plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) executive cars and standard hybrid pool cars can be ordered from this date. The regulation will be reviewed at the end of 2024 with a view to the possible introduction of zero-emission cars. 

Responsible management of resources

^{*Due to the increased coming back after hybrid work due to the pandemic, and gardening activity water consumption has increased. Based on data as of 31 December 2023}

Successful environmental programs related to responsible resource management
•    An information system has been introduced to provide branch managers with monthly information on the electricity, gas and water consumption of the branch they manage. In addition, regional energy forums will be organised to analyse consumption data from branches with branch managers, and share good practices
•    Paper usage per employee (office A4, A3) (29 kg/person) (2022: 43 kg/person)
•    Paperless projects: Starting from 2018, CIB Bank has launched some specific actions to promote dematerialisation and reduce paper consumption related to commercial and/or transactional activiites. In relation to these initiatives, the bank saved 11,520 kg of paper for bulk mailing.59,529 kg of paper was used for office printing and pre-printed forms, which meant 27,560 kg less paper consumption in 2023. Overall, 36,123 kg less paper was used in 2023 than in 2022, which is a 25% decrease. Within this, there was a 66% reduction in the use of uncertified paper.

Paper consumption

^{Based on data as of 31st December 2023}

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