About

Measured by total assets, the Danske Bank Group is the largest financial enterprise in Denmark and one of the largest in the Nordic region.  The Group serves more than 5 million retail customers and a significant number of corporate customers, public sector and institutional organizations.  They also offer a wide range of services in the fields of banking, mortgage finance, insurance, leasing, real-estate brokerage and asset management.  Twenty-two thousand well-qualified and professional staff provide individual service tailored to the wishes and needs of each customer.  Danske Bank Group's mission is to be the best local financial partner.  In order to reach this goal, Danske Bank Group builds financial partnerships and customer relationships based on their core values and on their thorough knowledge of customers’ circumstances, needs and desires.

Strategy

As a financial enterprise, the Danske Bank Group has relatively low GHG emissions and thus a lower environmental impact than companies in many other industries.  But with more than 22,000 employees, Danske Bank Group's annual emissions are still significant.  In the base year 2008, total emissions from the Group's activities amounted to approximately 65,000 tonnes.

As part of the Danske Bank Group’s climate strategy, it set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by the end of 2009.  It reached this goal in the beginning of December 2009 by reducing GHG emissions from its own operations and offsetting the remainder by investing in carbon credits from renewable energy projects.  Danske Bank Group's objective is first to reduce their own GHG emissions and only to offset the amount that it cannot eliminate.

Danske Bank Group's carbon-neutral status helps it better understand the implications and impact of an increasingly carbon-constrained economy, for both the itself and its stakeholders.  Carbon neutrality also acts as a catalyst for organisational efficiency.  The cost of offsetting emissions gives Danske Bank Group an extra incentive to keep energy consumption and emissions to a minimum.

Danske Bank Group’s own emission reductions

The first step in becoming carbon neutral was to identify how much GHGs Danske Bank Group emitted from various sources. It calculate its GHG emissions according to the ISO 14064 requirements.  Dankse Bank Group’s internal auditors have evaluated the internal controls and procedures for registering and calculating GHG emissions.  To reach its goal of carbon neutrality, it worked first to reduce its own GHG emissions. It did this by optimising the energy consumption in its buildings and IT equipment, changing the daily behaviour of employees and reducing business travel, among other measures.

Reducing emissions is not only an environmental issue.  In many cases, there is also a financial benefit from reducing energy consumption, paper consumption and travel.  Results do not always appear in the short term, but with an ongoing systematic effort and development of technology, Danske Bank Group expects to bring its energy consumption and GHG emissions lower.

Offsetting CO2 emissions with carbon credits

The Danske Bank Group will always need to use energy for transport and heating, among other things. In order to offset the CO2 emissions that cannot be eliminated, the Danske Bank Group has decided to purchase CO2 credits for the period from 2009 to 2011 from specific projects that reduce CO2 emissions.  The Group has invested in four verified projects in India, Lithuania and Turkey: two wind power projects, a biogas plant and a biomass project.

Climate and our business

The climate challenge is becoming an increasingly important condition that financial services companies must take into account in their business – both the risks and opportunities it presents.  At the Danske Bank Group, the pursuit of these opportunities includes developing a green policy for corporate car leasing, trading in carbon allowances and providing information to customers that promotes climate-friendly homes.

It has also developed an investing initiative in which it identifies attractive companies that are well prepared to meet the climate challenge.  It considers climate opportunities and risks in its industry research as well, thus taking climate change preparedness in its credit granting.  For example, the EU’s carbon allowance regulations have a strong effect on energy-intensive industries.  If rising expenses for the purchase of carbon allowances cannot be passed on to customers, the regulations will result in lower earnings and credit quality.


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