Nowadays, one of the issues that pave the way for virtually all countries and organisations is care for the environment. This is a key time in history, since the actions taken today will determine how the world we will live in will look like in the not-so-distant future. Governments and institutions across the world have taken on the new challenges brought on by this new decade and tackle the social, economic and environmental issues ahead.

Along this line, in 2015, the General Assembly of the United Nations approved an initiative to achieve a more sustainable and egalitarian world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This is an action plan in favour of people, the planet and prosperity, which strives to strengthen universal peace and access to justice.

Likewise, that very year we witnessed the launch of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change, which strives to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, and limit the global temperature increase this century to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Carbon footprint_Banco Sabadell

Carbon footprint

In this regard, one of the most worrying and discussed issues is the carbon footprint. Every action taken has a consequence, and the same goes for the environment. But what impact do all the actions you take have on the planet? That is what the carbon footprint refers to; it measures the amount of greenhouse gases emitted directly or indirectly by an individual, company, product or organisation as a result of their activity. In short, and as we have mentioned, this is the impact we have on the environment and the planet.

Another concept that has been discussed for years and has become more mainstream in society is the greenhouse effect. This is caused by the accumulation of certain gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxide and ozone, and is directly related to the increase in the Earth’s median temperature. The most abundant of these gases is carbon dioxide, which is the result of burning fossil fuels. For this reason, the 13th goal, ‘Climate Action’ of the Sustainable Development Goals, is part of the targets set by the UN to meet the aforementioned 2030 Agenda, and is focused on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its effects, with the aim of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

In this way, we can attest that the carbon footprint serves to understand and raise awareness of the actions that contribute to increasing emissions, so that they can be avoided by using the available resources and implementing the necessary strategies and tools to reduce and offset them.

Business sector

Within the business sector, many companies are going to great lengths to minimise their impact on the planet. At Banco Sabadell, we continue to forge ahead with our commitment to sustainability and the environment, focusing on cutting down on our own emissions, offsetting them and supporting customers with sustainability solutions, and advising them to aid them in the ecological transition.

In addition to the measures we are adopting to continue reducing our own carbon footprint, actions such as the use of renewable energies since 2015, eco-efficiency measures and plans to reduce waste and material consumption, we have complemented our actions by offsetting emissions with carbon dioxide mitigation projects. To this end, we have approved investment in forestry projects in Spain certified by MITECO (Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge), which will be implemented in the first quarter of 2022.

More specifically, we are committed to three forestry projects which help to absorb emissions already in the atmosphere, two of them in Galicia and the third with a reforestation project in a sustainable forest concept located in the Sierra de Gredos (Ávila) which helps establish synergies in the Regional Park and the Natura 2000 network. In total, we contribute to offsetting more than 3,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide, relating to Scope 1 emissions (direct emissions), Scope 2 (indirect emissions such as electricity consumption) and within Scope 3 (other indirect activities) those related to business travel.

All of these actions are how we strengthen the completion of the commitments we have already made as members of the main alliances towards the joint promotion of a sustainable and carbon-neutral economy. Among the main frameworks are the United Nations’ Finance Initiative Principles, by which we integrate the SDGs into our strategy, with the SDG 13 being one of the main ones, the ratification of the Collective Commitment to Climate Action or the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) of UNEPFI through which we also commit to being neutral in our operations (credit and investment portfolios) with a 2050 deadline.

This and other information on the carbon footprint of our entity and in relation to the financial portfolio can be found in the Non-Financial Disclosures Report.