The first World Earth Day dates back to 22 April 1970, when a rally in favour of the environment was held for the first time in the United States and was attended by more than 20 million people across the country. Shortly afterwards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency came into existence, helping environmental issues gradually gain a place in the governmental arena. Half a century after that milestone, the situation has progressed, but not far enough, and the need for action to safeguard the planet has gone from important to urgent.

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To achieve sustainability, the Earth’s environmental emergencies and human well-being must be addressed jointly. And in this regard, economic, financial and productive systems must be transformed to lead and foster change towards sustainability.

To successfully carry out the ecological transition and contribute to sustainable development and the fight against climate change, at Banco Sabadell, we are firmly committed to supporting and accelerating these important economic and social transformations, channelling resources and meeting the demands of citizens and all companies that want to reduce their environmental impact and work towards a more cohesive society. To this end, we are acting from different angles, through our Sustainability Commitment, a strategic framework with a forward-looking vision for 2025-2050 that integrates environmental, social, and governance commitments, focusing on four pillars: our own entity, clients, investors and society.

Our contribution to the planet from within the entity itself

We continue to move forward as a sustainable entity towards greenhouse gas emissions neutrality. In this regard, we have achieved neutrality in internal CO₂ emissions, using 100% renewable electricity for 99% of our consumption, installing photovoltaic panels in corporate centres, reducing our own consumption (with a reduction, among other actions, of 93% in plastic and 42% in paper, both compared to 2019) and offsetting with reforestation projects, as well as joining partner initiatives, such as Mastercard’s global Priceless Planet Coalition (PPC) project, contributing to planting 100,000 trees by 2025.

In relation to reforestation, over the last year our commitment has materialised in three forestry projects in Spain, which help to absorb emissions already present in the atmosphere, two of them in Galicia and the third through a reforestation project with a sustainable forest concept located in the Sierra de Gredos (Ávila), establishing synergies with 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.

Contribution to and preservation of the planet in partnership with our clients, investors and society

We support our clients in the transition towards a carbon-neutral economy with a positive impact on society, applying a two-pronged approach: firstly, by generating sustainable finance solutions, mobilising more than €65 billion between 2021-2025, creating specialised products and services in energy efficiency, renewable energy and mobility, and secondly, by advising them on how to make this transition.

We channel the distribution of the Next Generation funds of the European Union, the dissemination and complementarity of which represents a great opportunity for our country’s productive economy to make the necessary shift towards the path of sustainability.

We create responsible investment products, fostering solutions so that private and institutional investors can contribute to the SDGs through a wide range of social, ethical, green and sustainable bonds and funds, both our own and those of third parties.

These actions are an example of how we strengthen the fulfilment of the commitments we have already made as members of the main alliances to jointly foster a sustainable and carbon-neutral economy. Among the main frameworks are the UN Finance Initiative Principles, by which we integrate the SDGs into our strategy, with SDG 13 being one of the main ones, the ratification of the Collective Commitment to Climate Action or more recently the adherence to the Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures (TFCD) and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) of UNEPFI through which we also commit to being neutral in our operations (credit and investment portfolios) by 2050.

All of the above shapes the #SabadellSustainabilityCommitment, a transformation that will support the transition challenges facing our clients and society in the coming decades.