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Environmental Sustainability

Given our involvement in so many parts of the global economy, we take our role in supporting the transition to more sustainable uses of natural resources very seriously. This extends to all areas of our business, from the provision of current accounts to corporate banking services and energy project financing, as well as our own operational impacts.

  1. Overview
  2. Global Citizenship
  3. Fair Banking
  4. Supporting Enterprise
  5. Employee Engagement
  6. Safety and Security

Governance, dialogue and reporting

RBS sets its environmental strategy through its executive-led Environment Working Group. This body has representation from all relevant divisions across the Group and reports into the Board-level Group Sustainability Committee, which is chaired by our senior independent director, Sandy Crombie.

In 2009:

  • The Group signed the Copenhagen Communiqué; a collective statement from business that called for an agreement between countries to invest in solutions to climate change
  • We updated the Group Environment Policy which has been in place since 1997
  • Scored 77% in the Carbon Disclosure Project
  • Scored 76% in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index
  • We were included in the FTSE 350 Leadership Index
  • We were included in the FTSE 4Good index

Our products and services

From 2004 to 2008, RBS lent more to renewable power projects globally than any other commercial bank. The impact of the financial crisis on RBS has however meant a significant reduction in the scale and risk of lending we could carry on our balance sheet, which has necessitated a reduction in the amount of project finance we provide to clients outside the UK.

Our focus on renewable power project financing has therefore shifted to our core markets and we now have a strong strategic focus on developing the right kinds of financial services for clients operating in this sector and other low carbon economies.

Find out more about our commitment to environmental sustainability.

Our operational impacts

Because of our size, the environmental impacts from our properties - primarily caused by energy consumption, travel, water and paper use - are significant. We have an established programme of efficiency measures which help us minimise the impact of our operations. We have calculated that these measures will deliver significant reductions in our environmental impacts by 2011, from a 2008 baseline:

  • CO2 emissions - 8%
  • Energy use - 8%
  • Water use - 4%
  • Waste generated - 15%
  • Paper use - 12%
  • Travel - 24%

In the UK and Ireland, 100% of the contracted electricity we use in our offices comes from renewable sources, which is 92.3% of our total UK and Ireland electricity consumption.Read the complete 2009 key environmental data.