OREANDA-NEWS. July 07, 2016. Rabobank is proud to be the first bank in the Netherlands to be a Lean & Green Award Winner. It has received the award for its commitment to making employee mobility more sustainable and reducing employees’ collective carbon emissions by a minimum of 20% over the next five years. This commitment is in keeping with the bank’s wider target of reducing the climate footprint per FTE – of which mobility is one aspect – by another 10% by 2020. Rabobank Executive Board member Berry Marttin accepted the award from Nico Anten, Managing Director of Connekt. In receiving the award, Rabobank has joined the more than 500 frontrunners in sustainability and logistics that together make up the Lean & Green network, spread across seven European countries.

Smarter travel

Berry Marttin on this Award: ‘Rabobank has successfully reduced carbon emissions per full-time employee by 20 percent in recent years. Our new target is a further reduction in carbon emissions of 10 percent by 2020 (from 2013). Electricity and mobility account for more than two-thirds of Rabobank’s climate footprint. We would like to make a meaningful contribution to solving the climate problem by reducing our energy consumption, as well as through smarter travel. We are signing contracts for cleaner lease vehicles for employees, limiting the amount of travel and, if we do have to travel, making more use of trains and bicycles. Our IT departments also need to reduce their energy consumption by switching to more energy-efficient hardware, software and applications.’

Virtualisation = increased power consumption

Modern online banking services such as the Rabo Banking App enable customers to manage their banking needs 24/7 and quickly get through to the bank when needed. However, the flip side of these new practices – where the bank is more nearby its customers while bank employees spend less time travelling – has sharply increased demand for electricity, including at the level of individual employees. If Rabobank is to achieve the overall target of reducing carbon emissions by 10% between now and 2020, its efforts to improve sustainability must not focus only on mobility, but also on reducing its power consumption.

100% climate neutral

Rabobank first began embracing sustainable practices more than a decade ago. The bank has been 100% climate neutral since 2007, thanks in no small part to its innovative and ambitious business operations – an area in which Rabobank serves as a role model for other organisations. Carbon emissions per full-time employee have fallen by 35% since 2008 and the bank continues to implement new measures to further reduce the carbon emissions.

Lean & Green

Since Connekt and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment launched Lean & Green Logistics in 2008, more than 500 businesses have joined the initiative of promoting sustainable mobility. Recipients of the Lean & Green Award commit to reducing their carbon emissions by at least 20 percent over a five-year period. This both benefits the environment and helps businesses cut costs. Lean & Green demonstrates the compatibility of sustainability and financial gains. The initiative has been introduced across six European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain.