We are living in an era where environmental concerns have taken center stage among companies, individuals, and societies. Companies and businesses are taking an inward look at their practices to ensure a sustainable future, and many have come up solid policies towards the same.
One of these forward-looking businesses is Absa Bank Kenya which is accelerating its efforts in reducing the carbon footprint by focusing on green energy. This is after assessing its operations and acknowledging that the fuel powering their vehicles and generators for instance is one of the polluters.
According to Absa Bank Kenya’s latest sustainability report, “Our company cars and fuel generator consumption emitted 1.21 tones CO2e” which is in addition to, “1.24 tones CO2e emitted during the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed.”
This makes up a whopping 92.1% of carbon emitted as per the bank’s assessment of 2022, with the remaining 7.8% (0.21 tones CO2e) of the carbon footprint being from water supply, paper and business travel.
Absa Bank Kenya is determined to accelerate its efforts towards reducing its carbon footprint above by incorporating environment friendly approaches in its day to day running of business, and the results are already showing. This is in line with its efforts of working towards green certification in its pursuit of being a net-zero carbon emitter by 2040.
According to the sustainability report, “Absa has been tracking our carbon footprint for the past four years. The Bank has seen a decline of total CO2 equivalent emissions year on year. Initial interventions and process optimizations resulted in an initial 26% reduction in emissions from 2019 to 2020. An additional 3% reduction has been achieved from 2020 to 2022,”.
This is quite remarkable and does not go unnoticed both locally and internationally. In November last year in the Kenya Bankers Association Sustainable Finance Catalyst Awards for instance, Absa Bank Kenya was crowned the best bank in Sustainable Finance in the country. Another proud win for the lender is the International Finance Corporation Excellence In Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE). Absa won this in 2022 after integrating green building technologies in line with global standards, after equipping its five branches with environmentally friendly energy and water systems. These branches are WestEnd, Bishopgate, Queensway and Nkrumah (in Nairobi) as well as Mombasa and Kisii. Absa plans to replicate this in all their buildings. The water efficiency reinstallations comprised low flow taps, as well as water efficient urinals using less than two liters per flush and bottle-less eco-friendly drinking water dispensers.
Absa is quite on brand with sustainability in building. In 2020, the bank became the first financial institution to join the Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS), a non-state actor seeking to lead transformation of the built environment in Kenya towards environmentally sustainable buildings, promoting a healthy and efficient built environment to achieve environmentally, socially, and economically progressive built environments.
Other conservation efforts include utilization of natural light and ventilation in its offices as well as reflective film on windows to reduce solar heat. There is also the use of LED lighting, automatic motion and occupancy sensors and smart meters among other installations.
More from the sustainability report, “After noting that one of the key resources consumed in all buildings is water, we chose to replace existing water dispensers with water purification units that are eco-friendly. These units eliminate the storage and removal of plastic bottles from our workspace. The elimination of the collection and delivery of large plastic water bottles furthermore reduces our business’s carbon footprint,”.
The report indicates that the lender’s water cost reduction stood at Kshs 4.6 million in 2022 supported by the continued use of tap water purification technology.
“These investments have reduced Absa’s energy and water costs by up to 30% and 33% respectively, saving the bank up to Kshs 25 million per year,” the lender says.
The bank is also a signatory to Principles for Responsible Banking at a group level and signed up to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) principles through the Global Compact Kenya Network locally.
