The Bank carefully monitors the information published on anthropogenic climate change and is aware of corporate responsibility for complying with the obligations recorded in the Paris agreement. The Bank wants to achieve its business objectives by maintaining its impact on the climate change resulting from its operating and product activities and the impact of climate change on business activities at the lowest possible level.
The Bank is aware of the impact of its product portfolio on climate and the impact of the risk of climate change on its product portfolio. The Bank has adopted lending policies for the carbon-intensive sector, RES as well as the chemical, oil and gas industries. The aim of the policy for the carbon-intensive sector is to successively reduce the exposure to customers and transactions based on coal as an energy carrier and to refrain from financing new energy production sources based on coal and lignite and on the other hand, the RES policy assumes increasing the financing of operations related to renewable energy in a successive manner.
In addition to taking charge of the financial results, the bank is guided by the principle of sustainability and attaches increasingly more importance to the way natural resources are used in its activities.
In December 2022, the Bank's Management Board adopted the “Strategy of PKO Bank Polski for the years 2023-2025 – “Ready for the challenges, focused on the future”. One of the goals of the Strategy is to seize the position of leader in ESG transformation in the Polish banking sector. The Bank set itself ambitious environmental, social and managerial goals that focus on financing sustainable and transformational projects, ESG financing in each business segment, achieving climate neutrality, increasing the share of energy with green certificates, issuing the Bank's own green bonds, being a leader in education financial youth, activities that support digital transformation as well as a leader in counteracting social exclusion and supporting the population of Ukraine and the process of rebuilding the country. Furthermore, the Bank committed to maintaining a high level of women's participation in managerial positions, a low level of fluctuation and voluntary departures of employees, implementing projects supporting the employment of people with disabilities, bringing the pay gap to a level close to 0% and publishing the trajectory of reducing CO2 emissions, and systematically expanding the scope of disclosures in the scope of the Bank's CO2 emissions.
The strategy strengthens the implementation of indicators in the area of ESG, adopted by the Management Board and Supervisory Board of the Bank in June 2021.
Overview of the adopted ESG initiatives
| Environmental | Social | Corporate governance |
Assessment of the impact of environmental, social and governance factors on the Customer’s creditworthiness. | Development of remote channels, increasing the availability of products and services in the digital model. | Work on introduction to the product offer, the fund, which promotes environmental and/or social aspects by PKO TFI. |
Study of the impact of lending transactions on ESG issues and classification them (from transactions with a positive effect on ESG issues through to those with a significantly negative impact). | 900 refugees from Ukraine assisted by PKO Bank Polski Foundation, value of the aid amounted to nearly PLN 12 million. | Implementation of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565, which recommended the inclusion of ESG factors in the investment advisory and portfolio management services. |
Purchase of guarantees of origin of electricity from RES in the amount of 69,000 MWh, which accounted for 93% of the Bank's electricity consumption. Reduction of emissions by 52,591.37 MgCO2e. | PKO Bank Polski Foundation support for non-governmental organizations and volunteers involved for refugees’ help. | Work on incorporation the criteria of compliance with the Taxonomy into business strategy, the establishing of objectives, into product building processes and into the principles of cooperation with its Customers and counterparties. |
Continuation of activities aimed at implementation of the Energy Management System in accordance with ISO50001. | Support for 75 non-governmental organizations and units carrying out aid activities for refugees from Ukraine for a total of PLN 8.3 million. | Adoption of the Supplier Code of Ethics. |
Implementation of tools in the credit process, allowing to estimates ESG risks. | Strengthening security of transactions. | Consultations with subsidiaries in order to standardize purchasing requirements in the Group, including the implementation of the Code of Ethics. |