Environment

• Our policies
• Climate change
• Operational impact
• Engagement
• Our performance

Our performance

At Standard Chartered we work hard to continually strengthen our performance in areas relating to the environment and climate change.

We have detailed action plans for all our business divisions, from Wholesale Banking and Consumer Banking to Corporate Affairs, Corporate Real Estate and Risk. These action plans cover four key areas - operational impact, sustainable lending, products and services and engagement. The delivery of these actions is overseen by the Environment Committee which is chaired by the Director, People, Property & Assurance.

We increased the number of offices covered by our Global Environmental Management System (GEMS) from 43 in 2006 to 52 in 2007, covering 38,850 employees. The increase in employees and buildings covered resulted in an absolute increase in energy consumption of six per cent. However, through energy audits and efficiency programmes, total energy consumption per unit area has decreased by 11 per cent.

A significant campaign has been put in place to engage employees and reduce environmental impacts. All GEMS offices have been developing energy management plans to meet the emissions and consumption targets stated above. Between 2006 and 2007, CO2 emissions associated with air travel and energy use decreased by 19 and 17 per cent per FTE. Paper use decreased by 20 per cent per FTE. Actions such as default double-sided printing, altering building temperature to maximise efficiency and introducing tighter criteria for approving air travel have been major contributors to meeting our reduction targets.

Recognition of our performance includes:

• Inclusion in the 2007 Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index, a prestigious roll of honour for global corporations addressing the challenges of climate change.
• Honoured as Best in Class in our approach to climate change disclosure in a report released on 24 September 2007 by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a coalition of more than 315 global investors with over USD41 trillion in assets. Now in its fifth year, the CDP report is a survey of the responses of Financial Times 500 corporations to the issue of climate change.
• Inclusion in the FTSE4Good Environmental Leaders Europe 40 Index. The index includes European stocks included in the FTSE4Good Series that received the top environmental score of 5.

• Read more about our performance (PDF, 2.3MB)
• Find out more about GEMS