We believe that we have an important role to play in facilitating and financing the transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy. Our vision is to be recognised by our stakeholders as a leading environmentally responsible organisation.

 

In 2010, Lloyds Banking Group was rated the top UK bank in the new FTSE CDP Carbon Strategy Index Series, recognising our performance in managing climate risks and grasping the emerging opportunities.

 

We also published our first stand-alone Climate and Environment report, setting out our approach to climate change, resource efficiency and environmental management, our performance and our future agenda. We have committed to publishing a detailed report on our work in this area, every year.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP

 

We proactively identify opportunities to collaborate with external partners to drive positive environmental change.


Truett Tate, our Board member who leads on climate change and environmental sustainability issues, represents Lloyds Banking Group on the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change. This brings together business leaders from major UK, EU and international companies who campaign for new and longer-term policies for tackling climate change.

 

We are a strategic partner of the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL) and work closely with them on a range of initiatives and programmes. We have been working with CPSL and other businesses to lead a programme that aims to mobilise international corporate action to tackle natural resource depletion. Outputs of the programme will be published later this year and will feed into a seminar programme for senior executives.

 

We are a member of the newly launched Banking & Environment Initiative. Through this we are working in partnership with The Prince of Wales and other leaders in the banking sector to stimulate the redirection of financial capital towards environmentally beneficial activity. We have also teamed up with a number of organisations to form the Green Deal Network. This is a collaboration between business, civil society and local government, supporting the most ambitious possible implementation of the Green Deal.

 

We are in our third year as a national sponsor of the May Day Network and are represented on the BiTC Environmental Leadership Team which governs its activities. The May Day Network is Britain’s biggest collection of businesses collaborating to tackle the challenges posed by environmental sustainability. It supports business as they aim to measure, manage and transform their business for a more sustainable UK, inspiring others in the process.

 

Environmental logos

 

Resource efficiency

 

Reducing our own use of resources helps us minimise our impact on the environment as well as keeping our costs under control. In 2010, we launched Smart & Responsible, our new targeted environmental action plan. Smart & Responsible consists of seven key pillars which ensure that the environmental impacts of all our business operations are managed and minimised to realise significant environmental and cost savings. We have established an Environmental Steering Group, to drive our strategy, set targets and make sure we achieve them.

 

In 2010, we set some initial resource-use reduction targets:

 

  • We reduced energy use (excluding data centres) by over 4 per cent in 2010, exceeding our target to reduce energy use by 3 per cent.
  • We also set a target to reduce water use by 3 per cent by the end of 2010 and we achieved reduction of 4 per cent.
  • We met our target to recycle 55 per cent of all waste.
  • We reduced total waste by 2.5 per cent in 2010 compared with 2009. Due to our integration programme a number of building closures took place during the year – outside of these closures, on a like-for-like basis with previous years, we actually met our target to reduce waste by 5 per cent.

 

We registered for the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme last year, and will now be required to purchase allowances for each tonne of energy-related CO2 we emit. It has significant cost implications for the Group which provides a further incentive to reduce our carbon emissions. This year, we were awarded the Carbon Saver Gold Standard. It is only awarded to organisations that are taking real action on climate change by reducing their carbon emissions. We achieved a 5-star rating on account of our strong track record of measuring, managing and reducing our carbon emissions. We are also working towards achieving the Carbon Trust Standard for the Group, which we aim to achieve in 2011. We are investing £3 million in 2011 in dedicated energy reduction and energy efficiency measures.

 

Glenn Wilkinson, Director, Carbon Saver Limited, said: “Smart & Responsible, the Group’s environmental action plan, is a market-leading programme. We commend the Group for its targeted approach to improving long term environmental performance.”