Curbing climate change is a key objective at Santander. We have launched the mobilization of €220,000 million for green investments by 2030 and undertaken to be carbon neutral by 2020 among other measures.

Global warming is the greatest challenge of our era. The UN warns that a more than 2ºC rise in temperatures will lead to scarcer water, an increase in fires, and instability in the food system. Santander have launched a set of measures to play their part in curbing the advance of climate change. They include: 

Carbon neutral by 2020

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25), we announced our commitment to be carbon neutral in 2020 by offsetting all the emissions we generate in our daily activity.

We have been working for some time on reducing our environmental impact. Since 2001, we have been measuring our environmental footprint and quantifying our energy consumption and the greenhouse gas emissions of our buildings and sites. 

In 2016, we decided to go further and launched an energy efficiency plan with a €69.8 million investment. We were able to meet the target set in the ten main countries where we operate, where our greenhouse gas emissions and electricity consumption in buildings fell by 9%.

Between 2011 and 2018 we achieved a crucial target: reducing our emissions and our electricity consumption by 27% and 36%, respectively.

At present, we have our own Environmental Management Policy, in which we undertake to minimise, regulate and self-manage the pollution generated by our activities. 

Renewable sources already account for 43% of the electricity we consume. But we want to go even further, and that is why we have set a goal of being 100% renewable by 2025 in the countries where it is possible to obtain energy certificates. We have already achieved this in all of Santander's office buildings and branches in Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. The United States and Brazil also use green energy at some of their facilities.

Green finance

In July, we announced the mobilisation of €120,000 million in green finance by 2025 to foster the energy transition. As a starting point for the global plan on sustainable emissions that we launched in July, we issued a €1 billion seven-year green bond in October to finance wind and solar power projects. 

In addition, we have become the global leader in renewable energy financing, in terms of both the number of transactions and their amounts. In the first nine months of 2019, we carried out 67 transactions worth more than €3.5 billion.

We are also aware of the importance of supporting our customers and stakeholders in their transition to a sustainable economic model. We offer products and services such as mortgage discounts for sustainable houses and a new service that will offset carbon footprint through credit card purchases.
 

Pioneers in Responsible Banking

With the aim of raising awareness and providing more visibility on the importance of combating climate change, the Principles for Responsible Banking were developed by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). These principles lay the foundations for what it means to be a responsible bank, so that we banks can generate value for society.

As a bank that is committed to the environment, we are founding members of this initiative. In addition to Santander Group, a total of 129 banks from all over the world signed this commitment in New York last September to assume a key role in order to achieve a sustainable and inclusive future.

In parallel, we carry out actions that contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a set of global objectives to eradicate poverty and protect the planet. These include climate action to slow global warming, the implementation of non-polluting energy and responsible production and consumption. 

Our commitment to the environment has made us the most sustainable bank in the world, according to the ranking of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).