Climate protection strategy
BayernLB supports the goals of the UN Climate Conference in Paris
As a public-sector bank, BayernLB supports the goals of the UN Climate Conference in Paris at all levels. This also applies to the reduction of our own greenhouse gas emissions.
The Paris Agreement and the German climate protection programmes
Maximum 2° Celsius, better still, just 1.5° Celsius – that was the limit for the increase in the average global temperature agreed by parties to the UNFCCC at the UN Climate Conference in Paris in December 2015. To achieve this ambitious target, the German government approved the German Climate Action Plan 2045 and the Free State of Bavaria approved the Bavarian Climate Action Plan 2050. BayernLB has firmly entrenched climate protection in its climate protection strategy, based on the EMAS environmental management system, since 2007.
The target system as the basis for BayernLB's climate protection strategy
The target system has to be operationalised so that specific targets for BayernLB and the corresponding measures arising from the UN climate agreement can be derived.
By operationalising the target system, we have laid the groundwork for a climate protection strategy that has been rigorously implemented since 2007. The environmental management system in accordance with EMAS provides a solid foundation for this.
Climate protection as a focus of the Bank’s operational activities
Reducing our direct and indirect carbon footprint is the centrepiece of efforts to improve our operational environmental performance.
Based on the operationalised target system, annual emissions analyses are conducted with the object of determining the CO2 emissions from business operations. These analyses cover the following aspects of business operations and include:
| Area | Impact on the Environment | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Energy use | Resource consumption Emissions | Electric current District heating |
| Water consumption | Resource consumption Quality deterioration Waste water generation | Cooling Sanitation Kitchen |
| Paper consumption | Resource, energy and water consumption Emissions Waste generation | Copy paper Printing paper Envelopes Housheold waste |
| Waste generation | Consumption of landfill space Emissions Transport volume | Paper Residual and hazardous waste (e.g. grease trimmers) |
| Business trips | Emissions | Road traffic (rental cars, company cars, private cars) Rail traffic Air traffic |
BayernLB's climate protection strategy
Thanks to its climate protection strategy, BayernLB’s operations at its Munich offices have been climate neutral since 2008. All our locations in Germany have been climate neutral since 2015.
There are three stages to our climate protection strategy, each building on one another:
1 The reduction of business-related CO2 emissions through active energy and resource management
Examples:
- Using energy-efficient equipment
- Refurbishing buildings from an energy-efficiency perspective
2 Substitution of carbon-intensive energy sources
Examples:
- Purchasing electricity from energy producer Vattenfall at the tariff "Klima Natur" (climate nature): the company supplies 100 percent emission-free, renewable, green electricity generated from hydropower to all BayernLB's delivery points throughout Germany.
- Producing electricity from our own photovoltaic system (PV system) at the Brienner Straße site: The sustainable electricity generated in this way is fed into the public grid.
3 Offsetting of unavoidable CO2 emissions
Carbon emissions resulting from the unavoidable use of resources are offset. For this purpose, BayernLB purchases and cancels emission certificates from various externally verified climate protection projects. These investments have been partly funded through a climate change levy on all the Bank’s flights since 2008. In accordance with the purchasing process, a provider for high-grade emission certificates is selected on a regular basis.
All relevant environmental data can be found in our Sustainability Report .
More information on climate protection, the reduction of carbon emissions and BayernLB's climate protection strategy can be found in our Environmental Statement (only in German)
Climate neutrality – Support for climate protection projects
By purchasing CO2 certificates, we support climate protection projects in countries that are particularly affected by climate change. In recent years, this support has included projects to provide rural homes in Rwanda with efficient ovens that use 80 percent less wood and to construct biogas plants in Nepal for the conversion of manure into gas, which could then be used, for example, as fuel for gas cookers.