Our climate impact

We continuously work to stop and counteract climate change in our operations, both direct and indirect

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Reducing climate impact

Indirect impact

Most of our environmental impact comes from business we finance and invest in. It is therefore important to influence and demand ways to minimize the impact from these business. Our goal is to create good returns on investments and at the same time working towards a more sustainable future.

Responsible investment

Direct consequences

Our goal is to minimise our environmental impact by constantly developing its environmental activities. To achieve this, we are boosting resource efficiency and recycling, for example, and taking environmental impacts into account in purchasing and travel. The Bank's own CO2 emissions are to be reduced over time, well in line with the Paris Agreement and we compensate for the reported carbon dioxide emissions generated by our operations.

Global goals

Initiatives we support

In our effort to fight climate change we support a number of initiatives.

Initiatives

Discussion about our climate goal

Handelsbanken's sustainability goal for the climate

Watch Emma Sahlman and Alexander Campiglia Hedvall, Group Sustainabiity, Handelsbanken, talk about Handelsbanken's sustainability goal for the climate.

Our effort to reduce climate impact

Reducing CO2 emissions

Handelsbanken’s goal is to have net zero emissions of greenhouse gases as soon as possible and by 2040 at the latest. This includes lending, leasing, and investments as well as the Bank’s own operations.

In 2020, the Bank’s total CO2 emissions decreased by 30 per cent, emissions per employee by 30 per cent. Since 2013, the Bank’s yearly CO2 emissions have decreased by more than 10 000 tonnes.
Since 2013, annual electricity consumption has decreased by 14 800 MWh. This is equivalent to the average amount of energy consumed by 740 single-family homes in a year.
In 2020 business travel decreased by 72 per cent and paper consumption by 18 per cent. The number of video meetings has increased by 153 per cent.

Sustainability within the Bank

Our sustainability work encompasses the whole of the Group’s operations in all markets.

Sustainability