Sustainability Pages

Environment and Climate Change

Transition to a sustainable, green and circular economy

Loans and services for the Green and Circular Economy

Mass segment 

CIB Bank has joined the “Green Refinancing programme” of the National Bank of Hungary (NHP-ZOP). Under this programme the national bank provides refinancing funds at zero rate if it is used by banks to finance low-energy-consumption newbuild properties for private individuals. A low-energy-consumption property must have an energy rating of at least "BB" (which means it has a near-zero energy demand and at least 25% of this energy must be produced from renewable sources). A further condition for refinancing is that the interest rate on the loan must not exceed 2.5%, fixed for the entire term, which is much lower than the average market rate. The Bank offered this product to its customers from October 2021 until the end of the programme, i.e., the end of March 2022.

Small business

In the small business segment, in line with the ESG guidelines and the Magyar Nemzeti Bank's “Green Recommendations”, a key focus will be on the digitisation of services, thus the online account recommendation platform will already be available to small businesses in the second half of 2022. The introduction of fully online account opening and the preparations for enabling online loan application for additional products are currently in progress. These solutions will reduce the use of paper, save resources, and reduce the number of branch visits needed and the associated emissions.

Within the framework of the “Széchenyi Card Programme”, the Széchenyi Investment Loan MAX and its sub-scheme for loan purposes supporting energy efficiency improvement and technology change are also available for Small Businesses, providing a possibility to finance any loan purposes that support sustainability, green economy or circular economy principles, or where the investment project results in the replacement of assets currently used by the company with material- and energy-efficient, environmentally friendly assets and technologies, or where the investment involves the purchase or replacement of more energy-efficient assets and technologies.

Green culture and initiatives

Riding a bike to work remained popular, and our bicycle storage facilities were used to full capacity last year as well. 

Among the environmental initiatives the CIB Group first joined “Earth Hour”, the WWF’s international climate protection initiative, 11 years ago, in 2010. It continued with this in 2022, and all external lighting was switched off not must for an hour but for the entire weekend, to emphasise how seriously we take the matter of climate change and environmental protection. With the various measures combined, we improved on the results of the previous year, saving a total of 13,5 kWh in energy.

In February 2022, the Welcome promotion was launched, which means that existing customers have the opportunity to recommend CIB Bank to their friends, family members and business partners, and the recommending CIB customer or the new customer can also receive a credit. In February 2022, the promotion was extended to include not only our customers but also our environment: for every new referral customer the Bank will plant 1 tree.  

The promotion was implemented between 04.02.2022 and 31.10.2022 and provides a possibility for planting more than 8,000 trees.

Direct environmental impact

Greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption

The management of CIB Bank has declared its commitment to reducing unreasonable energy consumption and to increasing energy efficiency, and as part of our social engagement, to the comprehensive fulfilment of the requirements of the relevant EU Directives, as well as to the maintenance and continuous development of a modern, integrated energy management system. In operating an efficient energy management system, the primary objective is to maintain the trust of the customers, preserve the reputation of CIB Bank and secure and improve the market position.

ISO 50001 at the CIB Bank

Recognising that energy management has become a key factor both in business and from a social point of view, CIB Bank introduced the ISO 50001 energy management system standard at the company in 2016, which helps embed energy management into its corporate culture. Besides being a legal requirement, the introduction of this standard is also a means of improving the company’s energy efficiency through regulated and monitored energy management and is therefore justified by both management expectations and professional reasons. In December 2022, CIB Bank successfully renewed its ISO50001:2018 certification for another three years.

Its goal is to reduce energy costs, greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of harmful environmental impact. The standard aims to integrate energy management activities into a single system and is based on the “plan, do, check, act” (PDCA) process cycle.

	2020	2021	2022
Total energy use (GJ)	60,192	46,009	34,576
Electricity use (kWh)	9,057,564	7,420,857	5,528,170
Other renewable energy (kWh) - Solar panel for hot water	13,510	14,060	15,592
Natural gas consumption (m3)	428,278	412,647	337,599
Fuel consumption (l)	152,993	169,083	208,858
Petrol company car (l)	41,246	67,509	108,410
Diesel company car (l)	76,835	65,940	63,753
Petrol private car (l)	16,769	18,761	22,513
Diesel private car (l)	18,143	16,873	14,182
Vehicle Group (piece)	129	135	137
Energy consumption (GJ/person)	30.3	23.2	16.0
Energy consumption (GJ per m2 of office space)	1.1	0.92	0.72
Total Direct Greenhouse gas emissions [CO2eq] (Scope1) (tCO2)	394.6	429.5	473.62
Total Indirect Greenhouse gas emissions [CO2eq] (Scope2) (tCO2)	2,970.5	2,516	1,869.6
Total Greenhouse gas emissions [CO2eq] (Scope1+ Scope2) (tCO2)	3,365.1	2,945.1	2,343.2
CO2 emissions from energy consumption (t/per employee)	3.46	1.5	1.2
Employee headcount (average)	1,987	1,984	2,031
Office m2	54,625	50,002	47,972

^{Based on data as of 31st December 2022}

Total energy saving in 2022	2,798,002 kWh
Key measures contributing to energy savings:	Lighting upgrades in bank branches and headquarters. Optimisation of mechanical equipment settings Replacement and modernisation of mechanical equipment Increasing user awareness through education, communication and information sharing

The solar collectors installed on the roof of the office building the Petrezselyem Street HQ and in the Medve Street HQ, as well as at the CIB24 buildings, provide hot water to the three central office buildings. The solar collectors have been under repair recently, and therefore the energy generated by them has been minimal, with the longer-term fall in output being due to system failure in recent years.

	2020	2021	2022
GHG emission avoided through the use of solar collectors (tons)	3.0	3.0	2.8

^{Based on data as of 31st December 2022}

Our successful environmental programs related to energy consumption and climate change

• Modernised interior lighting in 14 branches
• Replaced the lighting on the external marketing boards in 6 branches with LEDs
• Upgraded office spaces in head office with LED
• Minor mechanical investments in 20 branches to improve subsystems (fan coils, radiators, thermostats)

Responsible management of resources

	2020	2021	2022
Water use (m3)	16,192	13,545	12,703
Water consumption (m3/per employee)	7.96	6.8	6.3
Paper consumption (office A4, A3) (kg)	72,410	66,216	87,089
Paper usage per employee (office A4, A3) (kg/person)	36.4	33.4	43
Employee headcount (average)	1,987	1,984	2,031
Office m2	54,625	50,002	47,972

^{Based on data as of 31st December 2022}

CIB’s successful environmental programs related to responsible resource management

• An information system has been introduced to provide branch managers with monthly information on the electricity, gas and water consumption of the branch they manage. In addition, regional energy forums will be organised to analyse consumption data from branches with branch managers, and share good practices
• Paper usage per employee – office A4, A3 – 43 kg/person.
• Paperless projects: Starting from 2018, CIB Bank has launched some specific actions to promote dematerialisation and reduce paper consumption related to commercial and/or  transactional activiites. In 2022, the Bank has saved 7.946 kg of paper when sending bulk mail. 8 837 kg of paper was used for office printing, but due to the change of address of the headquarters, the pre-printed forms had to be changed, which meant the purchase of 10 109 kg of additional paper.In 2022, the Bank started to include sanitary paper products in the calculations, which means 9 450 kg. This finally resulted in a surplus of 2 392 kg of paper compared to the total.

Paper consumption

	2020	2021	2022
	Office	Office	Office	Non-office	Total
Paper total (kg)	93,690	85,817	87,089	58,243	145,332
certified paper: 100% recycled	62,644	43,998	36,061	-	36,061
FSC-certified paper	11,760	3,010	979	-	979
uncertified paper	19,286	38,809	50,049	58,243	108,292

^{Based on data as of 31st December 2022}

 

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