II
Integrated Report
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Governance Report
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Financial Statements
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S
Summary
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50
Special 50th anniversary
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annual report 2015
09. Human factor
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For several years now, Bankinter has had a firm commitment to contribute to improving environmental protection by starting up different actions and initiatives, aware of the environmental crisis caused by climate change.

The company has an Environmental Policy in which it takes on the responsibility to operate in the way that is most environmentally friendly and aimed at maximising the positive impacts and minimising negative impacts that be caused by activities with the environment.

The Sustainability Department is responsible for ensuring compliance with the principles that govern this policy and for guaranteeing the bank's commitment to environmental protection. It also coordinates actions aimed at improving its environmental performance. The department coordinates the Sustainability Committee, established in 2009 and chaired by the Bankinter president, which is the body responsible for orienting the Group's sustainability policy and programmes. There is representation from all areas that are involved in developing a sustainable management model on this committee.

Via the Carbon Footprint Project, the main environmental programme in the Sustainability Plan, direct and indirect environmental impacts produced by its activity are identified, measured and controlled.

Responsible environmental management also extends to the chain of suppliers and subcontractors, including environmental criteria for their approval and environmental clauses in the contracts in which it is considered most relevant. Environmental criteria are also included in the institution's financing and investment policies.

The bank also works with leading organisations that evaluate and rate its environmental performance, such as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which Bankinter has been a part of since its launch. Bankinter also joined the initiative CDP Water Disclosure Project.



Environmental Management System

In 2007 Bankinter implemented an Environmental Management System (EMS), certificate pursuant to the standard UNE EN ISO 14001 to guarantee compliance with the principles of the Environmental Policy and continuous improvement of its environmental performance. The scope of this system includes the institution's singular buildings, located in Madrid (Castellana, Tres Cantos and Alcobendas) and the sustainable branch (at Calle Santa Engracia, Madrid). Bank personnel covered by this environmental certification totals 35%.


The company's Internal Audit Department participates in the annual process to conduct the verifications required to obtain this certification.


Bankinter, in its annual Environmental Management Programme, details a series of targets and goals aimed at optimising consumption and proper waste management, and decreasing atmospheric emissions, as well as scheduling communication campaigns, and raising awareness and training employees on good environmental practices.

Carbon footprint

Bankinter has calculated the three scopes of its entire carbon footprint since 2009.


In 2015, for the third consecutive year, Bankinter submitted the calculation of its organisational carbon footprint to an external verification, by the firm SGS, in accordance with the Greenhouse Gases Protocol, and also in line with the requirements of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.


Bankinter also registered its carbon footprint in 2015 with the Ministry of The Environment Carbon Footprint Registry, after receiving authorisation from the Spanish Office of Climate Change, the first Spanish financial institution to do so.




In 2015, Bankinter has issued a total of 13,804.2 tCO2e, a similar amount to 2014 emission levels, with a slight increase of 0.6%, which is the result of a decline in direct and indirect emissions (scopes 1 and 2) and a slight increase in induced emissions (scope 3).


Scope 1 emissions, derived from the use of natural gas, gas oil and gas leaks from air conditioning systems, totalled 366.6 tCO2e, a year-on-year reduction from 2014 of 41.9%, and 44.8% in emissions per employee. This decrease is largely due to better controls for gas leaks in air-conditioning equipment.


With regard to scope 2, indirect emissions from electricity consumption, there was a year-on-year reduction of 2.4%, with total emissions of 8,386.82 tCO2e - 8% less in emissions per employee.


Total scope 1 and 2 - the primary focus of company emissions, due to representing 63.4% of the footprint - decreased by 5% thanks to the various energy efficiency measures that have been implemented in recent years, including changing lighting to an LED system, improvements in office automation and air-conditioning, and upgrading to more eco-efficient systems.


Scope 3, induced emissions, increased by 12.2% and 6.6% per employee, primarily due to the increase in business travel owing to higher sales activity, in line with the company's financial results for 2015, employee travel and higher paper consumption.



Ecoefficiency and sustainable use of resources

The company has identified the main ecoefficiency indicators stemming from its activity for their measurement and control, in order to implement the measures required to attain maximum ecoefficiency in its ecological performance. This translates into minimisation of its carbon footprint, thus contributing to the mitigation of climate change.


Indirect energy consumption at the bank is centred on electricity. This is the main energy source used by Bankinter (94% of total energy consumed) and owing to the battery of actions carried out in recent years, it has been progressively reduced. The distribution of electricity consumption by energy sources was determined according to the structure of energy sources in Spain, and is calculated according to the production mix in the Spanish electric system published by Red Eléctrica de España for 2014 and 2015.


With regard to consumption of natural gas and heating gas, there were increases compared to 2014, largely due to the increase in staff numbers in the bank's main buildings. Nonetheless, it merits mention that consumptino of these fossil fuels only represents 6% of total energy consumed.




Bankinter procures paper in accordance with strict environmental criteria, where it is 100% recycled and bears the ecolabels of Blue Angel and Nordic Swan.


The measures that the bank is implementing to reach targets, such as reducing paper consumption, include the notable biometric signature solution that was implemented at fixed office work stations in 2013. In 2014 and 2015, it was extended to operations with investment funds. Tablets have been distributed to branch employees so that customers can sign, repay or transfer investment funds with a digital signature. Thus, all the legal documentation for the operations, (printing, physical signature, customer copy, etc.) is signed digitally, filed online and a copy is sent to the client by email, with the consequent saving of paper. Work continues at present to implement the biometric signature for other operations.


However, and despite the measures detailed above, there was a year-on-year increase in paper consumption of 23.6% compared with 2014. The reasons for this increase were an increase in the bank's staff and formalising name changes for several companies in the Bankinter Group, entailing changing the letterhead of all stationery products.


With regard to waste, we should point out that, due to location changes of some areas and departments transferring between buildings and the name changes of group companies, confidential paper waste increased.


To minimise the impacts associated with meetings and training courses, Bankinter offers its employees alternative communication platforms, such as audio conferencing for meetings, and data conferencing for teaching training courses.


The use of video calls has also been fostered, which is a platform at the service of customers looking for information from their manager without needing to travel.


In 2015, Bankinter offset its direct annual emissions from 2014 (631 Tn CO2) participating in the initiative Zero CO2 by the Ecology Foundation and development of the project ‘Conservation of the Amazon in Madre de Dios in Peru’.



Influence on stakeholders

The bank has different communication channels, both internal and external, for disseminating different initiatives on environmental topics, thus promoting the participation of all its stakeholders. Thus, in addition to the present report, the Environmental Portal and the internal blog 'Se hace saber' (To Let you Know) are made available to them, which are internal tools open to opinions, reflections and debate among all employees, and both are on the corporate intranet.


Notable awareness raising actions for employees include:


Environment website, which provides news to employees on activities with environmental interest, both inside and outside the bank; this website also contains a suggestion mailbox where employees can propose initiatives and make queries related to the environment.


The Bankinter blog, to which an independent section on “Sustainability” was added in 2013, and its posts are also posted to the bank's social networks (Facebook, twitter, Linkedin and Google+)


The 11th Photography Award on the Environment, this year with the slogan ‘Light’ ('La Luz'), for which 262 photos were submitted.


Frist prize
Luz / Javier Martínez López



Second Prize
Soledad de la luz / Marco Antonio López Ruiz


Third prize
Seda / Carlos Martínez Estelles



Support for “The Time of the Planet” campaign, WWF worldwide initiative to reduce emissions of CO2, in which the lights were turned off in all the bank's buildings and different devices were disconnected, fostering the participating of customers and employees.

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