Vestjysk Bank: ESG profile - ABG
Company ESG activities
Vestjysk contributes to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, focusing its efforts on goals #5 (Gender Equality), #8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth) and #11 (Sustainable Cities & Communities). Vestjysk’s work concerning corporate social responsibility has three focus areas: clients, the local community and employees. As a local and regional bank, Vestjysk engages with its local communities through the sponsoring of sports, culture and charitable causes.
Additionally, and like many other banks, Vestjysk makes a point of giving young people an opportunity to find employment in the financial sector by offering trainee positions. Regarding the bank’s internal efforts concerning sustainability and the environment, it has undertaken a range of initiatives including pre-sorting waste, limiting transportation through the utilisation of video conferencing, decreasing energy consumption and in 2021 converting its entire energy consumption to green energy.
However, ESG data regarding these efforts have not been reported yet. Regarding gender equality, the share of women in management and on the board has decreased ~10pp since 2019, which could be criticized but Vestjysk has a target of women occupying 40% of management positions by 2025. It is ABGSC’s view that Vestjysk is a bank that seeks an ethical relationship with its clients and that emphasises product and advisory governance.
On the client side, Vestjysk is focused on Goal # 11 by designating lending to renewable energy projects as a niche segment, educating staff on how to guide SME’s and farmers to sustainable solutions, and by providing green mortgage loans through DLR Kredit. As the bank has been fighting for its survival since the financial crises, ABGSC views it as natural that Vestjysk’s current ESG efforts are rather modest and its ESG data remain sparse, relative to peers. However, after the consolidation with DJS, the merged bank is the ninth largest bank in Denmark. From this point onw...
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