Co-operative Bank offsets 100,000 tonnes of CO2 in 'beyond carbon-neutral' scheme
The Co-op Bank has reduced its waste and water usage and sourced 99% of its electricity from renewable energy.&nbsp;The Co-operative Bank offset its operational greenhouse gas emissions by supporting carbon reduction projects.&nbsp;
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The report is the bank’s first corporate social responsibility report since its separation from the Co-operative Group.

The bank sourced 99% of its electricity from renewables in 2014, maintaining its ‘beyond carbon neutral’ policy for the eighth year. The Co-operative Bank offset its operational greenhouse gas emissions by supporting carbon reduction projects.

The bank reported it has offset more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon since 2006. It also reduced its overall carbon emissions by 4%, bringing its total emissions to 28,603 tonnes of CO2.

The Co-operative Bank also reused or recycled 70% of the 2,165 tonnes of waste it generated in 2014 and reported achieving a total water consumption reduction of 33% since 2011.

The Company separated from the Co-operative Group in 2014 following its financial crisis which forced it to sell its majority ownership of the bank.

Ethical policy

The Co-operative Bank’s value and ethics committee chair Laura Carstensen said the company’s ethical policy underpins all its activities. “We are mindful of the mistakes the bank has made in the past and know we still have much more to do to turn the business around,” she said.

“Our values and ethics continue to differentiate us and reporting back to customers on our ethical policy in action is an important step in our continued fight back.”

The Co-operative Bank operates an ethical banking policy, which has seen it turn down millions of pounds worth of loan applications it views as unethical.

In 2014, the bank turned down four applications which were referred to its ethical policy issue, seeing a total of four turned down with two turned down due to their impact on the environment and climate change.

The bank also reported it had raised more than £1m for its charity partners through the use of its affinity credit cards.

In May, the Co-operative Group announced it would establish a new business-to-business energy service called Co-operative Power, which will provide green energy to businesses.

Matt Field