Rentenbank’s banking operations at its sole site in Frankfurt am Main with its comparatively low number of employees have a minimal impact on the environment. Nevertheless, Rentenbank strives to constantly reduce its ecological carbon footprint. Rentenbank is implementing internal measures to continually improve its resource management through its environment programme.

One of Rentenbank’s core objectives within its operational protection of the environment is to considerably reduce the consumption of energy. Since autumn 2020, Rentenbank has been embarking on a comprehensive modernisation, expansion and energy-oriented refurbishment of its listed building. We have set ourselves the goal of preserving our architectural monument, which was built in the 1950s and which will create a striking architectural ensemble for many years to come. The main style-defining elements of the building, such as the contemporaneous 'flying roof', the structured natural stone facade and the open stairwell, will all remain intact. Despite the special challenges involved with the refurbishment of our listed building, we have been attaching great importance to energy efficiency and efficient consumption of resources during the planning stage.

Paper counts among one of the most important consumer goods used by a bank. Rentenbank is succeeding in its efforts to reduce consumption. It is sensitising employees to the environmental impact of the use of paper and digitalising paper-based processes. Due to this digitalisation, Rentenbank has reduced its consumption of photocopy paper by around 18% in 2020, compared with 2019.

Only certified photocopy paper (FSC and a small proportion of the ecolabel Blauer Engel) and certified envelopes (FSC) are used. In the case of publications printed externally, only FSC-certified paper is used, i. e., no ECF, TCF or elementary chlorine-bleached paper is used. To this effect, we furthermore only work with printers who use carbon-neutral materials – an additional contribution to Rentenbank’s carbon neutrality. We only use hygiene products made from recycled materials.

Rentenbank will be switching its fleet over to electric vehicles over the next few years. For this reason, we have installed a charging station at our company parking lot in 2020. In 2021, we will be putting a second charging station into operation.

We have planned the following specific measures for 2021:

• Further developing Rentenbank’s environment programme with a schedule of objectives
• Switching our banking operations to 100% green electricity from renewable energy from 1 January 2021 onwards
• Review of the purchasing guideline with stronger ESG principles
• Expanding electromobility
• Sensitising employees to the environmental impact through enhanced internal communications about sustainability

Due to our move and the COVID-19 pandemic, Rentenbank will likely be able to first generate reliable figures for the 2022 financial year as a basis for the interim building at Theodor-Heuss-Allee. By the time we move back to our building at Hochstraße, we aim to have started identifying potential savings in our banking operations and optimising our business processes in manners which preserve resources. Defining quantifiable target values for the renovated building at Hochstraße is then to take place in the first year after we have moved back and when we will be able to make an initial basic assessment.

Additional measures
In 2020, a working group within Rentenbank was set up for operational ecology and procurement. The working group and the entire ESG team are looking at proposals for a decision to be taken by the steering committee and the Management Board, with particular regard to quantitative objectives and the embedding of management systems.

When we purchase office supplies, we pay attention to the sustainability standards of paper. As a result, a major proportion of the office supplies are made from recycled and sustainable materials.

In our internal catering, we buy food which is in season and locally sourced. It is of particular importance to the Bank to be able to offer its employees healthy and sustainable dishes at appropriate prices. In autumn 2020, we also installed a new conveyor dishwasher with a special low energy and water consumption feature so we could make our catering even more sustainable.

Risks
The use of resources in Sustainable Banking is limited to normal office use. As we know all our suppliers, no risks were identified here. Within Sustainable Banking, risks do arise in our special promotional loans business which could have a negative effect on resources and ecosystems (cf. materiality analysis).