Metrics and targets

This section of the report contains the emission levels associated with Santander Bank Polska S.A.’s activities in 2021. The methodology and scope of the calculations are provided in the Methodology appendix at the end of the report. Below is a summary of the calculation of CO₂ emissions in Santander Bank S.A.’s own activities (Scope 1) and those directly dependent on Santander Bank S.A.’s operations. (Scope 2), as well as business travel (Scope 3).

We use a number of metrics to measure our climate impact, including, among others, kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions translated into litres of petrol consumed by the car fleet, emissions from electricity consumption in our offices and district heat consumption. The table below provides a detailed summary of our emissions with a description of the sources we have taken into account, the consumption by source expressed in the relevant unit of measurement, the type of data and the emission indicator together with the source used in the calculation.

In this way, we can identify the key areas that have the greatest impact on the environment – including the climate – and to take more effective countermeasures.

We have already taken ambitious steps to reduce our own emissions by using energy from renewable sources. We have also received an accession certificate for the Tauron Group’s ECO Premium product. The document confirms that the electricity sold to us participates fully in the Environmental Energy Sales Guarantee scheme and comes from environmentally friendly energy sources – mainly hydroelectric power plants. We have thus significantly reduced our consumption of energy obtained from non-renewable raw materials. In addition, we are focusing on increasing energy efficiency in our own operations. In 2021, the bank’s electricity consumption fell by 8.8 per cent compared to 2020 and we also reduced our diesel consumption by almost four times compared to 2020. Thanks to these measures and the purchase of certified carbon offset credits, we achieved internal CO₂ neutrality in 2020.

The emissivity of our portfolio is also very important to us. At this stage, we focused on the energy portfolio, and we did so by analysing our client companies that generate electricity with conventional generation assets. Looking at the bank’s six largest customers in this area, we assumed for the purposes of this study that the equity exposure in these companies represents 100% of the financed portfolio, taking into account the portfolio structure as at 31 December, 2021. In accordance with the adopted assumptions, the weighted average emissivity of our portfolio in 2021 was 0.896 tCO₂ /MWh, where the basis for the calculation was the emission indicators for the surveyed generators (per MWh) and the share of exposure to a given company in the energy portfolio of power generators (percentage of the financed portfolio). Accordingly, the value of the indicator for 2021 decreased by approximately 1% vs. 2020.