Banks finance projects that campaigners and nongovernmental organisations object to all over the world, from mining to nuclear defence, tobacco and deforestation. Is it possible to work for a big financial institution and come home with a clear conscience? Judge for yourself:

What is sustainable banking?
It’s about loss minimisation and profit maximisation, says Richard Burrett, the global head of sustainability at ABN Amro. “It’s really about trying to understand how environmental, social governance and ethical issues are affecting some of the risks that we write as an organisation, whether that is the investments we make or the lending we do.”

How does this work in practice?
ABN Amro is one of about 50 banks that have signed up to the set of voluntary practice guidelines known as the Equator Principles. “They ensure that the projects we finance are developed in a way that is socially responsible and that reflects sound environmental management practices. It should ensure that negative [effects] on project-affected ecosystems and communities should be avoided or reduced – or compensated for if they are unavoidable.”

Is enough being done to monitor banks’ activities?
According to activists, banks and other financial organisations need to be much more transparent about their dealings, but client confidentiality makes that difficult, Burrett says. “We don’t tend to disclose individual client transactions but we will disclose portfolio details.”

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Has sustainable banking made a difference? Jennifer Morgan, the sustainable finance manager at WWF-UK, is sceptical about banks’ claims. Most banks are only greening around the edges, she says. “They are becoming only a bit more efficient; they are not becoming more effective. They are making some incremental changes but we would question whether these incremental changes are enough.” The main purpose of high street banks is to make money, she says. All financial institutions and their customers have to recognise that sustainability is the priority, not profits.

Is sustainable banking an exciting field in which to work? There’s no doubt that environmental and social issues are going to have a fundamental impact on markets in the future, Burrett says. “It is a very exciting place to work because we do really feel that [we] are at the forward, leading end of corporate strategy here.”

Are you up to the challenge of being a sustainable banker?
You’ll need to be a super-person with super-skills to tip the balance in favour of the environment, Morgan says. “Bankers and people within these financial [organisations] need to be . . . able to deal [with] a complex and a global world. They need to be creative and innovative to come up with some of the amazing solutions that we need.”

equator-principles.com

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