Besides supporting our customers and being an active owner Nordea also places strong focus on improving our own way of working. We want to play an active role in contributing to societal goals through our climate action, social responsibility and governance and culture. We work continuously and closely together with our suppliers. Supplier engagement being essential to advancing our sustainability performance.
Go to our supplier portal50%
compared to 2019.
See examples below on how we are working towards reaching our goal.
In 2020 we introduced a new company car policy which means that from 2021 onwards we have only allowed electric and plug-in hybrid company cars. This has been well received by our employees, with plug-in hybrids accounting for approximately 2/3 and electric 1/3 of all new company cars.
We can now rely much more on digital meetings, which means that we will not return to pre-pandemic travel levels. In addition to reducing travel overall, the updated travel guidelines also require us to travel more by train to further reduce our carbon footprint.
Nordea has been replacing physical letters with customer-friendly digital solutions through our Paperless Banking Programme. Between 2017 and 2021 the programme has digitalised approximately 50% of all customer letters, which means fewer carbon emissions connected with distribution.
Despite our best efforts to limit our internal carbon footprint, some emissions still remain difficult to reduce. For these, we purchase carbon offsets to reduce equivalent emissions elsewhere. We supported the generation of renewable energy through the purchase of carbon credits for 2021. We will continue to fully offset the residual emissions from our internal operations. Going forward, we will be shifting to a long-term carbon removal portfolio, which we will periodically review to align with evolving best practices for achieving net-zero emissions.
One of the main drivers of our energy consumption are the data centres which make our digital services possible. A side effect of the high activity level in the data centres is the generation of excess heat. In 2020 we have installed a large heat pump which distributes excess heat to private households in the community. This is limiting the need for additional cooling of the servers and helping us to significantly reduce our electricity consumption.
We are also working towards making our workplace more sustainable. For example by offering more vegetarian options and serving local and seasonal produce as much as possible. In 2021 we installed beehives and urban gardens on the rooftops of several Nordea headquarters (HQ). We aim to inspire our employees to reduce their own carbon footprint. To this end, we have hosted sustainability events for employees and facilitated discussions in our branches and headquarters. As well as being a way to share ongoing initiatives, these events were also forums for discussing and developing new ideas to create positive change.
Our community engagement strategy is about creating positive change through our employees with a focus on building financial skills and fostering entrepreneurship. See examples below and read more here.
Nordea employees can spend two paid working days per year volunteering. In 2021, this resulted in 1,100 Nordea employees delivering 6,500 hours of volunteering.
Every year Nordea employees have the opportunity to visit schools, where they are invited to teach financial skills. Read more about this on the different country pages.
Through well over 20 programmes and partnerships, we are focused on building financial skills and fostering entrepreneurship, thus enabling our banking and financial expertise to have a positive impact on society.
Our ability to grow sustainably depends on the people we attract, retain and develop, and the extent to which we provide an inclusive environment.
Sound corporate governance means ensuring that companies are run sustainably, responsibly and as efficiently as possible on behalf of their shareholders. By fostering a purpose-led culture with a robust operating model, we can enable speed and scale in the transition to a resilient economy while at the same time reducing sustainability-related risks.
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One example of our work with responsible banking is gender balance at the workplace. We strive for gender balance in all parts of the organisation, including at the total workforce level and at each leadership level. In all cases, no gender should be represented by less than 40% of employees.
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At Nordea our employees