Nationwide Building Society has become the first high-street financial services provider in the UK to achieve triple recertification to the Carbon Trust Standards for carbon, water and waste.
The Carbon Trust Standard is an independent certification recognising organisations that successfully measure, manage and reduce their environmental impact. Achieving the Carbon Trust Standard for carbon emissions, water use and waste output addresses three of the most significant direct sustainability issues associated with the financial services sector, with tangible year-on-year progress required to maintain the certifications.
In 2011, Nationwide set three environmental targets:
- Ensure 2020/21 carbon emissions remain at or below 2011 baseline levels
- Reduce water consumption by 10% by 2015
- 3. Achieve zero waste to landfill by 2015
The Society has made good progress on all three, exceeding both its carbon footprint and water usage targets and achieving 100% of waste now diverted from landfill. The company has reduced its carbon footprint by 13.5% compared to 2011 and used 23.6% less water than in 2010/11.
Nationwide has recently set the following new targets:
- Keep carbon emissions down to 2015 levels
- Reduce water use by 5% by 2020
- Reduce waste by 100 tonnes and increase recycling to at least 80% by 2020.
Jenny Groves, Nationwide Divisional Director for Branch and Workplace Transformation said:
“As the world’s largest building society we recognise our responsibility to build a truly sustainable business. Our vision is to be among the best performers for environmental sustainability in the UK financial services sector and becoming the first high-street financial services provider to be awarded triple certification to the Carbon Trust Standard in 2014 demonstrated our success. “
“Since then we have also achieved certification to the Carbon Trust Standard for Supply Chain, recognising that we are working with our suppliers to help them reduce their emissions as well.”
Darran Messem, Managing Director of Certification at the Carbon Trust, which has been working with Nationwide since 2010, described the company as “consistently …one of the strongest performers on sustainability in the financial services sector. “
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