GROUP ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Société Générale Group is fully aware of its responsibilities and constantly strives to protect the environment.

Group environmental policy

Objectives :
  • Step up the integration of environmental criteria in all Group decision-making processes,
  • Coordinate environmental measures via the Group's flagship project for carbon neutrality and the fight against climate change.
Priorities for 2010 :
  • Continue with the overhaul of the Group's environmental policy.
The environment is a major priority for today's society. An economic system that is based on the gratuitous exploitation of natural resources and the limitless discharge of pollutants cannot be sustained. Like any community, Société Générale also has an inevitable impact on the environment, and each member of its 157 000-strong Group has their part to play.
Conscious of its responsibilities, the bank strives to protect the environment in every aspect of its business by systematically integrating environmental criteria in all of its financing and investment activities and by promoting preventative measures.
Moreover, it is just as committed to acting on its internal working methods and procedures via an environmental policy that is based on three core priorities :
  • To reduce and minimise the direct impact of the Group's activities on the environment,
  • To optimise and streamline the use of natural and energy resources,
  • To constantly monitor customer and staff satisfaction.
Like any services company, Société Générale contributes to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions because of the energy it consumes, the business trips and travel to-and-from work of its staff and the waste it generates, particularly when it comes to paper. In 2009, the Group consumed close to 824 GWh in electricity and heating, 1.6 million m3 of drinking water, 8,100 tons of paper and its employee travel amounted to close to 444 million km.
All told, its CO2 emissions come to around 278,835 tons (i.e. 2.14 tons of CO2 per person working in its various offices).
The Carbon Neutrality Project approved by the Group's Executive Committee in 2007 is a fundamental part of its environmental policy and commitment in the fight against climate change, alongside various cross-business and cross-function initiatives such as :
  • The integration of the environment in the Group's real estate management via the definition of governing principles that are to be systematically applied and that are intended to create a common framework for construction and renovation projects,
  • The increasing implementation of new technologies that have a limited impact on the environment and that will enhance the environmental performance of the Group's different businesses and activities,
  • The stricter management of consumables, notably paper, by imposing more exacting standards on suppliers and reducing paper consumption,
  • Responsible "travel" through the careful management and increasing limitation of business trips, the search for and implementation of alternative solutions, and heightened employee awareness.
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