Relevance of the topic to SZKB and goals

SZKB’s commitment to sustainability also includes its own operational ecology. SZKB requires a variety of resources in order to provide its services, which inevitably result in emissions and other environmental impacts. The following aspects are particularly relevant to SZKB:

• Direct and indirect energy consumption during operation
  
• Share of renewable energies in energy consumption
  
• Consumption of the resources of paper and water
  
• Share of office paper and toilet paper from recycled sources
  
• Waste produced

These relevant aspects may adversely affect SZKB’s stakeholders through impacts such as increased CO₂ emissions and potential environmental pollution.

SZKB has established the following goals for ethical business conduct in regard to the environment:

• By 2027, SZKB will reduce its operational CO₂ emissions by 15.8%, or 145.0 t (base year 2021), to 770.0 t..
• Raising employee awareness of resource consumption (e.g. paper, heating, light and electricity).
  
• By 2030, all bank buildings (solely) owned by SZKB will cease using oil or gas heating systems, provided that it is economically feasible and technically viable to do so.
  
• By 2030, SZKB will have installed photovoltaic systems on all bank buildings (solely) owned by SZKB, provided that it is economically feasible and technically viable to do so.

Management approach

Even if the consumption of resources and the associated environmental impact at SZKB (as at all financial companies) are significantly lower than with undertakings such as industrial companies, operational sustainability management is still of great importance to SZKB. Responsibility for identifying, analysing and implementing measures was integrated into the line in 2023. Two organisational units are of central importance here: the Real Estate/Services department and the Contract/Partner Management department.

In 2023, SZKB calculated its carbon footprint for the financial year 2022 in accordance with ISO 14064-1 and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for Scope 1, 2 and parts of Scope 3 in cooperation with the consulting firm Swiss Climate (see Appendix «Disclosure of the methodological basis, Chapter 1.6 Operational CO₂ emissions»). An external auditing company conducted an audit of the carbon footprint and awarded the «Certified CO₂ optimised by Swiss Climate» label. The certification guidelines for this «Silver Label» require not only an annual survey and audit of the company’s own carbon footprint but also the establishment of a target path and measures to reduce CO₂ emissions.

In 2022, SZKB’s total emissions amounted to 916.9 tCO₂, which are distributed across the consumption areas listed above.

Procurement is also an important issue for a service institution like SZKB. SZKB endeavours to keep the added value of the services it procures in the Canton of Schwyz or in Switzerland wherever feasible. This ensures that the local economy in the canton benefits from the procurement activity. The distances are short, resulting in lower CO₂ emissions from transport and delivery to SZKB.

In its procurement activities, SZKB adheres to principles that include the following: product-specific requirements, consideration of local business partners, transparency and partnership-based cooperation, social responsibility (including respect for human rights), environmental responsibility and economic efficiency.

Key measures:

• Heating
  
• Materials (paper, water, waste)
• Electricity
  
• Refrigerants
  
• Procurement
  
• Promotional materials/campaigns

Heaters

Emissions from heating systems (including water heating) at the headquarters and in the branches account for 116.7 tCO₂, or 11.7% of the total.

Energy sources for the heating systems include district heating (42.6%), natural gas (21.6%), heating oil (14.9%), electric heat pumps (13.4%) and wood (7.5%). This means that 63.5% of the heating energy is generated primarily from renewable energy sources.

Materials (paper, water, waste)

In recent years, SZKB has continuously reduced its paper and toner consumption. By default, clients receive transaction notifications as well as account and custody account statements only as electronic documents. The figure below shows the downward trend in physical client output (with 2005 = 100% taken as a basis).

In 2022, greenhouse gas emissions for paper and printing accounted for 81.3 tCO₂, a share of 8.2% of the total footprint, with the share of recycled paper making up 22.8%. In 2022, SZKB made the decision to systematically transition to using recycled products for its toilet paper and all office paper starting from 1 January 2023.

SZKB collects, separates and disposes of numerous consumable materials, including paper, cardboard, plastics/films, IT equipment, PET bottles, coffee capsules and household rubbish. Around 56.7% of this waste was recycled in 2022.

Across the entire Bank, 2.2 t of CO₂ emissions were generated in the water category, accounting for 0.2% of total emissions.

Electricity

At 13.3 tCO₂, SZKB’s electricity consumption accounts for just 1.3% of CO₂ emissions. The carbon footprint takes into account the power consumption of the actual Bank premises (headquarters and branches), an external computer centre and the 13 cashpoints located at third-party sites.

A total of 93.8% of the almost 2.2 GWh of electricity comes from renewable energy sources. Due to rental agreements, the exact composition of the remaining 6.2% is not conclusively known.

Outdated and inefficient light sources for indoor and outdoor lighting are gradually being replaced by LEDs and other energy-saving lamps.

Refrigerants

In the 2022 carbon footprint, 25.5 tCO₂e were attributed to refrigerant losses. The tightness of air conditioning systems is subject to annual fluctuations: Even with regular maintenance, a specific appliance could still develop a defect that results in loss of refrigerant. In 2022, there were leaks of this kind in two systems, resulting in a total of 16.0 kg of refrigerant escaping (2021: 0.0 kg). Since refrigerants are typically very harmful to the environment, one kilogram of refrigerant has the impact of 1.6 t of CO₂e.

Procurement

In the Bank’s sustainability management, the procurement of products and services plays a not insignificant role. SZKB awards contracts worth several million francs every year. It is important to SZKB that sustainability aspects are also included in the award criteria.

In 2022/2023, SZKB carried out an analysis and risk assessment to identify the procurement areas in which violations of ESG criteria could occur. Environmental, social and governance aspects were taken into account, with an assessment then made as to whether child labour might have occurred in the supply chain, as required under CO Art. 964k (1) (2). One of the outcomes of this analysis was the restructuring of the process for procuring client gifts (see the following section on «Promotional material/campaigns»).

Procurement areas with an elevated risk of violating social criteria include client gifts and promotional items, while areas with an increased risk of violating environmental criteria include vehicle procurement. SZKB sought to raise awareness among its responsible purchasers in regard to the elevated ESG risks.

In 2022 and 2023, SZKB did not receive any reports of environmental or social responsibility standards being violated in procurement, nor were there any cases of employees being involved in corruption.

In 2023, SZKB launched a new contract management application to systematically and regularly evaluate both new and existing contractual partnerships. This enables SZKB to conduct in-depth, system-led due diligence on key business partners, including the evaluation of ESG-related matters.

Promotional material/campaigns

In regular internal training sessions, employees entrusted with the procurement of promotional materials are trained on SZKB’s procurement principles. In periodic exchange inside and outside the organisation, expenditure on promotional and campaign material is critically scrutinised, and the related procurement is put to the test on a regular basis.

SZKB’s business activities include the production of various informational and promotional materials. These include printed materials such as flyers, brochures and booklets, as well as various promotional and advertising items and giveaways. There is a process for printed materials that clarifies in detail whether printed materials are necessary at all and whether they can be dispensed with. Starting from autumn 2022, all printed materials have been produced using only 100% recycled paper. SZKB pays contributions to suppliers for all print orders so that the suppliers can make climate protection contributions to offset the emissions generated during printing and transport. The printers with whom SZKB works are all located in Switzerland.

When it comes to promotional items and giveaways, SZKB sees value and quality as extremely important. Promotional gifts are sourced exclusively from suppliers in Switzerland, with most of them coming from the Canton of Schwyz. Care is taken to ensure that the promotional items and gifts are manufactured in Switzerland or Europe. SZKB requires its suppliers to ensure that fair conditions prevail during production and that resource-efficient materials are used. When manufacturing promotional items, SZKB seeks to work with institutions that offer employment opportunities to people with disabilities where possible. In this context, SZKB cooperates with the BSZ Foundation in various ways.

SZKB also prefers to work with local providers when it comes to advertising campaigns. The foreign share of the campaigns results exclusively from the advertising presence on digital channels. Otherwise, the money spent on SZKB’s advertising campaigns benefits Switzerland and the Canton of Schwyz.

Key figures on operational ecology

The key figures on operational ecology are listed below.

Key figures on operational ecology

¹ = reference year.
² Of which 93.8% from renewable energy sources.

Assessment of effectiveness

Various measures to reduce operational CO₂ emissions were successfully implemented in 2022/2023. Nevertheless, overall emissions could not be reduced compared to the previous year. SZKB therefore continues to see potential for improvement in the area of the environment.

SZKB’s operational CO₂ emissions increased by 79.2 t from 916.9 t in 2021 to 996.1 t in 2022. This is primarily due to the rise in emissions as a result of the return to normal commuter behaviour after the pandemic and refrigerant losses.

On the other hand, there were major reductions in CO₂ emissions in the categories of heating (–17.5%), IT equipment procurement (–42.2%) and water consumption (–19.6%).

No specific measures were implemented in 2023 with regard to the goal «Raising employee awareness of resource consumption (e.g. paper, heating, light and electricity)».

The Gersau and Tuggen branches replaced their fossil-fuelled heating systems with a heat pump and a woodchip heating system in 2023.

In 2023, an outside expert was hired to conduct a detailed analysis of the potential for photovoltaic (PV) energy generation on all Bank buildings (solely) owned by SZKB.

Further development and next steps

SZKB aims to achieve the defined goals for reducing its CO₂ emissions by continuing to pursue its chosen approach and systematically taking advantage of its options for reducing these emissions. For this purpose, SZKB will prioritise the implementation of the following actions:

• Fostering a sense of personal responsibility and raising awareness among employees of the necessity of further reducing material and energy consumption on an ongoing basis.
  
• Ongoing conversion to more environmentally friendly heating systems at branch properties (solely) owned by the Bank.
  
• Development and implementation of a master plan for the installation of PV systems on Bank-owned properties.