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Helping ABN Amro understand Impact Materiality and mitigate risks in their value chain

Banks play an essential role in our daily lives, from financing our dream homes to supporting the companies we work for. But did you know that banks also have a significant impact on the environment and society? By directing funds into areas that benefit society and pricing social and environmental impact appropriately, the financial sector can accelerate the transition towards more sustainable financing models.

Below we’ll explore how we have helped a leading Dutch financial institution – ABN Amro – contribute to this societal change.

Measuring and reporting the impact of ABN Amro

ABN Amro’s annual 2023 report analysed the impact of three key focus areas: mortgages and the housing market, biodiversity, and corporate lending portfolio, identifying their impacts per sector and throughout the value chains.

The report showcases how impact thinking is being integrated across their operations, for instance through assessing risks of a corporate lending portfolio, managing sustainable investments via their Sustainable Impact Fund (SIF), and prioritising biodiversity by looking at their potential contribution to the loss of biodiversity.

Download the annual report here.

 

Impact materiality – Input to and complementing European Sustainability Standards

The results presented in the report are used as one of several inputs to the double materiality assessment as part of European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). CSRD and the Impact Report methodology complement each other. CSRD will unlock a wealth of data on environmental and social topics. In the future the impact methodology can serve as a tool to leverage this data for decision making. For example, the impact methodology can be used by the bank to support Sector bankers in specific sectors to measure client impact across topics and provide support in managing this impact.

Minimising Negative Impacts: Mitigating Risks in the Value Chain by ABN Amro

ABN Amro continues to prioritise biodiversity in several ways, by looking at the potential contribution to the loss of biodiversity, including which sectors and business lines have the biggest footprint. The bank is, for example, reporting on the number of biodiversity hectares deteriorating.

The main drivers that the bank uses to measure biodiversity loss are contribution to climate change from increased greenhouse gas emissions, land use, often to accommodate agriculture, air pollution, arising from industrial production, water pollution, from for example, cattle farming.

As another contribution to mitigating negative impacts of their operations, the bank continues to support clients in understanding their impact on nature, for example by supporting farmers to reduce their environmental impact, retailers to adopt more circular working practices, and food producers to limit their deforestation impact.

Curious about how to start reporting your organisation’s impact?

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