Reducing the Impact of our Activities on the Environment

As a first priority, our environmental responsibility begins with identifying all of the direct and indirect impacts of our activities.

BNP Paribas is a global company, employing more than 200,000 people who work in offices, travel, use information technology, print documents, and so on, in order to offer products and services to individuals, companies and investors.
These activities have a direct impact on the environment: CO2 emissions, energy consumption, paper consumption are all effects to be monitored with care by way of four principal levels.

We have identified four principle levers for reducing these environmental impacts:

• Reducing the environmental impact of our buildings
• Promoting the responsible use of information technology
• Optimising employee travel (business travel and home / work commuting)
• Reducing our paper consumption

The Specifics

In 2010, the Publishing department of BNP Paribas Retail Banking in France was awarded ISO 14001 certification. This certification shows its commitment to reducing the environmental impact of this activity: reducing paper consumption, optimising waste recycling, reducing energy consumption, and so on. In 2009, BNP Paribas Retail Banking in France had already obtained certification for its “Accueil et Services” branch model, bringing the number of agencies in France complying with this model to 1,325.

More recently, BNP Paribas Partners for Innovation received ISO 14001 certification for its Environmental Management System. Three other ISO 14001 certificates were likewise obtained in 2009 by BNP Paribas Factor, TEB and Arval UK.

ISO 14001 Certification

In another area, BNP Paribas implemented a paper policy in 2011 which aims to reduce paper consumption (reduction of 20% for internal paper by 2013 from the 2010 baseline), increase use of “sustainable paper" (100% of customer paper is to be from sustainable sources as of 2013) and encourage internal recycling.

Greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation increased by 50% between 1990 and 2004 and now account for 17% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gases released (according to the fourth assessment report by the IPCC in 2007). Sustainable forest management therefore plays a key role in the Group’s commitment to fighting climate change.

The BNP Paribas paper policy joins other Group actions to responsibly manage its indirect impact on forest through financing and investment policies governing the palm oil and paper pulp sectors.
Read the Summary of the BNP Paribas Paper Policy