On Monday 22 July Standard Chartered Bank launched Sustainability Progress Report for 2023 which revealed the significant momentum the bank have seen in Kenya around sustainability.
Using the SDGs as their blueprint, they were able to embed sustainability across their business, enhancing their operational focus on sustainability even as they work with partners to support more sustainable communities.
They moved from internal monitoring in 2021 to increasingly sophisticated reporting, including adopting the Task force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures this year. Going into 2025, the bank shall fully integrate sustainable reporting into its financial disclosures and release their outcomes alongside their full year financials to ensure that they track and pivot their business to deliver sustainable growth as well as being accountable externally.
Standard Chartered CEO Kariuki Ngari said “Sustainability is re-shaping the way we look at traditional finance. In 2023, Sustainable Finance grew by a record 13 per cent, while our overall Sustainable Finance revenue rose by over 1,000 per cent albeit from a small base. In 2021(base line year), we undertook a study that found that 62 per cent of young people do not know enough about financial services to use them – this inspired us to create more accessible financial services products. Today, 88 per cent of the clients on SC Shillings Funds (our digital low-ticket money market product) are new to wealth.
We have built a more diverse business – with over 53 per cent of our staff, executive leadership and board management being women, while 30 per cent of our suppliers are diverse up from 17 per cent.
Our focus to reduce our carbon footprint has refined our approach to our operations, supply chain and financed emissions, leading to a 65 per cent carbon reduction in last year.
More broadly, we have created impact for over 21,000 young people in our communities and committed to plant ten million trees to restore Kenya’s green cover achieving over 700k to date.
These metrics demonstrate commendable traction as we continue to work with our clients to jointly progress our transition to a more sustainable future. They are closely aligned to our Group ambition to achieve net zero across our operations by 2030. More importantly, these developments are positive indicators that doing the right thing makes good business sense”.
“The Bank is committed to remain true to our Stands – Accelerating Zero, Resetting Globalization & Lifting Participation – which are delivered through the execution of our strategy.” Kellen Kariuki Bank’s Board Chairperson added.
Making the partners understand the role of banks in driving sustainability, Chief Financial Officer, Chemutai Murgor said, “Banks are expected to play an intermediary role in mobilizing and allocating capital for the green agenda. We believe finance has a key role to play in building a cleaner, fairer world.’
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