Day 4: Today’s task: Look at my own bank

The first part of the challenge for me is to look at my bank and see if I should change to one that is more committed to investing in the things I want to invest it – or not investing in those I don’t! I’ve thought I should do this for a long time but have also equally put it off, dreading the admin that I assume comes with it. So many aspects of my life are connected to those account numbers!

 
My bank is NatWest, a ‘high street’ commercial bank in the UK and when I became their customer, there wasn’t any choice at all involved – it was the only one that would take me! I joined them when I moved here from the US to go to university 17 years ago, and I don’t think banks were too excited to sign on students like me at that time 🙂

So I started this task today reading what my bank has to say on the matter of sustainability and climate change. Their web presence doesn’t shy away from it, and climate change is at the top of the web pages entitled ‘Our Purpose.’ The climate change ‘hub’ main page talks about helping me as a customer make ‘more sustainable choices’ and helping customers feel ‘more confident about your money today, and in the future.’  In short, their approach seems to take a couple strands: personal, individual cutting of carbon emissions and then also a commitment to reduce their own investments in fossil fuels/carbon emissions (less focus on this one on this page tho!).

 
The first strand probably sounds familiar – an individually focused approach to helping us each think about and reduce carbon emissions – but also spun with added benefits, so they offer tips how to ‘save money and help the planet too.’ These include a carbon footprint calculator and also tips on how to reduce waste and energy use and improve energy efficiency in homes – mostly links to other agencies/schemes. I was less interested in this part and felt like they were clearly trying to emphasise this over their own actions. 

On this second strand though, there was some info about investments and commitments. The web site says the Personal Portfolio Funds (themselves managed by Coutts) are ‘responsible investments.’ What might this be, you wonder? And I quote: ‘Responsible investing focuses on companies and industries who positively affect our world in three key areas: environmental, social, and governance (ESG)’. (I’d heard about ESG from a friend last weekend so I’ve pocketed that acronym away to look at another day. Interestingly, the bank also provides a financial bottom line for the reasons that we should care about ESG: ‘These factors are not based on moralistic beliefs, they make good financial sense. That’s because there’s a strong link between stock price performance, and companies who have good corporate practices.’)

There is also a very long Climate-related Disclosures Report that I bravely skimmed but admittedly understood very little. From all this, I could deduce that the bank is clearly doing a lot across its operations and investment portfolio to reduce carbon emissions, and I could appreciate how complex this is. The summary commitments seem to be:

• Becoming ‘climate positive’ by 2025 (A new phrase for me! And not clearly defined – a related link to their ‘climate plans’ takes you back to the page with tips on how to reduce energy use and track your carbon footprint.)
• Halving the impact on the climate of the projects they help to fund by 2030  (though the way this is calculated seems based on estimates for the most part as far as I could tell)
• Full phase out of coal investment by 2030
• Net zero by 2050

My initial reaction to all this is to a) feel overwhelmed by all the language and terms I don’t fully understand, b) to feel the primary focus on customer-facing pages is what individuals can do and not transparent explanation on what the bank is doing and c) to think that while the bank is clearly taking steps to divest of fossil fuels, it’s not happening apace. So I am ending today thinking I was right to want to change … next step to look at other options and see how they compare to what I’ve read today.

Hope everyone has great weekends and challenges are going well!