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Environment & Climate
Environmental and climate protection are closely interconnected: many measures that lead to lower CO2 emissions also reduce other environmental effects, such as resource consumption and air pollution. Vontobel thus attaches great importance to this issue across all its business activities.
We place particular emphasis on careful use of materials, on energy efficiency at all sites, and on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from all operational processes.
We see climate change as one of the greatest challenges facing our society. We therefore make our products and processes as climate friendly as possible. We also continuously reduce the harmful emissions generated by our banking operations and raise awareness of the topic among our employees and the general public.
Since 2009, Vontobel has been purchasing CO2 emission certificates for the measured operational emission, now covering Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions to support projects outside of our value chain to match the emissions from our own operations. We base our operational carbon emission calculations on the GHG Protocol. Scope 1 comprises emissions from heating (natural gas, biogas and heating oil), refrigerant leakage as well as business travel (vehicles owned by the company); Scope 2 emissions are counted according to the market-based approach, which takes account of electricity purchased individually by Vontobel (e.g. electricity from renewables) in locations in which information is available about the energy mix purchased; in our scope 3 operations emissions we include energy-related emissions not included in Scope 1 or 2, business travel with external vehicles, commuting, food, paper, printing, mailings, waste, water and IT devices.
In 2024, Vontobel has supported three external projects. The projects run under the puro.earth, the ISO and the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). These projects include a biochar project in Brazil (Aperam BioEnergia biochar), a project aimed at transforming agriculture across Europe (CarboCert Humus) and reforestation in Ghana (Sustainable Timber Plantations).
Our buildings are optimally insulated, and we also use LED lighting and obtain electricity from renewable sources. Furthermore, we avoid unnecessary business trips and are committed to systematically separating and – where possible – recycling our operational waste.
Vontobel uses only recycled paper for printing. It takes about 1.5 times less energy and 2.5 times less water to produce recycled paper than it does to produce paper from fresh fiber. Recycled paper also cuts greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20%. We offset the remaining emissions with various CO2 projects around the world.