Communication e)mission news

Depositing confidence in a carbon neutral bank account

11-05-2011

BES 18.31 - a bank account targeted toward university students and young professionals, is e)mission neutral certified®. This new account is one of the more recent pro-sustainability initiatives of BES, Portugal´s largest bank by market capitalization.

e)mission was chosen to calculate the carbon impact of the BES 18.31 bank account, by calculating its life cycle assessment,i.e. emissions resulting since the opening until the closure of the account, according to the PAS 2050:2008 methodology, used to analyse the life cycle assessment of products and services.

BES incorporated a series of measures to reduce the overall environmental cost of servicing this new account, including the promotion of non-paper-based, online transactions. These measures resulted in tangible reductions to the account´s carbon footprint. Each new 18.31 user account has a carbon impact estimated at 1.6 kg CO₂eq/year, a reduction of 20% in relation to a conventional accounts. Overall, BES will avoid around 28 tonnes of CO₂eq/year. The carbon report for the 18.31 account can be accessed from BES´ Sustainability section of the institutional site from this link.

Unavoidable carbon emissions associated with the first year of use the account 18.31 (147 tonnes of CO₂eq) are fully offset by BES Group, through support to a fuel witch project at three ceramic factories in Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. Through this project, the ceramics factories modify their stoves so as to burn wood processing wastes instead of heavy fueloils.

BES is recognized as a leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4Good Index.

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