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We continue to increase our environmental, social, and managerial performance and integrate sustainability into our corporate strategy for a more livable future by realizing our banking activities at international sustainability standards. We are aware of climate change’s effects, which is the most crucial challenge of our age, operations, and financing. In this context, we consider the impacts of climate change as essential risks, and we aim to play an active role in the transition to a low-carbon economy by effectively managing the risks.

We became the first Turkish public enterprise in 2019 to promote the commitment to reduce carbon emissions by joining the Science Based Targets initiative, led by many pioneering organizations. The Science-Based Target initiative published its draft public opinion on the fundamentals of net-zero target setting in the financial sector in November 2021. In this context, and in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement’s maximum 1.5°C temperature increase target, we continue our efforts to quantify greenhouse gas emissions and set targets. In addition, we are working to achieve the annual reduction targets set by our Board of Directors in this process.

• 2% Electricity consumption per square meter
• 2% Natural gas consumption per square meter
• 2% Domestic water consumption per capita
• 2% Paper use per capita
• 2% Total reduction of carbon and greenhouse gas emissions

In addition, we report our climate change strategies, risks, and performance to the CDP, as well as present our results to our investors and the general public. We maintained our B-level performance grade in 2021 within the context of the CDP Climate Change program, which we have been reporting on since 2015. In addition, as VakıfBank, we aim to play a role in managing water-related risks and raising awareness by supporting the CDP Water Program in 2022.

We evaluate our strategy to combat climate change and our efforts in this context under three main headings; Reducing Environmental Impacts, Sustainable Energy Finance, and Raising Employee Awareness.

Under the heading of Reducing Environmental Impacts, we work to reduce the effects and carbon footprint that occur during our activities. We have 11 full-time employees at our Environmental Management Department, established in 2015 by the resolution of the Board of Directors. In this context, we monitor our environmental performance with an electronic database system and through this system, we track the monthly energy, waste, and water data entries of Headquarters and all of our branches and effectively manage our greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. The Environmental Management Service not only regularly monitors this data but also audits it and directs all our departments to reduce natural resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

We also prefer to use products with high efficiency to reduce consumption. We use central heating and cooling systems, energy-efficient servers, A-class inverter air conditioners, and energy-efficient products in this context. We use LED systems in lighting and turn off computers and phones centrally after specified hours.

In 2020, we replaced 450 of our vehicles with their hybrid versions. With our fleet of hybrid vehicles, we have reduced the emissions generated by our vehicles by approximately 10% in 2021. The gains of our bank achieved with this project correspond to 789 tCO2-e. This amount is equal to greenhouse gas emissions that are generated through meeting the electricity needs of 1,112 homes in Turkey. In 2021, we added 50 more hybrid vehicles to our vehicle fleet and reduced our emissions arising from company vehicles by 17%. Thanks to all these applications, we save energy, follow up, and report our carbon emissions under the Greenhouse Gas Emission Data Collection and Calculation Regulation.

In the 2020-2021 audit period, as in the previous years, we obtained the ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System certificate to certify that we manage the direct environmental impact of our banking activities in compliance with international standards. We have enabled all VakıfBank employees to work in ISO 14001-certified buildings.

Each year, we perform internal audits by the Audit Board and external audits through independent external auditors in all our locations. In nonconformity during the audits, we create a corrective action form and work to solve the problem. With our procedures and the Environmental Management System, we provide coordination and effectiveness in our work.

• Waste Control Procedure
• Assessment Environmental Dimensions and Control Plans Procedure
• Internal Audit Procedure
• Detection of Non-Compliance and Corrective Actions Procedure
• Determination and Follow-Up of Legal and Other Requirements Procedure
• Management Review Procedure

In order to reduce our environmental impact, we also consider the management of our wastes, separate our hazardous wastes, and conduct studies to reduce the amount of waste generated per person. We have completed the supervision of our hazardous and non-hazardous wastes and made them compatible with local and international regulations. Besides, we continue to increase our recycling rate by keeping recycling bins in all our locations.

We are aware that the financing of sustainable development in the combat against climate change takes an important place. Within this context, under the heading of Sustainable Energy Financing, we provide financial support to sustainable energy investments and projects by prioritizing renewable energy initiatives. We have provided nearly TL 4.4 billion in funding support to 22 renewable energy projects with a total installed power of 998.4 MW in 2021. In the coming period, we will continue to provide financial support to renewable energy and resource efficiency projects.

At VakıfBank, we remain sensitive to energy and emission issues. During 2019-2020, we were a Carbon-Negative organization for two years in a row, offsetting the excess of all our greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, we reduced our emission amount within the scope of Scope 1 and Scope 2, which was confirmed by the ISO 14064 certificate, by 50% compared to the previous year as of the end of 2021, to 18,202 tCO2e. In this context, we became a carbon negative bank by offsetting the excess of our greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, electricity generated from renewable resources accounted for 80% of total electricity consumption. In the upcoming period, we are working to become part of I-REC, the international certification system that certifies electricity is generated from renewable energy resources.

In the topic of Raising Employee Awareness, by training our employees on energy efficiency and climate change, we aim to raise awareness and to develop environmentally sensitive behavior models such as energy savings and waste separation both in and out of the Bank.

Sustainability training activities conducted for more effective adoption of the sustainability vision by the employees were accelerated in 2021. The Basic and Advanced Levels of Sustainability e-learning training sessions for Banking have been made available to our employees. The training session on the subject of “Zero Waste” has been made available to all our employees via the Bank’s training portal and 6,174 individuals have taken the training. E-learning training sessions on “Ethical Principles” and “Gender Equality in Working Life,” which include guidance values, principles, and standards that help our employees determine “how things should be done,” were assigned and 15,791 employees benefited from these training sessions.

In this context, we provided 400 hours of in-class and 3,307 hours of online sustainability training, and 8,144 hours of online environment training to our employees in 2021. Also, thanks to our training sessions as part of the ISO 9001 Quality Management System and ISO 14001 Environmental Management System, by the end of 2021, we certified 1,346 employees, and as a result, we now have at least one certified employee at our 878 branches. As we targeted in 2020, in 2021, all our employees were assigned EN-ISO 14001 Environmental Management System training, with 6,024 employees benefiting from it. We completed our Zero Waste Project system records carried out by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change in 2020, and our certification procedure is still ongoing as of 2021.

We initiated a Corporate Social Responsibility project for our electronic waste. We sent the electronic waste brought by our employees to TÜBİSAD (Informatics Industry Association) and donate the resulting income to the Darüşşafaka.

In addition, during this period, we managed to help 12 people in need have a wheelchair with the collection of approximately 4.5 tons of bottle tops by employees in support of the plastic campaign conducted by TOFD (Turkish Society of Spinal Cord Paralyzed People)

You can access our Environmental Policy document, which we created within the scope of our sustainability efforts to continuously improve our environmental performance to protect the environment and ensure the continuity of natural resources at https://www.vakifbank.com.tr/Default.aspx?pageID=2793