Our Natural
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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.

In 2019, we were the first Turkish public institution to join the Science-Based Targets Initiative pioneered by many leading organizations and declared our carbon reduction commitment. At VakıfBank, we maintain efforts to measure the Bank's GHG emissions and set targets in parallel with the target of keeping the temperature rise at a maximum of 1.5°C as stipulated in the Paris Climate Agreement. We also continue our activities to annually track emission values and goals. 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 2022 within the context of the CDP Climate Change program, which we have been reporting on since 2015. Meanwhile, in an attempt to manage water-related risks and increase awareness, we took part in CDP's Water Security Program for the first time. Reporting our performance, we scored B-.

We are creating an infrastructure for future CDP disclosures to establish a complete, consistent, accurate, and transparent verification process compliant with operations where water consumption and quantities of water sources can be calculated, verified, and targets achieved. In this respect, we are preparing a "Water Footprint Inventory Report" in accordance with “ISO 14046 Water Footprint – Principles, Requirements and Guidelines".

We have 9 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. Our intention for the coming period is to adopt a treatment and fountain system at branches to eliminate the use of 5-gallon water bottles and other bottled water of all sizes as part of our efforts toward sustainable banking. This way, we will reduce the consumption of plastics and raise awareness of climate change.

Since 2021, we attained a 17% reduction in the emissions resulting from company vehicles, 500 of which were hybrid, provided by our Bank to employees. Owing to all these practices, we save energy and track and report our carbon emissions in compliance with the GHG Data Collection and Calculation Regulation. Our goal for 2023 is to implement the ISO 50001 Energy Efficiency Management System at all locations and obtain an international accreditation and certification to reduce energy consumption and embed this process into our Bank's policies.

In the 2021-2022 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. We monitor the documentation for ISO 14001 Environmental Management System on the electronic database we developed in 2022 for Paper-free Banking activities.

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 management of hazardous and non-hazardous waste and reached compliance with national and international regulations. We sort recyclable and hazardous waste and guarantee their disposal without harming the environment. 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. This is the reason we prioritize renewable energy investments and provide finance to sustainable energy investments and projects. In 2022, we provided funds worth more than TL 3.6 billion to 80 renewable energy projects representing a total installed capacity of 1,365 MW. In the coming period, we will continue to provide financial support to renewable energy and resource efficiency projects.

In 2022, we became a carbon-neutral bank by balancing the surplus Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions as we verified with an ISO 14064 certification. As we previously targeted, we joined I-REC, an international certification system demonstrating power generation based on renewables in 2022. In this period, our electricity consumption was based fully on renewables (except electricity consumed in foreign operations). You may find our environmental data here.

To raise our employees' energy efficiency and climate change awareness, we provide them with training courses and develop environmentally sensitive behavioral models in areas such as energy saving and separation of waste at source both within and outside the Bank.

Sustainability training activities conducted for more effective adoption of the sustainability vision by the employees were accelerated in 2022. 8,057 employees attended sustainability-themed e-learning courses in this period.

Accordingly, we delivered 36,029 hours of online sustainability courses and 8,261 hours of online environmental courses to employees in 2022. In addition, we certified 1,450 employees as of the end of 2022 as part of our training courses under the ISO 9001 Quality Management System and ISO 14001 Environmental Management System. We currently have at least one certified staff member at 920 branches. In 2022, we assigned an E-ISO 14001 Environmental Management System course that 4,915 employees took. We finalized the Zero Waste certification activities as part of the synonymous project being conducted by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change. 10,472 employees took the E-Zero Waste Training under the Zero Waste project.

Under the E-Waste campaign, we initiated as a corporate social responsibility project, we disposed of 2,700 kg of e-waste via TUBİSAD and recycled them for charity to Darüşşafaka in 2022.

In addition, during this period, we managed to help 8 people in need have a wheelchair with the collection of approximately 3.5 tons of plastic lids by employees in support of the plastic campaign conducted by TOFD (Spinal Cord Paralytics Association of Türkiye).

With the contributions of employees, we planted seedlings for three forests as part of the "a VakıfBank forest for every year" project.

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