By
Jeremiah Agada
As
the world gears up to celebrate the World Environment Day (WED), Brand
Communicator’s focus on Eco-Friendly Brands in the Nigerian market falls on
Nigeria’s premier and perhaps the strongest financial institution, First Bank
of Nigeria Limited. The focus is on the Bank’s environmental policies and its
impact on the global environmental issues.
This
brings to fore the importance of environmental sustainability in our world
today. Environmental sustainability is one of the biggest challenges and most
important targets of the present times. Stakeholders (researchers,
academicians, scholars, governments and non-government organizations involving
individuals, communities, countries, and the continents, are increasingly
focusing their attention on how to tackle the challenges associated with
driving environmental sustainability. Key stakeholder concerns include the
constant exploitation of the environment due to economic development. While the
current generation is enjoying the fruits of economic development, they tend to
be oblivious of the uncertainty and dangers that future generations would
confront as a result of scarce natural resources and polluted environment. It is
therefore, our responsibility to leave the planet as a self-sustainable system
providing equal opportunities of survival not only to our future generations
but also to all other species co-habiting with us.
In
Nigeria, studies have shown that various sectors of the economy are vulnerable
to climate change. These include human settlements and health; water resources,
wetlands and freshwater ecosystems; energy, industry, commerce and financial
services; agriculture, food security, land degradation, forestry and biodiversity;
coastal zone and marine ecosystems.
Because
of the seriousness of climate change and the impact it poses to the
environment, an organization like First Bank of Nigeria Limited is leaving
nothing to chance in ensuring an
eco-friendly society. Its recognition of the environmental and social impacts
of its operations has made it adopt policies and procedures that minimize
negative environmental and social impacts.
In
doing business, the Bank, which is Nigeria’s first and arguably its most
prestigious, takes cognizance of potential environmental risks with a view to
nipping them in the bud. This it has done by constant interactions with stakeholders,
driving sustainable insurance and putting necessary frameworks in place towards
ensuring that its actions as a corporate entity does not impact negatively on
the environment.
As
such, the sustainability of the societies and physical environments in which
the Bank operates are critical to its own sustainable success. Therefore, the
Bank has shown over the years that it is committed to making positive
contribution wherever it does business while avoiding or minimising any direct
or indirect negative impact on communities and the environment resulting from
its activities, beyond its responsible lending and investment efforts.
The
acknowledgement of the fact that its environmental impacts can be indirectly
linked to climate change and its global effects has led the bank to adopt an
approach to environmental sustainability which is two-fold based on its direct
and indirect impacts. The approaches to reducing the direct impacts of its
operations include approach to minimising carbon footprints and carbon
offsetting; work towards carbon neutrality as well as promote wildlife and
biodiversity conservation and preservation.
In
minimising waste, the Bank works to improve energy efficiency in its data
centres and offices as well as reduce air travels and implement safe paper use
initiatives. It also increased the use of conference calls for meetings as
against attending physical meeting schedules thereby minimizing fuel
consumption and carbon emission from vehicles. Its ‘Going Green’ efforts have
also seen the Bank purchase renewable energy; promote tree planting initiatives
and the indirect impact of its activities focuses largely on responsible
lending.
The
Bank’s key objectives of minimizing carbon footprints through the planting of
trees, creating awareness among school children of the need to preserve
wildlife and biodiversity, developing and educating environmentally conscious
students through partnerships with reputable NGOs and institutions, are huge.
The challenge in implementing this project is not just in identifying suitable
locations with the right soil and climatic conditions for tree planting, but
also ensuring students’ participation.
These
objectives and FirstBank’s responsible approach to protecting the environment
has seen it partner with Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), Nigeria’s
premier non-governmental environment conservation foundation dedicated to
nature conservation and sustainable development in Nigeria. Its on-going
partnership with the NCF has seen it actively support annual activities promoting
conservation and preservation of wildlife and biodiversity.
The FirstBank
Conservation Initiative is part of our long-term approach to promoting
sustainability, which involves minimising our direct and indirect impacts on
the environment. And the success of this initiative is dependent on our
meaningful engagement with our stakeholders.
With
its huge expertise in environmental issues, the Bank found a worthy and perfect
partner in the NCF to help implement this programme successfully. The NCF used
its experience and influence to engage the various stakeholders to support the
programme. This included utilising its conservation clubs, which provided
educational sessions for the students on the importance and benefits of
conservation and supporting biodiversity. The subsequent enthusiastic
participation of the students, and the encouragement they received from the
Ministry of Education and school authorities, enabled the programme’s
objectives to be achieved.
So
far, 240 trees have been planted at the Lagos State Civil Service Model College
Igbogbo in Ikorodu, and Evboesi Mixed Secondary School, Benin City. More than
1,000 environmental sustainability champions have also been appointed in these
locations. These champions are young people who look after the trees and ensure
that they are adequately cared for to help the bank achieve its afforestation
goals. “The planting of trees is just part of our efforts to contribute to
Nigeria’s green economy and to combat deforestation/desertification, while
recognising the key role of children and young people in the sustainability
agenda,” the Bank in a statement disclosed.
Through
its partnership with Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN), FirstBank sponsored the
National Company of the Year (NCOY) Competition. The competition is an
extension of the COY programme that brings secondary students together to form
a company, choose a business name and elect officers to oversee operations of
the company for the programme duration. It teaches students to put theory into
practice in order to fully understand what financial literacy and
entrepreneurship is. At the end of the
programme, the students that complete the programme successfully, compete in
the regional competition and represent their school in the National Company of
the Year competition in Lagos. In 2020, the New Phase from Brookstone Secondary
School, Port-Harcourt, Rivers state emerged winner, producing an eco-friendly
block. The eco-friendly construction blocks were made from plastic waste. These
sustainable blocks are the next wave of sustainable construction.
Beyond
the initiatives above, responsible lending remains one of the strategic pillars
in delivering the sustainability goals of the FirstBank Group. FirstBank has
put in place an Environmental, Social and Governance Management System (ESGMS) to
help the Bank integrate environmental social and governance considerations into
its decision-making processes. This includes an ESG policy and procedures for
screening transactions. The ESG policy is based on existing policy documents
and international best practice, while procedures to screen transactions are
aimed at conducting ESG due diligence on potential transactions. These are
based on Central Bank of Nigeria’s Sustainable Banking Principles, IFC
Performance Standards, and international best practice and are tailored to
FirstBank’s procedures, risk management framework, risk appetite and tolerance,
and adapted to its strategic objectives
The
key objective of this policy is to ensure that all the transactions that
FirstBank is considering funding, include adequate provision for actions
necessary to prevent, control and mitigate negative impacts on the environment
and communities, and improve environmental quality.
With
this, FirstBank has shown its commitment to integrating social and environmental
principles in all its operations; promoting good corporate governance and
ensuring social and environmental considerations are included in the business
decision making; reviewing and managing potential social and environmental
risks in its lending and investment processes and activities and reviewing all
borrowers against the criteria like exclusion list; the International Finance
Corporate Performance Standards, and other applicable international standards
as well as the Nigeria Sustainable Banking Principles (NSBP) requirements.
Others initiatives are, providing constant education and training for all staff on issues of environmental and social responsibility relevant to the business; regularly communicating to all stakeholders on progress of commitments including achievements, challenges and future direction; continuous improvement on the way in which it identifies, assesses and manages Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) risks within its businesses.
The
successful and productive implementation of the ESGMS has propelled the bank to
integrate the associated checklist (which is usually completed by a
relationship manager and verified by an analyst against the EIA report), into
the bank’s credit application platform designed for reviewing credits. The goal
is to ensure efficiency through automation as relevant implementation documents
such as the environmental, social and governance risks screening checklist will
be fully automated.
These
initiatives over the years and activities have shown that environmental
sustainability remains a key corporate responsibility & sustainability
focus for FirstBank.
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