Ecological sustainability

Living in the real world
Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) is seeking to reconstitute the relationship between its business activities and Nature. This is not being pursued for altruistic reasons, but because there are physical limits to the resources of the Earth, both in terms of generating materials and absorbing wastes. Any business activity that exceeds Nature's non-negotiable limits is, by definition, unsustainable in the medium to long term. CFS' Sustainable Development Policy sets out the minimum conditions for ecological sustainability and is heavily influenced by an approach referred to as The Natural Step.i Details of CFS' Sustainable Development Policy can be found here.

Normalisation
During 2003, the eco-efficiency analysis used by the bank has been extended across CFS; with ecological impact reported in relation to customer account numbers. If CFS can control consumption of energy and other resources, whilst at the same time increasing the number of customer accounts it operates, then real eco-efficiency gains can be achieved. For 2003, 11,142,000 ii is taken to be the total number of CIS and bank accounts. Some businesses normalise their impacts on the basis of employee numbers. Therefore, to facilitate benchmarking, data is also presented on this basis, using 13,901 iii as the total staff number for CFS during 2003. However, CIS Insurance Sales Financial Advisers (approximately 3,000 staff) spend most of their time working away from the office; either operating from their homes, or working in customers' homes. As such, to avoid understating the ecological impacts of CFS waste production and utilities use per employee, Financial Advisers have been excluded from employee numbers for these indicators.

Benchmarking
CFS' performance has been benchmarked against Credit Suisse Group, as stated in their Sustainability Report 2002.iv The Credit Suisse Group Environmental Report is one of the few in which data has been externally verified. The Group was commended for its environmental performance in a survey of major European banks conducted by Oekom Research.v Credit Suisse Group data refers to their operations in Switzerland alone. Additionally, use is made of Building Research Establishment and Environment Agency benchmarks (Details of benchmarking against the Building Research Establishment can be found here. Follow this link for details of benchmarking against the Environment Agency.).

Developments
As part of the development of CFS, ethical, ecological, diversity, social accountability and business development functions have been brought together into a new Sustainable Development Team. The consolidation of CIS and bank ethics and sustainability accounting systems has been a major piece of work in 2003. It has resulted in restatement of previously published datasets in a few instances; where the completeness of certain indicators has been standardised, or a review of historic data has identified inaccuracies. Where this has occurred, the symbol  appears next to the dataset, and an explanation of the change is provided on CFS' website.vi

Reporting guidelines
In 2001, the UK Government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) produced guidelines that set out how to produce a good quality environmental report.vii CFS' 2003 Sustainability Report is consistent with the proposed 'reporting process', and covers both those indicators suggested as being 'relevant to all organisations' and those indicators considered to be 'additional extras'. The guidance cites the bank as one of seven examples of good practice. CFS has also followed most viii aspects of DEFRA's reporting guidelines for greenhouse gas emissions, waste and water use.

Assurance
An assessment of the degree to which CFS succeeds in delivering value to Partners in an ecologically sustainable manner is provided by Jonathon Porritt, Chairman of The Natural Step UK and Programme Director of Forum for the Future. For further details, please contact Paul Monaghan, Head of Sustainable Development (paul.monaghan@cfs.co.uk). Follow this link to contact Paul Monaghan, Head of sustainable development.

i  www.naturalstep.org.uk
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ii  3,204,000 bank customer accounts, a 5.8% increase during 2003; 7,938,000 CIS customer accounts, a 7.5% decrease during 2003.
iii  4,138 bank employees and 9,763 CIS employees, including 3,091 Financial Advisers.
iv  www.credit-suisse.com/sustainability
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v  www.oekom.de
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vi  www.cfs.co.uk/sustainability2003/restatements
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vii  www.defra.gov.uk/environment/envrp/index.htm
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viii The DEFRA guidelines have been followed with two exceptions. Haulage impacts are not fully declared, as many of CFS' suppliers are unable to determine mileage for that proportion of business undertaken for CFS. CFS disagrees that the CO2 emissions from Combined Heat and Power (CHP) derived electricity should be taken as zero. Instead, CFS has determined, in association with electricity suppliers, the CO2 emissions of a typical UK CHP plant.