BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 5. AccessBank has started to establish a system of environmental reporting, the chairperson of the Board of AccessBank Davit Tsiklauri told Trend.
“More and more funds are introducing green economy-related indicators such as Energy Efficiency and Green Footprint into their criteria. These indicators become part of the terms and conditions when lenders make loans to large organizations. For instance, there may be restrictions on the use of funds requiring that they be directed to projects related to energy efficiency. These are not necessarily strict criteria, but the obligation to improve energy efficiency is present,” he noted.
According to him, whenever an organization takes out such a loan, it is obliged to look for relevant projects.
“You can't just divert these funds to conventional retail loans, as that would violate the obligations to the lenders. It would affect our reputation, and most likely, such lenders would no longer want to work with us. The overseas funds with which we partner almost all have green goals and ratings that determine how actively they support the green economy. Therefore, having received such loans, we have started to study how to integrate these requirements into our operations,” he emphasized.
Tsiklauri pointed out that when you dissect the problem, it can be divided into three main components:
1) Our level of eco-friendliness. We have to be sure that we are
compliant with the principles of the green economy before we can
demand it from our customers.
2) Suppliers and procurement. We analyze how environmentally
friendly our suppliers are and the products we purchase, whether
paper, furniture, or other materials.
3) Customers. How environmentally oriented are our customers and
what are we doing to ensure that the majority of our loan portfolio
supports green economy projects,” the chairperson said.
He observed that AccessBank has already begun examining its portfolio on a customer basis and has found that numerous customers, possibly without being aware of it, are utilizing loans to enhance the energy efficiency of their operations.
“For instance, in agriculture, some farmers have adopted tree irrigation systems that save up to 80 percent of water compared to traditional irrigation methods. We have begun to create an environmental reporting system (Green Reporting) to track and document these advances, as well as fulfill our commitments to our lenders. We understand that this is not only our journey, but that of other banks that also depend on funding from foreign organizations. These initiatives are no longer just plans; they are being actively implemented. We attach great importance to the extent to which our bank and our customers comply with the principles of the green economy. Although working with suppliers in this context may be more difficult in the conditions of Azerbaijan, we will also go further in this direction,” he added.
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