Imfino News

May 15, 2019 - ABN AMRO yesterday announced it will enhance its bank-wide Mission 2030 to include the standards agreed in the Paris climate accord. In its 2030 mission, the bank set the goal to have its own buildings achieve at least energy label A by 2023 and to attain an average label A for the entire ABN AMRO-financed residential and commercial property portfolio by 2030. ABN AMRO now adds that its own buildings should be ‘Paris-proof’ by 2030.

Labels versus Paris-proof

An energy label reflects to what extent a building has sustainable equipment and provisions in place, such as solar panels, insulation or geothermal power. The more of these, the higher the label. Despite its undeniable contribution to making property more sustainable, such labelling says little about actual carbon emissions. After all, a highly sustainable building can still have all its windows wide open while its heating is at full blast. The Paris-proof standard, a sustainability measure of actual energy consumption, takes the sustainability requirement a step further by spelling out that a commercial property, such as an office building, may only emit a maximum 50 kilowatt hours per square metre (kWh/m2) a year

Sustainability at a natural pace

ABN AMRO’s ambition is to have Paris-proofed its head office at Gustav Mahlerlaan and its offices at Foppingadreef (both in Amsterdam) by 2030 at the latest, together with 62 bank offices in the Netherlands. This implies that the bank offices should emit 65% less carbon in the next decade and also that the ambition to have the bank’s own buildings achieve at least an A label by 2023 will be tightened up to a concrete emission reduction goal (on top of the sustainable measures put in place). Meticulous planning will help carry out adjustments at natural replacement times, ensuring that materials are not removed unnecessarily but are used until ‘spent’ and then replaced by a Paris-proof version. This will help ABN AMRO save 6,371 tonnes of carbon every year, i.e. over 40,000 times a one-way flight from Amsterdam to Paris.

Leading by example

By taking the lead in the transition to Paris-proofing, ABN AMRO is looking to acquire as much knowledge and experience as possible, so as to share its takeaways with clients. All knowledge so acquired will be freely available to clients, helping them to Paris-proof their own homes and/or properties.

Relevant links

• ABN AMRO to contribute to carbon emissions reduction in the Netherlands