The sixth edition of Societe Generale's “Environmental Efficiency Awards”
Societe Generale has awarded 65 new in-house initiatives at the sixth edition of its Environmental Efficiency Awards. The prestigious event is the keystone of the Bank’s programme to reduce its carbon footprint – a programme that dovetails with its CSR* strategy.
On the occasion of the One Planet Summit, Societe Generale has seized the opportunity to step up its 2014-2020 carbon-reduction programme by raising its target to 25% fewer CO2 emissions per employee by 2020.
This bold step comes with a number of other innovative initiatives, including an internal carbon tax pioneered by the Bank and used as a benchmark by other major companies internationally. This virtuous initiative has expanded over the years and is based on an innovative mechanism with a twofold incentive: a carbon tax is collected from Group entities every year based on their emissions, and is then redistributed to reward the best internal environmental efficiency initiatives.
This sixth edition saw record participation and is testament to the commitment and innovative spirit of the Bank’s employees in addressing environmental issues while adding value and generating savings for the Bank.
In the words of Group Deputy CEO Diony Lebot who attended the prize-giving ceremony on 16 October: “These awards are in recognition of our staff’s collective commitment, responsibility and innovative spirit to address a major issue. All the initiatives have a positive impact on our environment and bring us closer to reaching the Group’s new target to reduce its carbon footprint. More broadly, it also contributes to our CSR policy, which is a key element of our strategic plan.”
The cumulative results of the last six years speak for themselves:
- 56,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions prevented, or the equivalent of 11,000 Paris/New York return flights.
- 298 GWh of energy savings, equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 40,000 households in France
- €126 million in savings generated by the Group
- 32 participating countries across four continents
- 496 proposed initiatives and 305 winning initiatives
- €3 million on average set aside each year for the winning initiatives
Press contact:
Florence Schwob - +33 1 42 13 23 49 – florence.schwob@socgen.com - @SG_presse
Note to editors:
CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility
Find out more about Societe Generale’s internal carbon tax as well as the top 5 initiatives of this sixth edition.