Energy and environmental management

Our goals: operational environmental protection and reducing our resource consumption

Skyline Frankfurt photographed over the Main river

Environmental and energy management deals with all issues relating to electricity and heat supply, water consumption, materials consumption and waste management, transport logistics and commuter traffic, the resulting greenhouse gas emissions, and product ecology aspects.

Sustainable banking operations

Our integrated energy and environmental management system systematically drives the further development of corporate environmental protection. It also helps to make Commerzbank's actions ever more sustainable. All employees in the company are involved and challenged. The most important goals are to reduce the operational consumption of resources, to make greater use of renewable energies and to reduce direct as well as indirect greenhouse gas emissions. Ensuring sustainable procurement is also a high priority at the bank.

ISO certifications

Our environmental management system has been certified to ISO 14001 since 2009, and in 2015 we added our energy management system to ISO 50001. The certification attests to the fact that we are continuously improving our environmental performance and energy efficiency.

The requirements of the ISO standard help us to systematise, manage and control the various activities for improving our environmental performance.

We set ourselves targets to continuously improve our environmental and energy management performance

Climate target

30 % less greenhouse gas emissions from 2018 to 2025 - that is the current climate target of Commerzbank AG. For the first time, this target also applies to international Commerzbank locations in around 20 countries in addition to the sites in Germany.

Energy targets

These envisage reducing total energy consumption by an average of 2 % per year by 2025 compared with 2018. In addition, electricity consumption per full-time employee is to remain constant by 2025 compared with the base year 2018 - despite increasing digitisation.

Initiatives for environmental protection and resource conservation

In order to be able to promote corporate environmental protection in all its facets, new measures must be introduced on an ongoing basis and current processes reviewed. An overview of selected measures at Commerzbank.

We have been sourcing 100 % of the electricity in our buildings in Germany from renewable energy sources since 2013. Worldwide, the share is 91 % (as of 2022).

Since 2010, outdoor signalling and shop windows in all stores have been illuminated with LEDs. At around 10 % of the locations, we have already converted the room lighting to LED as well, with others to follow successively.

Paper towel recycling at headquarters locations saves about 20 % of residual waste generation.

Technical systems are intelligently networked and controlled by a software solution. This results in electricity and heat savings of up to 30 % at five sites to date. Further sites have been commissioned and will follow.

The regular exchange in the "Business Energy Efficiency Network" led to an upgrade of the 120 fans in a data centre. This optimises our energy consumption.

Awards for our Commerzbank Tower

Completed in 1997, the Commerzbank Tower won the Green Building Award of the City of Frankfurt am Main in 2009. In 2017, it was certified in accordance with the American LEED standard for resource-efficient construction and management in the "existing buildings" category. The building performance, such as energy and water consumption, and the building operation, such as technical operation, purchasing and disposal strategies, were evaluated.