Energy and environmental management
Our goals: operational environmental protection and reducing our resource consumption
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 as well as direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and to make greater use of renewable energies. 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
The GHG reduction target for banking operations was established in alignment with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) for Commerzbank AG and selected subsidiaries. It entails a reduction of Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions by 42% by 2030 compared to the baseline year 2021, with a baseline of 38,507 t CO2e, and follows the current operational control approach of the GHG Protocol.
Leading by example, Initiatives for environmental protection and resource conservation
Green electricity and local sourcing
Since 2013, our buildings in Germany have been powered by electricity from renewable sources; since 2024, we have used 100 % green electricity worldwide. From 2026, we source hydropower from Griesheim and Eddersheim, covering > 50 % of our German demand.
LEDs for more energy efficiency
Since 2010, outdorr lighting and shop windows in all stores have been illuminated with LEDs. We will also successively convert room lighting to LED at all locations, currently we are at around 40%.
Towel recycling
Paper towel recycling at headquarters locations saves about 20 % of residual waste generation.
Intelligent software solution for building control systems
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.
Business network exchange
New ideas for energy efficiency projects that are implemented within the bank emerge from regular exchanges in the “Business Energy Efficiency Network”.
Green Building
, Awards for our Commerzbank TowerCompleted 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.