NIB in green headquarters

In April 2010, NIB obtained the WWF’s (World Wide Fund for Nature) Green Office certificate.
“We are happy to have joined the Green Office programme and we are eager to continue developing our office habits in order to reduce our ecological footprint,” says Gunnar Okk, NIB’s Vice-President and Head of Planning and Administration.

NIB is the only major international financial institution with an explicit environmental mandate. All projects considered for NIB financing undergo assessment of potential environmental impact.

A considerable part of the Bank’s total loan portfolio is classified as environmental loans and two lending facilities are exclusively aimed at environmental projects-the BASE and CLEERE frameworks. But, in our daily work and routines, how green are we at NIB?

“Since the first energy audit of NIB’s headquarters in 2003, we have gradually developed environmental guidelines for our office and staff including more extensive recycling and a renewed car policy. The most substantial step, however, came last year when the Bank joined WWF’s Green Office programme,” says Mr Okk.

The WWF Green Office concept was originally created by WWF Finland but is now in use worldwide. “It is a practical environmental programme for offices motivating office staff to act in a more environmentally friendly way in their everyday tasks and improves not only environmental awareness but also cost efficiency,” says Mr Okk.

In Finland 183 different organisations have joined the programme of which 130 have been granted the right to use the Green Office Logo-NIB among them.

During the programme period (from 2009 to 2010), a number of measures were taken at the Bank. NIB’s headquarters building was connected to the Helsinki city district cooling system. Office equipment was updated to be more environmentally friendly and a follow-up and planning procedure for paper consumption was created.

NIB’s procurement policy guidelines were updated to include green procurement practices. The Bank’s recycling methods were updated and a couple of bikes were purchased for staff use. In April 2010 NIB passed the final inspection for the programme and was certified as a WWF Green Office with the right to use the logo of the programme.

“The next steps to be taken by the Bank are to further increase recycling and the possibilities to sort glass, metal and energy waste. Video conferences will be used more frequently. We also aim at reducing paper consumption by 5% between 2010 and 2012,” continues Mr Okk.

“Special attention will be paid to more efficient use of electricity and the creation of monitoring system for the headquarters waste amount,” he adds.

In addition to these actions, NIB is in accordance with the obtained certificate obliged to regularly report indicators such as electricity consumption to WWF Green Office.

“As an IFI, NIB enjoys the highest possible AAA credit rating. Why not aim at a premium environmental rating too?” Mr Okk concludes.