THE STUDY INTO ZIRAAT BANK’S GREENHOUSE GAS INVENTORY WAS COMPLETED BY COLLECTING 2019 ENERGY DATA FROM THE HEADQUARTERS AND DOMESTIC BRANCHES.

 

2019 GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS OF ZIRAAT BANK
The study into Ziraat Bank’s greenhouse gas inventory was completed by collecting 2019 energy data from the Headquarters and domestic branches.

With respect to greenhouse gas emissions, the points set out in Scope 1 and Scope 2 in the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-1: 2006 standard are referred to. The IPCC, TIER-1 Methodology was used to calculate greenhouse gas emissions within the specified limits, and TIER-2 Methodology for activity data with national data (electricity). The GWP (Global Warming Potential) coefficients used in the calculations are taken from the IPCC AR5 assessment report.

In terms of the distribution Ziraat Bank’s greenhouse gas emissions based on their source, electricity accounted for the highest share of emissions with a 58% share (62% in 2018), followed by emissions from the company’s vehicles with a 19% share, and fuels used in the buildings (14% share). The upward trend in emissions from refrigerant gases (F-gases) seen in 2018 continued (2017; 4%, 2018; 8%, 2019; 9%).

In 2019, the Bank’s scope 1 emissions increased by 16% compared to 2018 (29,015 tCO2e) to 33,780 tCO2e.

45% of these emissions consisted of diesel, with natural gas and F-gases each comprising 22% of the total.

Ziraat Bank’s indirect greenhouse gas emissions increased by 1.94% compared to 2018. 0.54% of this increase was due to the increase in electricity consumption, while the remaining 1.40% was due to the electricity emission coefficient.

The greenhouse gas inventory for 2019 amounted to 81,534 tCO2e, an increase of 7.48% from the previous year (75,857 tCO2e), but it remained lower than the greenhouse gas emissions realized since 2015.

Ziraat Bank’s greenhouse gas intensity (tCO2e/million TL turnover) continued to decrease (from 0.14 in 2018, 0.13 in 2019), with further falls targeted by supporting effective energy management practices.

CHANGE IN INDIRECT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

Indirect Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Scope 2)	2018		2019		%
	Indirect Energy Consumption	Indirect Greenhouse Gas Emissions (tCO2e)	Indirect Energy Consumption	Indirect Greenhouse Gas Emissions (tCO2e)	Change (Scope 2)
Purchased electricity (kWh)	92,460,676	46,841	92,956,203	47,754	1.94
Total		46,841		47,754	1.94

ZIRAAT BANK CONTINUED THE EFFORTS WHICH STARTED IN 2017 TO ESTABLISH AN ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL RISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR CERTAIN INVESTMENT LOANS IN 2019.

PROJECT FINANCE ACTIVITIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Ziraat Bank provides financing support for infrastructure projects such as airports, highways and bridges, which contribute greatly to the country’s economy and employment, as well as renewable energy projects.

Within the scope of project financing, the bank arranges private loan contracts and conducts environmental and social risk assessments.

Within the scope of the project financing work involving Ziraat Bank, IFC Performance Standards, EBRD Performance Standards and Equator Principles Compliance Commitments are added to the loan agreements in consortia where the IFC or EBRD are involved as financiers. In addition to the related projects, eight projects require compliance with Equatorial Principles. In such cases, compliance with these criteria is followed by reports prepared by Technical and Environmental Consultants. There was no situation where these criteria could not be met during 2019.

In the contracts prepared by Ziraat Bank, statements and commitments regarding environmental and social issues are taken in accordance with the laws and regulations to which the customers are bound, as well as non-compliance with declarations and commitments are issued as a default state.

Customer commitments are regularly monitored through periodic reports from environmental consultants or investors.

As of the end of 2019, a commitment was in place to plant trees in 5 projects. In this context;

• Within the framework of the Environmental and Social Action Plan, a commitment was taken for the afforestation of 5,000 hectares of land (a minimum of 10 million trees).
• A minimum of 1,666,666 trees are planned to be planted annually around the facility’s impact area, with a total of 5 million by December 31, 2020, and 10 million by the end of the 10 year period.
• A commitment was given for the afforestation of 2,940 hectares of land.
• A total of 4,951,580 trees will be planted within the framework of the afforestation plan.
• Within the scope of Environmental and Social Action Plan, the company committed itself to plant up to 4 times as many trees as are felled, in the event any process which requires trees to be cut down.

Within the framework of Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, Ziraat Bank continued the efforts which started in 2017 to establish an environmental and Social Risk Management System for certain investment loans in 2019.

In this context, the Bank’s efforts to establish “Environmental and Social Impact Management Policy in Lending Activities” and to determine procedures for this purpose and integrate them into lending processes will continue in 2020.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY STUDIES
In 2019, 473 air conditioning systems equipped with high energy efficiency inverter technology using ozone-friendly R410A coolant gas were installed in Ziraat Bank’s buildings.

In order to reduce the cost of heating and to increase energy efficiency, the Bank has purchased 132 of the air conditioning units which it installed in accordance with the next generation VRF system standard. These units maximize both energy saving and comfort. A total of 3.84 tons of R410A coolant gas was used in the installed systems.
Within the scope of implementations realized on energy saving and the efficient use of energy resources, in line with Green IT applications aimed at optimizing the energy consumption of computers, warning messages are sent to the users at specified times to encourage them to shut down computers which remain open outside the working hours, and the computers are automatically shut down where there is no intervention.

Generators are monitored remotely and centrally and are controlled whether or not they are activated in the event of a power outage. Fuel conditions are also monitored remotely and matched with Uninterruptible Power Supplies in case of potential power outages.

Ziraat Bank, which has one of the most widespread ATM networks in Turkey, has completed the project of using biometric systems at ATM cabin entrances. Within the scope of the project, data on ATM cabin temperature and energy consumption is monitored centrally and usage adjustments are made with this data in a bid to reduce energy expenditures.

“Freecooling” is applied for air conditioning in the Ziraat Data Center. Energy is consumed in a more sustainable way with energy savings when compared to traditional central air conditioning systems, where free cooling is carried out by using outdoor climatic resources.

WASTE MANAGEMENT AT ZIRAAT BANK
Empty toner cartridges and drum units which are past their use in Ziraat Bank branches are destroyed under the manufacturer’s responsibility. In 2019, a total of 14,340 kg (9,800 units) of waste products were accredited and disposed of by the recycling company.

Defective IT equipment in the bank units and branches is collected in Bank service centers and returned to use by carrying out repairs and renewals. Waste IT materials, sheet metal materials such as system cabinets and air conditioning units, battery and scrap ATM devices are sold to companies which hold a transport and processing license issued by the Ministry of Environment. Thus, waste is treated as raw material through recycling, preventing such waste from harming the environment.

In the process of replacing the chemicals from fire tubes which have expired, we are working with companies authorized to collect and dispose of the chemicals.

In addition, waste such as glass, plastic and paper from the bank service buildings is collected in cooperation with the municipalities.

Necessary work is being carried out at Ziraat Bank within the scope of the transition to a Zero Waste Management System.

THE DIGITIZATION OF PRODUCT AND SERVICE PROCESSES IMPLEMENTED AT ZIRAAT BANK SUPPORTED THE SIGNIFICANT GAINS IN PAPER SAVINGS IN 2019.

HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT BY SAVING PAPER
The digitization of product and service processes implemented at Ziraat Bank supported the significant gains in paper savings in 2019.

Highlights from paper saving and waste paper recycling
Documents and waste papers whose legal retention periods have expired at Ziraat Bank are sold to contracted authorized companies for recycling. In this context, approximately 1,250 tons of waste paper was recycled in 2019.

As of 2015, daybooks and general ledgers have been kept in an electronic format rather than a print format. This application has saved over 1 million sheets of A4 paper in Ziraat Bank annually.
Within the scope of the centralized bulk statement dispatch project, statements are delivered by e-mail to customers who need to receive them or who have requested a statement, and this application saved more than 31 million sheets of A4 paper in 2019.

As of 2019, 369,633 bank receipt emails have been sent relating to transactions carried out by the Operations Center. On the other hand, 216,059 e-invoice payments contributed significantly to paper savings.

In 2019, 18,693 items of non-bank correspondence were sent over e-signature through the REM system, saving more than 37,000 sheets of paper.

By performing mortgage release transactions electronically, paper savings in 2019 exceeded 308,000 sheets.

Within the scope of the e-mortgage project, which was put into operation in 2018, the registration requests of the real estate mortgages which will constitute the collateral of the corporate loans (and, from 1 April, 2019, housing loans), started to be sent electronically to the relevant Land Registry Office. This removed the requirement for official deed and General Loan Agreement copies to be sent to land registry offices. In this context, more than 4 million sheets of A4 paper were saved in electronic mortgage transactions for corporate and housing loans in 2019.

Ziraat Bank aims to scan all documents obtained and prepared during the credit evaluation, proposal and utilization stages with its virtual credit file project and to create the documents through the system. It is calculated that this project saved more than 8 million pages of paper in 2019.

EFFORTS TO OBTAIN INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTS PROVIDED BY OTHER INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LEGISLATION IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA FROM RELATED INSTITUTIONS CONTINUED IN 2019.

Efforts to obtain information and documents provided by other institutions and organizations in accordance with the legislation in electronic media from related institutions continued in 2019.

The audit model being implemented brought an end to the practice of physical document/ report submission by producing all branch reports over the system. In addition to branch audits, audit reports for all head office units have been prepared and monitored through the system. Thus, with the e-signature and virtual archive application being used, all audit and review/investigation reports are archived digitally on the main banking software without the need for a physical document archive. By transferring the inspection and audit reports to the system, approximately 180,000 sheets of A4 paper have been saved per year.

Approximately 1,909,000 sheets of A4 paper were saved in 2019 as part of sending in-House correspondence over electronic media.

ZIRAAT TOWERS: LEED CERTIFICATE TARGET
Ziraat Bank aims to obtain LEED Certification by designing the Ziraat Towers to be built at the Istanbul International Finance Center campus located in Ataşehir in accordance with international environmental standards.

WITH A NUMBER OF ICONIC BUILDINGS WHICH ARE EXAMPLES OF TURKISH ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY, ZIRAAT BANK CARRIES OUT METICULOUS CONSERVATION WORK IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN THESE BUILDINGS INTO THE FUTURE.

EXAMPLES OF ACTIONS TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT TAKEN WITHIN ZIRAAT BANK’S FOREIGN SUBSIDIARIES

Ziraat Bank Montenegro AD offers the opportunity to finance environmentally friendly projects such as small hydroelectric plants, wind farms and solar energy projects within the scope of investment loans.

Turkmen Turkish JSC Bank has planted more than 400,000 trees as part of reforestation activities in Turkmenistan and undertaken the maintenance of these trees.

Renovations at 107 service points
Within the scope of continuous improvement work taken in physical service points, the materials used in construction projects such as installations, electrical components, equipment, furniture and furnishings are examined within the scope of R&D work, and the functionality and recycling properties of the materials are taken into consideration with the concepts which will minimize damage during the selection, with consideration given to the environmental impact. Within the scope of the sustainability concept at the Bank, 107 service buildings were renovated in 2019.

Ziraat Bank protects cultural heritage.
With a number of iconic buildings which are examples of Turkish architectural history in many provinces besides Ankara and Istanbul, Ziraat Bank carries out meticulous conservation work in order to maintain these buildings into the future. With 42 registered buildings built since 1910, the Bank remains committed to conserving their original architectural design as well as carrying out renovation work sympathetic to the original buildings in order to protect the cultural heritage.