Fostering Change, Shaping Change, Commerzbank‘s ESG Framework
With the help of the ESG Framework, we disclose all key building blocks of our sustainability strategy and are making sustainability a key performance indicator for our company.
Our guide to a sustainable future
Sustainability has been an integral part of our corporate strategy since 2020. Our current strategy “Moving Forward” is based on three pillars: growth, excellence, and responsibility. Responsibility represents the entire sustainability spectrum of "Environment, Social and Governance (ESG)”. At the core of our sustainability strategy is our commitment to becoming a net zero bank. We approach this commitment holistically and in cooperation with all employees. Together we manage sustainability across all relevant areas of the bank. This is how we assume our social responsibility.
With our ESG Framework, we are giving our stakeholders the greatest possible transparency on our approach to sustainability. We are creating a Bank-wide standard that will enable stringent management of all relevant products, processes, and activities, thereby ensuring the sustainable transformation of Commerzbank.
Divisional Head of Group Sustainability Management
Content of the ESG Framework
This ESG Framework will be continuously updated to reflect both regulatory developments and our own progress. We will, for example, continuously align the planned further development of the EU taxonomy – the European classification system for sustainable economic activities – with the status of our framework.
- ESG Framework
- Transformation Finance
- Sustainable Finance
- Sustainable Operations
- Stakeholder Management
With the help of the ESG Framework, we disclose all key building blocks of our sustainability strategy and are making sustainability a key performance indicator for our company. Specifically, that means:
Transparency
We are making Commerzbank’s sustainability activities transparent.
Definition
We define what ESG means in our customer business and what we focus on.
Products
We present our sustainable product solutions.
Consolidation
We bundle all our sustainability guidelines and exclusionary criteria.
Management
We use this framework as a management blueprint for the sustainable transformation of Commerzbank.
Our path to Sustainable Finance
Industry and business are facing an enormous transformation towards greater sustainability. There is no company that will not be affected by it sooner or later, directly or indirectly. That is why we classify all portfolio components that are not affected by our exclusionary criteria as transformation finance.
Sustainable finance encompasses all financial products and services that promote positive environmental and/or social purposes. As a financial institution, we can channel financial flows into projects and technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote climate change resilient development.
This includes innovations that combat climate change (climate change mitigation) as well as adapt to the unavoidable consequences of climate change (climate change adaptation). We fund technologies that support these two approaches and thereby make a measurable contribution to our net-zero target by 2050. In doing so, we are guided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the EU Taxonomy.
