SEB is becoming greener. Starting in 2010, SEB’s businesses in Germany will use electricity exclusively from renewable hydroelectric power. SEB’s Nordic businesses already use renewable energy and other countries will shift soon.
It is local management at SEB in Germany that has decided against the previous combination of electricity from nuclear and coal fired power plants, but the move is made within SEB’s corporate sustainability framework.
SEB works actively on environmental and social issues, as well as on governance topics. The switch to renewable energy in Germany reduces carbon emissions from generation of power for SEB there from about 15,000 tons per year to zero.
“SEB aims to reduce its overall emissions by 45 per cent by 2015 and we will significantly contribute to meeting this goal. The issue of sustainability is a factor of increasing importance for our decision-making,”says Jürgen Herzog, head of administration at SEB Germany.
He says that as a company there is much SEB can do to make a responsible contribution to a society worth living in.
While there is still a need to keep the cost aspect in view, Herzog says that since electricity prices in Germany have dropped recently, the additional cost of green electricity is more than compensated for in this case.
In the Nordic countries SEB already use green power. After Germany, the United Kingdom is next in line to switch and in the near future all of SEB will use electricity from renewable energy sources only.
PAMELA PEGLOW
SEB and sustainability