News labeled sustainability:

SEB together with customers, partners and the Latvian public raised almost 4,300 Latvian lats for SOS Children’s Villages through a range of activities – including online games and sharing on social networks – from 17 November to 6 January.

SEB’s Estonian charity fund – Heategevusfond – this year facilitated distribution of Christmas gifts to 1,000 children living in shelters. The gifts were made possible by donations from over 1,500 people.

“Creating a green economy rests on making it profitable to be green, and non-profitable to be black,” SEB’s senior economist Klas Eklund told a keen audience of investors and researchers on Tuesday at what is considered “the event” for responsible investment.

The annual event, this year held in the Swedish town of Sigtuna and sponsored by SEB, brings together the world’s leading academics and investors. Eklund’s presentation brought the “economist’s” perspective to the discussion on how to address environmental degradation and climate change.

SEB’s Latvian unit last week won an a gold medal for its efforts in 2010 to become a more sustainable company, including taking social responsibility.

It’s Sustainability Index – a joint initiative by the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia and the Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia – that has evaluated 50 companies and organisations in the country. Only three could claim a gold medal, while 31 companies won silver and 16 a bronze medal.

SEB and its customers in Latvia have contributed over 14,000 euro to the rehabilitation center at the Children’s Hospital i Riga. The bank helped raise the money through a campaign launched earlier this year.

SEB has decided to contribute funds for planting new trees in southern Tanzania as part of the bank’s climate compensation scheme. SEB already contributes to a project that provides solar cookers to rural villages in China. See film about the project in Tanzania above or read more about SEB's climate compensation efforts by clicking the link below.

Responding to the wish of the people of Latvia to help the people of Japan in the wake of the 11 March earthquake and tsunami and its dire aftermath, the Japanese embassy in Riga has opened a donations account in SEB. No commission will be charged on money transfers to this bank account.

On Saturday SEB celebrates the world's largest climate manifestation - Earth Hour. SEB will switch off all the lights in several key properties and invites you to a concert in Stockholm’s darkened Concert Hall.

At SEB, sustainable development means building a sustainable business as a bank. In the Corporate Sustainability Report 2010 you can read more about what SEB has done and what priorities the bank has for the future. Sustainability is meant to become an integrated part of SEB business, a core competence by 2012. It is a very high ambition.

Marcus Wallenberg, chairman of the board at SEB, greeted Finland’s president and prime minister, representatives from 11 countries around the Baltic Sea, important corporate clients, politicians and researchers welcome to a conference in Helsinki about the Baltic Sea on Thursday.

On 12 January, 2010, a devastating earthquake hit Haiti. Contributions from SEB and other companies have made a difference. Watch the film where Gary Shaye, on-site manager for Save the Children in Haiti, talks about the organisation's  work to help the children of Haiti.

Energy savings programmes in Lithuanian cities will get a further boost from a loan agreement signed between the European Investment Bank (EIB), as manager of the JESSICA holding fund in Lithuania, and the country’s largest commercial bank, SEB.

SEB will donate one lat (1.42 euro) for each new customer that signs up for the bank’s second pillar pension scheme to upgrade equipment at the rehabilitation centre of the children’s clinical university hospital in Riga.

For 20 days, the ship Briggen Tre Kronor of Stockholm will sail around the Baltic sea stopping in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. On board are mentors and students from SEB's mentoring program. The initiative aims to draw attention to SEB's work on sustainability issues, especially its dedication to a cleaner Baltic sea and support of future generations.

The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA) in cooperation with SEB Latvia has started a project competition programme “Brigāde”. The programme provides financial support to creative teams helping to promote economic growth.

SEB in Lithuania recently arranged a week-long summer camp for children in cooperation with the local branch of Mentor, aiming to encourage young people to choose a healthy lifestyle and foster creativity, self development and teamwork skills.

SEB and Norges Tennisforbund (Norwegian tennis association) have entered into a sponsoring agreement that takes SEB's Next Generation concept to Norway. The agreement runs through 2013 and is the largest youth effort in Norwegian tennis to date.

What’s important when the bank is reviewing a loan application? What are the demands to extend the loan? How do you sell your business idea? With the new web based Financing game (Finansieringsspelet) you can prepare ahead of meeting the bank representative and thereby increase the chance for your application to be approved.

SEB Germany has received a certificate for its family-friendly personnel policy. Representatives for the government gave the quality stamp, which is valid for three years, to Renate Bloß-Barkowski (center of picture), head of HR in an official ceremony on 11 June.
 

SEB this week signed a loan agreement worth 190,000 euro with Konvert Plast in Latvia. The loan is the first SEB has granted under a cooperation framework that the bank agreed with the European Investment Fund earlier this year.

Continuing an initiative started two years ago, SEB has decided to provide all first-graders in Latvia with free accident insurance for a year in the amount of 1,000 lats. SEB estimates that about 20,000 children will attend school for the first time and thus be covered by insurance. Previously, this initiative was carried out in cooperation with municipalities in Latvia, but this year marks the first time SEB presents the policies alone.

In Lithuania, SEB has started an information campaign to invite customers, who face financial difficulties, to come and talk to the bank. This is done to find a solution in order for people to be able to maintain their homes during difficult times.

SEB in Latvia has launched a tree planting campaign in collaboration with Latvia’s State Forests titled “Oxygen”. It foresees planting 2 231 503 spruce and pine trees during the year and throughout Latvia. To reach this goal, all 5th and 6th year pupils and the general Latvian population, including SEB employees, are invited to start planting trees this spring.

Since April, SEB in Germany sends all letters and packages under Deutsche Post DHL’s GoGreen concept. The effect will be a yearly reduction of CO2 emissions of 300 tons for SEB.

SEB was again sole lead manager when a 200 million dollar fixed-rate, four-year green bond was recently issued, this time in cooperation with World Bank subsidiary International Finance Corporation (IFC).

SEB Latvia and Riga City Council recently launched the Duka project which offers empty commercial space to entrepreneurs at no charge except the cost for utilities.

During 2009, SEB developed a new strategy for corporate sustainability, set out to significantly reduce its carbon emissions and decided to immediately compensate fully for the remaining emissions. Read about this and more in the Corporate Sustainability report for 2009.

SEB recently held an online webinar for customers and employees globally to inform about changes related to a new framework for demand guarantees  that takes effect on 1 July. Besides being a time- and cost-effective way to conduct meetings, webinars also support SEB's environmental strategy.

Sustainable development was one of the main topics when 80 navigators from SEB’s operational excellence programme SEB Way met recently during two days of training.

This month, SEB became the first bank and the first major corporation in Estonia to cover its energy needs using green energy. SEB Estonia is now purchasing over 75 per cent of its power from renewable sources of energy. A number of the bank’s buildings, such as the Tornimäe headquarters, have made a complete transition to green energy.

SEB’s top management team has decided on an updated travel policy for the bank. The new policy puts further emphasis on substituting air travel with train.

SEB in Germany has made a sustainable decision for all business trips by train. By purchasing the new special tickets offered by Deutsche Bahn, where the energy is calculated and bought in advance, SEB Germany can secure complete carbon free travelling.

During the last two weeks three municipal residential buildings that were financed by SEB Latvia opened in Riga. These social dwellings have been reserved for people living in Riga who have waited for new apartments because their old ones are in bad condition.

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. 

SEB is again sole lead manager when the World Bank issues its third green bond, this time worth 130 million dollars.

Led by Cecilia Widebäck West, SEB's corporate sustainabilty team now adds Jonas Solehav as a senior environmental director. He currently works at the Swedish Export Credits Guarantee Board (EKN) as an environmental analyst. “Banks have a key role to play in moving things forward. It's by combining environmental and finance issues that you can really achieve results,” he says.

SEB has appointed Cecilia Widebäck West as new head of Corporate Sustainability effective from 1 January, 2010. "My role is to coordinate our work and push for sustainability issues to be integrated in all SEB's activities," she says.

SEB is again sole lead manager when the World Bank issues its third green bond, this time worth 130 million dollars. The World Bank plans to use the monwy raised in the issue for its programme to finance projects in developing countries that are aimed a reducing carbon.

SEB will not invest in companies producing antipersonnel mines and cluster bombs. A process to go through all the investments and sell affected holdings has started. “This will be finished by the end of the year,” says Tove Bångstad, head of SEB Fonder.

SEB last week arranged a seminar about green bonds in London that drew about 60 investors, advisors as well as representatives from environmental organisations and authorities.