SBI now signatory to Carbon Disclosure Project

State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, on Monday became a signatory investor to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a collaboration of over 550 global institutional investors with assets under management to the tune of $71 trillion.

CDP is an independent non-profit organisation, holding the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world.

Over 3,000 organisations across the world’s largest economies measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies through CDP. These disclosures aid them in setting reduction targets and improve performance.

SBI, on its part, had been undertaking several environmentally and socially sustainable initiatives through its 14,000 plus branches spread across the length and breadth of the country. It has also enunciated a ‘Green Banking Policy’ in 2007. Therefore, a partnership with CDP only reiterated its resolve and commitment towards sustainable development, said SBI chairman O P Bhatt.

“Our bank was the first in the entire banking, insurance and financial services sector to have conceptualised and owned wind farms for the generation of green power. The same partly substituted the thermal power used by our offices in India. We have already launched a project to measure and manage organisational foot print to achieve carbon neutrality,” he added.

Paul Simpson, CDP’s chief executive said, “We are delighted to welcome financial powerhouse SBI as a signatory. As most of the world’s economic recovery will now come from emerging economies like India, it was crucial for us to have a strong partner like SBI to promote the truly global fight for sustainable development.”

“We are pleased SBI has become a signatory, as this conveys a strong message to the Indian financial sector and the strategic role it can play in promoting a sustainable future” said Ravi Singh, secretary general and CEO of WWF-India.

“Being a major bank, SBI stands to become a great catalyst in encouraging the adoption of sustainable strategies by businesses and the financial sector. We congratulate SBI on becoming a signatory to CDP; this is a very important milestone for the initiative” said Seema Arora, principal counsellor & head of CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development.

Each year, on behalf of signatory investors, CDP collects climate change and carbon emission data from over 5,000 large companies globally, including the top 200 companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Over 550 institutional investors — ranging from pension funds and insurance companies like Allianz and Swiss Re to blue-chip banks and asset managers such as Black Rock, HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — are signatories.

In India, investors like HDFC Bank, IDBI, IDFC, Reliance Capital, Tata Capital, IndusInd Bank and Yes Bank have also become signatories. CDP sends an annual letter and a questionnaire on behalf of these financial institutions to the top 200 Indian companies by market capitalisation. In 2010, 51 companies responded to the questionnaire.

In the disclosure, Indian companies reported on their carbon emissions data, reduction targets, associated risks and opportunities and increasing board-level managerial resources in spearheading the execution of climate change strategies within their organisations.