Electric energy is one of the most used “natural” resources by a financial institution. For lighting, IT-services and partly cooling and heating of office space and branch locations, electric energy is the preferred source of energy.
Within Erste Group’s environmental strategy, it is stated that electric energy shall primarily be purchased from 100% renewable sources or – if this is not possible – from a supplier with the lowest CO2 emissions per kWh.
In 2012, for the first time Erste Group ran for its Austrian location a tender for renewable energy. At this point in time only 2-3 providers were able to make an offer. With approximately 40 GWh we were one of the top three customers on the Austrian market.
“Naturkraft Energievertriebsgesellschft mbH” was chosen and part of the deal was that we sell the total electric energy production of our own hydropower plant to this supplier. This power plant located in Styria/Unzmarkt-Frauenburg produces per year 15-20 GWh electric energy or 40-50% of our total Austrian energy consumption. With this measure, Erste Group could reduce its CO2-emissions by more than 70% or 10.000 tonnes!
In 2014, Erste Bank Croatia changed its provider and consumes also 100% CO2-free electricity with the result that its CO2 emission reduced by 3.000 tonnes or 70%.
In 2015, Erste Group renewed the contract with Naturkraft until 2017 who again won tender process. Opposite to 2012, this time we could choose from a list of different providers. This is good news because the more providers the more clients can buy CO2-free electricity.
All employees of Erste Group in Austria were also invited to change their electric energy provider to Naturkraft with preferable conditions to consume as well 100% CO2 free energy.
Although “green” energy costs more but for Erste Group this is a perfect and effective way to show its commitment to environmental responsibility.
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