As part of the events timed to coincide with the 800th anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod, an international round table was held on the development of environmental education and the formation of an investment eco-climate in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Alexander Dolganov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Center-invest Bank, presented the bank's experience in this area.
At the meeting held at the site of the City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod, the bank's speaker said that Center-invest's environmental projects are concentrated in two areas: own consumption and financing.
The bank has been working in the field of green financing since 2005, and during this time in the regions of its presence it has invested more than 19.2 billion rubles in 22,000 green projects. This work has reduced air emissions by 233 thousand tons per year, which is equal to planting 9 million trees. These are loans for entrepreneurs for the introduction of energy-efficient technologies, loans for capital repairs of apartment buildings, soft loans for the population for the purchase of energy-saving equipment and energy-efficient repairs in a house or apartment.
For responsible investors, Bank Center-invest has issued "green" bonds in the amount of 550 million rubles, the first issue of which reduced CO2 emissions by 640 tons per year. The bank has also introduced a “green” deposit to the deposit line, which allows customers not only to receive profitability, but also to meet the global Sustainable Development Goals.
“In Russia, green investment has enormous potential. It is important for us to show both business colleagues and residents of the regions that it is profitable to invest in environmentally friendly projects. The starting point in the formation of environmental awareness is environmental education, which the bank is already engaged in in its course on financial literacy, ”said Alexander Dolganov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Center-invest Bank, in his speech at the roundtable.
In 2020, the bank installed solar panels on the roof of the head office, which can save up to 70 kWh of electricity from the grid daily. Daily energy savings from solar panels are equivalent to the cost of electricity for the operation of an electronic queue system or 3 ATMs.
In July 2021, Center-invest Bank bought renewable energy from the Solar Systems solar power plant located in the Stavropol Territory. The purchase of 1,271 MWh of energy allows the bank to reduce its environmental impact, since by the end of 2021 a quarter of the energy consumed by the bank will be "green".
In total, Center-invest Bank's ESG investments as of July 1, 2021 amounted to RUB 242.5 billion in the Sustainable Development Goals and RUB 213.5 billion in national projects.