It is one of the strategic goals of Garanti BBVA to mobilize human
and intellectual capital along with financial capital to support
responsible and sustainable development.
The Bank’s empathy skills let Garanti BBVA understand the conditions
surrounding its customers and other stakeholders, allowing the
Bank to develop solutions that cater to their needs. Taking into
consideration the 2030 Agenda1
that ranks high among priority
topics, the Bank develops innovative financial instruments and
solutions such as the green loan and promotes them in the
sector through cooperation platforms.
To this end, Garanti BBVA provides active support or chairs a total
of 24 initiatives including a number of intermediary platforms
including the United Nations Environment Program Finance
Initiative (UNEP FI), Principles for Responsible Banking,
Global Compact Turkey, and the Turkish Business Council for
Sustainable Development (BCSD Turkey).
As a constituent of 7 sustainability indices in total including the
Dow Jones SustainabilityTM Emerging Markets Index, Garanti BBVA
analyzes the sector’s leading practices in environmental and social
areas and originates new areas for continuous improvement.
Garanti BBVA shows the way for sustainable pathways through providing
content support to collective policies and position papers of the
private sector, which numbered 14 in 2018.
Garanti BBVA diversifies financial instruments provided for lowcarbon and inclusive growth, and cooperates with international
financial institutions for low-cost funding. Drawing on its
intellectual capital, the Bank introduces innovative financial resources that incorporate sustainability criteria, as exemplified
in the first social bond issue ever carried out by a private bank
in an emerging country.
The green project finance loan and the green corporate loan
Garanti BBVA launched in the reporting period drive borrowers to
improve their sustainability performances throughout the
term of the loan. Both representing the first examples of their
kind in Turkey, green loan agreements harbor advantages in
terms of loan interest or commission rates for borrowers,
which are made available depending on the achievement of
improved performance in environmental, social and corporate
governance areas that satisfy the predefined criteria during the
term of the loan.
As climate change continues to be one of the most significant
global crises in the 21st century, responsible finance approach is
molded to address climate change issues in addition to societal
challenges such as fostering employment through supporting
SMEs in growing their business.
Having allocated 100% of its project finance support for
greenfield energy investments to renewables as in recent years,
thus increasing the total lending to this area to date to USD 5.3
billion, Garanti BBVA’s support to green energy continues with solar
energy investments commissioned in its own branches.
Garanti BBVA believes that a strong economy and business model
are attainable only through strong communities, a sustainable
environment and empowered individuals. To this end, the Bank
creates shared value through its strategic community programs
focusing on material issues such as skills gap, education,
cultural development and environment.
Launched in 2017 by the Teachers Academy Foundation (in
Turkish: ÖRAV), the 5 Pebbles: Social and Financial Leadership Project aims to instill an awareness of financial literacy in future
generations. Within the scope of a collaborative project of Garanti BBVA
and Bahçeşehir University launched in 2016, it is intended to
improve 8-10 aged children’s skills and competencies required by
our age such as problem solving, analytical thinking and teamwork
through entertaining content including coding and robotics in
technology workshops so that they are better equipped for the
requirements of the digital age. In addition, Garanti BBVA remains as
the main sponsor of the Turkish Entrepreneurship Foundation,
namely Girvak, working to drive the culture of entrepreneurship
and to encourage youth to experience entrepreneurship by
learning from their inspirational role models, taking part in various
entrepreneurship activities and networking since 2014. Founded with the motive of being instrumental in bringing culture and
arts to the society, SALT continues to operate as a not-for-profit
autonomous institution out of three locations, namely SALT
Beyoğlu, SALT Galata and SALT Ankara.
By focusing on responsible and sustainable development, the Bank
actively contributes to the following Sustainable Development
Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation,
Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, Goal 8: Decent Work and
Economic Growth, Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities,
Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13:
Climate Change, Goal 14: Life Below Water, Goal 15: Life on
Land, Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals.