Garanti BBVA has executed 100% Renewable Energy Purchase Agreement with two reputable energy ...
Garanti BBVA has executed 100% Renewable Energy Purchase Agreement with two reputable energy companies in Turkey
Garanti BBVA announced its decision to purchase its electricity from renewable energy for all its corporate buildings, subsidiaries and branches which are eligible for power purchasing agreements.
Based on these agreements approximately 90 million kWh of electricity need of 813 Garanti BBVA branches and 45 buildings will be totally provided from renewable energy. By this way, 45,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions will be avoided which corresponds to the carbon sink capacity of roughly 3 million trees’ in one year.
Additionally, under this agreement, carbon credit certificates such as Gold Standard will be retired on behalf of Garanti BBVA should they are any produced in order to avoid double counting. Garanti BBVA is also the only financial institution operating in Turkey who is a founding member of the Core Group of the Principles for Responsible Banking, promoted by the UN Environment Programme – Finance Initiative.
Garanti BBVA CEO Recep Baştuğ highlighted that we, as Garanti BBVA, support our customers to go beyond awareness and take action with nearly 40 different products and services aimed at -climate change mitigation or adaptation and decreasing social inequalities . “With this 100% Renewable Energy Purchase Agreement, we took a major step for our direct impacts in line with our sustainability vision. This agreement clearly shows that the sustainable economy, has been successfully integrated into our entire corporate culture. With this move toward 100% renewable energy purchase agreement, we believe that we’re setting a new benchmark for the private sector,” he said.
Baştuğ reminded that Garanti BBVA has been a pioneering bank in Turkey for sustainable finance for more than a decade. Since 2015, renewable energy projects make up 100% of its greenfield electricity production portfolio in new project finance commitments, “To date we have provided more than US$5 billion to renewable energy investments and we are the leading bank in Turkey in wind power, with a market share of 28 percent. We will continue to support these projects through our diversified funding resources including the funds we obtained from the Green Bond, which is equivalent to $50 million with 5 year maturity, issued in accordance with the International Green Bond Principles, CEO explained.
We also implemented significant measures aimed at developing renewable energy and energy-efficient systems in Garanti BBVA’s own buildings. “In recent years, we have invested in rooftop solar power plants in three service locations to meet our own power consumption needs. We are the first bank operating in Turkey which has received the Platinum LEED certificate from the U.S. Green Building Council. The total amount of financing we have provided in areas that support sustainable development with the products such as Green Mortgage to promote environmentally-friendly residential buildings and Green Auto Loan for hybrid and electric vehicles exceeded 35 billion TL.” stated Recep Baştuğ.
The BBVA Group remains committed to its Pledge 2025 and sustainability with some very remarkable figures. Speaking at Davos, Group executive chairman Carlos Torres Vila announced that in just two years (2018 and 2019) BBVA had already mobilized a total of €30 billion in funding for sustainable projects, almost one third of the €100 billion that the bank pledged to funnel to promote the development of renewable energies, sustainable infrastructures, social entrepreneurship initiatives and financial inclusion.