Own operational footprint

During 2022, we reduced our direct own operations emissions by 46%, against our 2019 baseline, and increased our renewable electricity consumption to 98% globally. Our 2022 total market-based operational emissions of 73,927 tCO2e covers Scopes 1, 2 and our direct own operations’ upstream Scope 3. This includes emission reductions from the use of green electricity covering 98% of our consumption through green tariffs and renewable electricity certificates, but in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol it does not include emissions reduction from the use of carbon credits. 

Following the return to the office after the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, we focused on the practice of using energy more efficiently and effectively in our operations and reviewed our processes to reduce consumption. These reviews include:

Building energy optimisation: our building plant equipment is continuously reviewed to maximise energy efficiency. Data analytics are used to proactively identify anomalous consumption, ensuring our buildings run more efficiently.

Energy audits: there have been audits carried out in most of our buildings this year to identify where we can improve energy efficiency and reduce consumption and this work will continue in 2023.

Data centres: we have consolidated our data centres to allow for more efficient IT architecture using fewer resources. The work carried out ensures that they run more efficiently, with lighting upgrades and optimisation of the data hall environmental controls already seeing a significant reduction in water and power usage.

Renewable electricity: in 2021, we committed to a Corporate Power Purchase Agreement (cPPA), bringing additional renewable generation capacity online to facilitate the decarbonisation of the UK grid. We are continuing to work towards this with additional cPPAs, and once constructed they are expected to generate 59% of NatWest Group’s electricity demand in the UK by 2024.

Leased buildings: for our leased buildings in India, we are working with the landlords to review the scope for identifying energy-saving opportunities, assessing end of life for equipment, and creating an energy efficient replacement plan where possible.

Colleague engagement: we launched a bank-wide energy campaign in the second half of 2022 to help educate and engage our colleagues by sharing tips on how to reduce consumption at home and in the office through a series of activities, raising the importance of energy saving actions. This is an ongoing campaign which we will continue to work on in 2023. 

Emissions: We have used a spend-based approach to estimate our supplier emissions. In late 2022, we established a (multi-year) Supplier Decarbonisation Programme to support delivery of the 2030 and 2050 carbon reduction ambitions related to our operational value chain. This will involve collaborating with our suppliers to understand their capability, data, where they are on the journey to net zero, and what help they might need to progress.

Assessments: We are also working with a third party to evaluate our supply chain using evidence-based assessments of sustainability performance enabling us to understand our wider impact and to identify where improvements can be made, and risks mitigated.

Cash and Coin: As part of increasing the sustainability of our cash and coin operations, we have engaged our suppliers to reduce the amount of single-use plastic coming in and going out of our cash centres and to improve the accuracy of data for our waste streams.

Design: For our properties, the suppliers we work with must have environment and quality management accreditations and products used in fit-outs should meet all Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors SKA criteria as standard.

Since 2019, we have reduced our waste by 37% by working with our colleagues to educate on the importance of the waste hierarchy and circular economy.

Analysis: We have undertaken analysis of waste at our Gogarburn office to understand how we can achieve zero waste. This highlighted opportunities to reduce single use items by 3 tonnes and increase recycling by an estimated 1.3 tonnes. We are working with our waste suppliers towards this zero waste ambition and engaging key stakeholders to capitalise on any opportunities there are to reduce, reuse and recycle through our findings and investments.

Design: In our drive towards a circular economy, we continue to maximise use of pre-loved and up-cycled furniture. Across our branches, we re-used a total of 11,767 assets which diverted 461 tonnes of waste. Also, we continue our aim to remove single use plastics from our properties, with our key catering supplier removing the majority of plastic cups and cutlery from our main offices and our colleagues encouraged to opt for reusable options.

Cash and Coin: We have continued our ambition towards a more sustainable cash cycle with cash now leaving our UK cash centres without plastic wrapping and the notes un-sleeved in line with our charter.

New debit cards: New debit cards, made from 86% of recycled materials, have been introduced saving c.190 tCO2e over the past year.

Uniforms: We have delivered our most sustainable branch uniform yet in 2022, using recycled fabrics and reducing the use of packaging while working to reuse and recycle old uniforms where possible, with internal swap shops and donating non-branded items to charity.

Our paper consumption has decreased by 67% from our 2015 baseline through actions such as our digital first options including giving customers the option to switch to paperless, as well as educating colleagues on the technology they can use instead of printing. Over the course of 2022, we have saved 15.7 million envelopes from being sent to our customers. 

EP100: we continue to be on track for our 2025 ambition with energy productivity increasing by 41% since 2015. Across our global portfolio compared with 2021, natural gas consumption decreased by 17% due to the reduced reliance on airflow required in our offices as COVID safety measures were removed. Also, electricity consumption decreased by 8% following the implementation of energy efficient plans that includes new ways of working and relocating to more efficient sustainable buildings.

RE100: in 2022 we increased our consumption of renewable electricity to 98% across our global operations, including 100% of UK and Republic of Ireland consuming renewable electricity. We have achieved this through a combination of green tariffs and purchasing Renewable Electricity Certificates (RECs) for our landlord-supplied properties in India, Europe and the UK, where we are currently unable to specify a requirement for renewable electricity. To achieve our 2025 ambition for 100% global renewable electricity, we continue to work with our principal landlords to advocate for renewable electricity provision for all properties, where possible.

EV100: we have installed electric vehicle charging points in 13% of our large office car park spaces across our UK portfolio and have converted 3% of our owned and operated fleet to electric vehicles. Since the EV100 ambition was set, the fleet has reduced in size by approximately 66%, and we are reviewing where we can positively impact other vehicle electrification outside of our ambition. We are reviewing our learnings from the EV100 plan and would like to adopt these practices across our global operations using electric transport where available and provide electric vehicle chargers for staff at our offices in India. We are also developing the design for an electric vehicle mobile branch pilot and supporting charging infrastructure to enable further roll-out.

Carbon Credits: In 2020 we set an ambition to procure 120,000 tCO2e each year in carbon removal credits up to 2025. In 2022 we retired 120,000 tCO2e carbon removal credits, assured under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), and Triple Gold certified to the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance Standards (CCBA) to invest beyond our value chain, and provide benefits to climate, especially those that generate additional co-benefits for people and nature. We intend to continue to mitigate our emissions beyond the value chain in line with SBTi recommendations. We recognise the importance of ensuring the integrity of natural capital and we screen nature-based carbon credits against established methodologies that offer leading additional environmental and social co-benefits.

Nature: Using equipment funded by NatWest Group, the Wild Carbon Fund with the University of the West of England have begun research into the soil health of naturally regenerated woodlands in Cambridgeshire. The aim of the research is to develop a methodology that will allow the benefits of soil health and re-wilding to be measured and included in future carbon credit markets. Further, NatWest has partnered with Revere, a collaboration between National Parks and Palladium that aims to restore the UK’s best-loved protected landscapes. Large scale nature restoration projects will contribute to the collective strategy of NatWest and UK National Parks in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. For further detail on Nature, refer to our 2022 ESG Disclosures Report (PDF 9.6MB).

Internal Carbon Pricing: we are looking at options to calculate an internal price on carbon for our own operations and plan on trialling an approach to help drive sustainable decision-making.

Technology: a climate dashboard was created in 2022 to allow users to see the emissions for each server, application and domain and drill down into the detail available. This tool will assist with tracking progress of the reduction of our emissions and power utilisation across the group.

Design: we have a continued focus on delivering sustainable quality assured fit-outs across all of our buildings, using SKA ratings to assess fit-out projects against a set of sustainability criteria. In 2022, we achieved a silver SKA rating for an additional three branches and one office. By achieving silver, we are demonstrating sustainable workplace design and implementation. As part of our commitment to ensure responsible design of our buildings, we are trialling a carbon calculator specifically to understand and review our impact.

Innovation: in 2022 we trialled remote fixes to our ATMs in our hardest-to-reach branches via augmented reality, allowing our engineers to examine an ATM remotely.