NDB promotes good habits that pave the way to environmental sustainability

At NDB, good corporate citizenship is considered as a lifestyle. Thus, environmental responsibility is identified as one of the key components of its sustainability efforts which are embedded to the bank’s core strategy. This is evident in the manner it integrates progressive initiatives which foster conservation into the bank’s day to day business.

NDB has taken the concept of ‘environmental responsibility’ a notch further by making it a socially inclusive activity through its unique savings proposition. Moving beyond the conventional idea of saving, NDB introduced a unique concept to foster the savings habit amongst people of all ages.

This dynamic proposition extended the thought process beyond traditional monetary savings and demonstrated how simple actions that save natural resources could translate into a financial savings in the long term. This concept was spread across the island through a national educational campaign themed ‘Ithiri Karamu, Api Hademu, Rata Hadamu’.

To take this idea further NDB has distributed a handy ‘savings booklet’ that offers useful tips on how to optimise the benefits and minimise waste of common everyday essentials. From electricity and water to telephone bills and fuel, this pocket sized booklet contains tips that can be practiced daily basis in order to discount the continuous, unconscious wastage of national resources.

NDB practices and ongoing initiative, implemented in collaboration with M/s Neptune Papers (Pvt.) Ltd., whereby every possible scrap of waste paper is retrieved for recycling. In the year 2012, the bank sent 26,316kg of waste paper for recycling which translated to astounding savings quantified as a 447 fully grown trees, 836,322 litres of water, 105,264kwh of electricity, 46,185 Litres of oil and 79 cubic meters of land fill as well as a reduction of Green House Gas emission by 26,346kg of Carbon Equivalent.

Being mindful of it carbon footprint has enabled NDB to neutralise and minimise the adverse effects of its operations on the environment. As a result of the ‘energy audit’ conducted by the bank, it has implemented measures to minimise the energy consumption and usage of resources.

One of the most significant of such initiatives was the installation of an energy efficient centralised air conditioning system which is closely monitored for prudent operation and is shut down when not required. The illumination appliances have been replaced with low energy consuming devices and this is complemented with the bank’s ‘Switch off when not required’ policy. Most of the bank’s fleet of vehicles have been converted to run on LP Gas which has considerably contributed to the reduction of NDB’s carbon footprint.

NDB has been practicing sustainable lending to navigate its clients towards more environmentally responsible endeavours and projects. Bank’s Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) identifies potential environment and social risks in the projects and companies it finances, then takes action to minimise such risks at an early stage of credit evaluation.

ESMS is an integral part of the credit policy and evaluation process of NDB and it helps the bank to avoid or at least mitigate and compensate for the adverse impacts on the environment by the programs funded by the bank. Further, the bank’s lending policy ensures that facilities are not granted to industries that pollute the environment due to the absence of proper pollution control methods. Credit facilities are extended to only those projects which comply with the standards set out by the ESMS.

Such measures taken by NDB, fall in line with the bank’s broader view of environmental sustainability which is entrenched in to its daily business activities. NDB believes that environmental sustainability plays a key role in sustainable economic growth and thereby remains committed towards good corporate citizenship as a growing economic driving force in the country.