Environmental Management System
Environmental sustainability is one of the main responsibilities of banks in the sustainability field. Yapı Kredi manages the environmental effects of its operational and lending activities as part of its Sustainability Management System (SMS) and issues annual reports on environmental management.
In 2016, the Bank established the Environmental Management System (EMS) by certifying its head office buildings; the Yapı Kredi Plaza Block D, and the Yapı Kredi Banking Base with ISO 14001:2015 certification to manage its environmental impacts systematically. Since 2018, Yapı Kredi expanded the EMS to its domestic subsidiaries Yapı Kredi Faktoring, Yapı Kredi Leasing, Yapı Kredi-Koray Real Estate Investment Trust, Yapı Kredi Cultural Activities, Arts and Publishing Inc. (YKKSY), Yapı Kredi Portfolio, and Yapı Kredi Invest.
Yapı Kredi’s EMS aims to ensure compliance with the Bank’s environmental policy, achieve the Bank’s environmental targets, and sustain the organization’s performance in this regard. The system is compatible with the ISO 14001:2015 standards as well as international and domestic legal requirements. The system features a cycle of “Plan - Do - Check - Act” based on a continuous development approach. In this context, the EMS is subject to regular annual internal audits.
All documentation and implementation principles of the EMS are described in detail in the EMS Handbook. The documentation structure of the system is as follows:
In order to ensure the efficiency of the EMS, the roles and responsibilities within the system, as well as job descriptions, have been defined and communicated to employees. An EMS Team has been formed to improve environmental performance and to follow up on the developed practices and procedures. The job descriptions of this team’s members have been expanded to include their responsibilities within the scope of the EMS, and the changes have been communicated to the staff.
The EMS defines environmental goals and targets on an annual basis. These are reviewed at managerial review meetings every six months and evaluated at the end of each year. The main purpose of the management review process is to evaluate the annual performance of the EMS based on the objectives, monitor the system's efficiency in practice, and to ensure its continuous improvement.
The senior management provides support for the management review activities. At the senior management level, the Process and Program Management Executive Vice President, who reports directly to the Technology, Data, and Process Management Assistant General Manager, is responsible for the EMS.
Yapı Kredi constantly improves the efficiency of the EMS by assessing its impact in terms of:
- The Environmental and Social Policy,
- Environmental goals and targets,
- Internal audit results,
- Systemic data analyses,
- Corrective - preventive actions,
- Management review results.
Yapı Kredi provides regular annual training in all stages of its banking activities for the purpose of adapting to the EMS requirements, informing its employees on legal developments, raising awareness on energy efficiency, climate change, water and waste management, and developing environmentally sensitive behavioral models both internally and externally.
The Environmental and Social Policy includes detailed information on the Bank’s practices concerning the environmental impacts of its operational and lending processes. Click here to view Yapı Kredi’s Environmental and Social Policy.
You can find more information about Sustainability at Yapı Kredi here.