Management approach ESG

The agenda has been adopted by nearly 200 states on all continents. The list includes goals such as: reduced inequalities, ensuring quality education, gender equality, responsible consumption and climate action. At the national levels, national governments are responsible for the implementation of the goals. The Polish perspective has been described in the government’s Strategy for responsible development. It is based on sustainable development of the entire country in economic, social, environmental and territorial terms. 

In 2017 Bank Millennium signed the declaration committing to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations. The Polish Development Ministry launched the coalition of business, state organization and non-governmental organizations for sustainable development. 

Action for sustainable development is an integrated part of the business strategy at Bank Millennium. In 2020, the priority was to ensure health of employees, customers and local communities. Details are provided in Chapter II. MILLENNIUM IN THE AGE OF CORONAVIRUS. 

Our priority at Bank Millennium is to provide the highest quality of customer service, conduct ethical marketing and sales and facilitate the utilization of banking and non-banking services (e.g. e-government) by rolling out facilities for disabled persons and innovative services. Employees are also recipients of ESG activities. All activities in the field of care for the natural and social environment and improvement of management have been summarized in separate non-financial reports for 15 years. The Bank promotes diversity in the organization in addition to ensuring stable and attractive working conditions and offering opportunities to get involved in social activities. Social programs are run through the Bank Millennium Foundation and pertain to financial education and cultivating employee volunteerism.  

[GRI 102-11] The Bank also attaches great importance to the protection of the environment and climate, carrying out its actions in the spirit of the strategy developed by the European Union and its member states. The Bank set out its approach to these matters in the “Environmental Policy of the Bank Millennium Group”. The document defines the following three key areas of the Group’s environmental activities: own environmentally-friendly activities aimed at reducing consumption of materials, energy, water and fuels; environmental education targeted at clients, business partners and employees, as well as approach to the financing of investment projects.  

[GRI 102-26] The President of the Bank’s Management Board is responsible for overseeing the pursuit of the CSR goals at the highest level.  

[GRI 102-26, 102-31] Strategy execution is subject to regular reviews and assessments. They are administered by the Bank’s Management Board on the basis of information prepared by the units responsible for their performance and by the Bank’s Supervisory Board on the basis of the information presented by the Management Board. Global assessment of the Bank’s activities, including the management of economic, environmental and social issues, is performed by the Supervisory Board based on the Bank’s published statements. They are analyzed and presented to the Shareholders at the Shareholder Meeting and form the basis for granting a discharge to the Bank’s Management Board on the performance of its duties in a given financial year.  

All its CSR activities have been summarized once a year for 14 years in the Bank Millennium Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility reports.  

[GRI 102-12] The Bank is a signatory of two important international initiatives. In 2017, the Company joined the partnership between business and the government administration to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals; Bank Millennium declared that it would conduct activities in particular for the financial education of children and youth (goal 4 – quality education). In 2018, the Bank joined the Diversity Charter, which is a commitment signed by organizations that decide to introduce a ban on discrimination at work and acting to create and promote diversity. 

The Bank’s adherence to sustainable development principles has been confirmed by external assessments. Since 2010, the Bank has been included in the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW) index grouping companies, which fulfill the highest standards of corporate social responsibility. In the period from 2010 to 2019, the Bank was included in the Respect Index and in 2019 it was added to the WIG-ESG index created to add an additional dimension to companies, which is their ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) assessment provided by Sustainalytics, which is a global firm, and a corporate governance assessment carried out by GPW. 

In the Ranking of Socially Responsible Companies published by the Responsible Business Forum, we are among those that espouse CSR to the greatest extent. In 2020, we were also awarded the Golden CSR Leaf, which is the highest category of the award in the ranking published by the Polityka weekly.  

In 2020, Bank Millennium came second in the “Climate Leaders Poland 2021” ranking list of the Forbes magazine, by achieving annual GHG emission intensity reduction of 34%. It was the highest-rated bank in the ranking. The ranking was prepared by calculating the compound annual reduction rate (CARR) of greenhouse gas emissions adjusted by revenues.