Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2008 As ... - Access Bank

Access Bank’s commitment to implementing the Equator
Principles is a further reinforcement of the Bank’s alignment
of its business processes to international best practice.
The Equator Principles are a voluntary set of environmental
and social benchmarks for managing environmental and
social issues in development finance globally. The Principles
were initially developed by four private sector banks, Citi,
ABN AMRO, Barclays and WestLB, and launched and
adopted by ten banks in June 2003. The Principles were
based on the International Finance Corporation (IFC)
performance standards on social and environmental
sustainability, and on the World Bank Group’s
Environmental, Health and Safety general guidelines.
Presently, about sixty six financial institutions with
operations in over 100 countries across the globe have
adopted the Equator Principles, thus making it the project
finance industries standard for addressing environmental
and social issues in project financing globally.
Access Bank Plc is now one of the Equator Principles
Financial Institutions (EPFIs) that have adopted these
Principles in order to ensure that Project Finance
transactions are executed in a manner that is socially
responsible and reflects sound environmental
management practices.
These Principles are designed to serve as a common
baseline and framework for the implementation, by each
Equator Principles Financial Institution (EPFI), of its own
internal social and environmental policies, procedures and
standards related to its project financing activities.
Member banks will not finance projects where the
borrower will not or is unable to comply with the
respective social and environmental policies and
procedures.
Access Bank intends to leverage its role as a financier to
promote responsible environmental stewardship and
socially responsible development.
The principles apply to consenting financial institutions
who have committed to ensuring that the projects they
finance are socially responsible and reflect sound
environmental management practices. By doing so,
negative impacts on project-affected ecosystems and
communities should be avoided where possible, and if
these impacts are unavoidable, they should be reduced,
mitigated and/or compensated for appropriately.
www.equator-principles.com
UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME
FINANCE INITIATIVE
In the period under review, Access Bank Plc commenced
procedures to sign up to the United Nations Environment
Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), a global
partnership between UNEP and the financial sector
working to understand the impacts of environmental and
social considerations on financial performance.
The United Nations Environment Programme Finance
Initiative (UNEP FI) is a global partnership between UNEP
and the financial sector. It is a voluntary commitment to
consider environmental issues in financial operations.
Financial institutions are best placed to take the lead on
this because of their important roles in business
operations and development programmes. All finance
required for every aspect of human activity is channelled
through financial institutions in one way or the other.
The main goal of the UNEP FI is to advance the course of
sustainability in the finance sector. It provides the
opportunity to understand and take proactive responses
to environmental considerations on financial performance.
www.unepfi.org
GLOBAL REPORTING INITIATIVE
Access Bank is the only indigenous financial services
provider in Nigeria that is an Organisational Stakeholder
of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
The GRI works with United Nations organizations such as
80