Previously, banks had integrated sustainable practices into their operations mainly by allocating funds to sustainable companies and projects. With increasing consumer demand, banks are acting on their environmental impacts. We explore the data behind several banks who have taken initiative by purchasing carbon credits to offset their GHG emissions.

Using the data from our Premium Plus dashboard, we ranked the top 10 offsetters within the banking industry, based on their retired credits over the last decade. (Note that we are only able to get information on transactions where the retiring entity has made its participation publicly known.)

The top 3 offsetting banks have all retired over 2,000,000 tCO2e in the past 12 years.

HSBC

UK-headquartered HSBC has purchased the most credits, with over 2.5m tCO2e retired publicly since 2010. They have purchased their credits primarily from Chinese renewable energy projects, and have made the vast majority of their retirements in 2012. Below are the bank’s ten largest transactions:

NedBank

Next in line is NedBank of South Africa which has offset over 2m carbon credits as part of their 2010 commitment to carbon neutrality.

NedBank has purchased credits from a range of projects, all in Sub-Saharan Africa. Below are its ten largest retirements:

Barclays

The third largest offsetter in the banking sector is Barclays, having offset just over 2m tCO2e as part of their carbon neutral program. Here are its top ten retirements:

For more data on the voluntary carbon markets, check out our dashboard here or reach out to carbon@alliedcrowds.com.