How do you realize impact on biodiversity and climate?
“With money you can exert a lot of influence to make the world a more beautiful place. We finance renewable energy and energy-saving projects and invest through our funds in companies that treat forests with care, clean water or solve environmental problems. Negative activities that damage nature, such as mining or the fossil sector, do not fit our mission. This is how we realize positive impact. We can only do this thanks to our customers. We are extremely pleased that once again many people chose to become customers of ASN Bank last year. Because the more people join and pay, save, mortgage and invest with us, the more sustainable impact we can make.”
Why does ASN Bank think The Rich North Sea is important?
“We like to contribute to programs in which renewable energy and biodiversity reinforce each other, because it fits seamlessly with our ambitions. Biodiversity is at the basis of everything that keeps us and our society alive. We feel a joint responsibility to prevent further loss of biodiversity. Therefore, ASN Bank also has an ambitious goal in mind: in 2030, all our financing and investments must have a net positive effect on biodiversity. So that we actively contribute to strengthening nature in the Netherlands and beyond. By the way, we are the first bank in the world with such a goal on biodiversity. We have already set ourselves the goal of making a positive contribution to the climate by 2030. As a sustainable bank, we will ensure that no money goes to fossil energy, but rather to wind and solar energy. To become climate-positive, we will also finance projects that ensure CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored. The Rich North Sea is where our ambitions for biodiversity and sustainable energy generation come together. That is why we find it so important to support this project.”
The Rich North Sea brings together our ambitions for biodiversity and sustainable energy.
How is ASN Bank helping the De Rijke Noordzee program?
“We provide financial support, share expertise, think critically and facilitate cooperation with other sustainable parties. Thanks in part to our help, the De Rijke Noordzee team was able to set up the pilot at Eneco Luchterduinen wind farm. The team learned a lot from this pilot. The new knowledge was then used to roll out projects in several other wind farms. By the way, the Rich North Sea is not the first nature project in the North Sea that ASN Bank supports. In 2005, we already worked on a project to enable marine reserves and restore biodiversity.”
What are your criteria for supporting sustainable projects?
“We test all our financings and investments, as well as organizations we cooperate with and projects we support, against our sustainability policy. Our Sustainability Expertise Center looks at the attitude and behavior of potential cooperation partners with respect to our three pillars: human rights, climate and biodiversity. In addition, we ask: “Can the project make positive impact and how will this be determined and reported?”. In the case of De Rijke Noordzee, there was confidence from the beginning that the organization really wants to make the world a little nicer.”
How do you measure the impact of investments on climate and biodiversity?
“For both the impact of investments on climate and the impact on biodiversity, we have developed measurement methods that the entire banking sector can apply. We always do that in cooperation with others and take the role of initiator and driver in this ourselves. The method for calculating CO2 emissions from investments is now used and further developed worldwide. For measuring biodiversity, we have followed a similar path and are developing a methodology together with some forerunners.”
What are you proud of?
“In the North Sea Agreement, which was adopted earlier this year by the Lower House of Parliament, it was agreed that nature-enhancing construction would be the starting point for the construction of wind farms and infrastructure in the North Sea. It was a long and sometimes challenging process involving many parties, including us. We are proud that together we managed to reach agreements that contribute to the development of a healthy Dutch North Sea. Soon, we will also be the first financier of wind farms to sign the covenant “guidelines wind at sea,” a written agreement that fits seamlessly with the North Sea Agreement. We consider it important in our role as financier to actively ensure that nature-protecting – and strengthening – construction becomes the starting point for the construction of wind farms and all infrastructure in the North Sea, and that this becomes common practice throughout the financial sector.”
How are you (further) involved in the projects you support?
“We like to visit the projects we support, but it has to be useful and possible. Projects abroad we follow intensively, but prefer to do so from a distance. We have visited the De Rijke Noordzee project a few times. We then actively think along, ask questions and make suggestions for improvement. For us, a partnership not only means that we provide financial support, but also that we think along in terms of content and inform and inspire our supporters.”
How do you see the Netherlands in 2050?
“In 2050 we will hopefully use our raw materials more sparingly, think and live circularly, actively remove CO2 from the air, and build together to restore and build up nature. Then sustainable choices will be accessible to everyone, regardless of whether you have a large or small wallet. I envision a future in which financial institutions take responsibility. Because the impact of an investment on climate and biodiversity is just as important as the financial impact. In the future, shareholders will no longer choose companies that go for quick profits, but for sustainable development. At ASN Bank, we hope for a future in which politics, business and citizens work together in harmony to create a sustainable and livable world.”