Environmental values
Environmental values

Carbon footprint, ECOPROFIT, and eco-friendly transport:

Environmental measures at our offices

Sustainability is not only a feature of DZ BANK’s core business. We also try to minimize our impact on the environment at our offices.

Continuous improvement in environmental performance

DZ BANK aims to reduce the environmental impact of its own business activities as far as possible. DZ BANK's environmental experts consistently utilize all available opportunities, thus helping to reduce environmental impact and cut costs.

Based on environmental policy objectives, we determine meaningful key figures and thus continuously monitor environmental impact. The overarching goals of our corporate environmental protection include optimizing resource consumption, increasing the use of renewable energies and, in connection with this, reducing direct and indirect CO2 emissions. All key figures reported below relate to DZ BANK in Germany and include all locations in Germany.

Energy Consumption of DZ BANK

Kilowatt hours
2023 2022 2021
Electricity 27,236,629 28,777,735 29,957,824
Of which green electricity
26,177,014 27,666,514 28,948,995
Energy consumption per FTE
5,363 5,913
6,246
District heating
16,414,224 17,778,596
24,984,586
Consumption of district heating per FTE
3,232 3,653
5,209
Fuel consumption (company car) 6,927,685 6,888,736
7,164,893
of which gasoline
723,308 544,199
401,245
 of which diesel
6,204,377 6,344,537
6,763,648

Greenhouse Gas Emissions of DZ BANK

Tonnes (t) of CO2 equivalents *
2023 2022 2021
Scope 1
2,270 2,067 2,236
Scope 1 per FTE
0.447 0.425
0.466
Scope 2
2,170 2,262
2,935
Scope 2 per FTE
0.427 0.465
0.612
Scope 3
6,551 5,510
4,056
Scope 3 per FTE
1.290 1.132
0.846
Scope 1 – 3
10,991 9,839
9,226
Per FTE
2.164 2.021
1.924

*Since 2021 incl. events and postal shipping

DZ BANK's greenhouse gas emissions are part of DZ BANK Group's greenhouse gas balance sheet (see Climate Strategy).

Business Travel

  2023 2022 2021
Total business travel (1000km)
25,369 18,564 14,063
Individual business travel (1000km per FTE)
5.0 3.8 2.9
Of which by train %
33 28 15
Of which by air %
19 11 2
Of which by private car %
3 4 5
Of which by company car %
43 56 75
Of which by rental car %
2 1 3

Use of Public Transportation

  2023 2022 2021
Total no. of employees, Germany*
5,535
5,331 5,265**
Of which commuting by public transportation (%)
63.3
39.9 40.9
As travel subsidy recipients (%)
4.6 6.8 6.4
As users of D-Ticket***/ a local job ticket (%)
58.4 32.6 33.7
As users of a DB job ticket (%)
0.3 0.4 0.9

* Including trainees; annual average figures per capita
** Key figure has been corrected retrospectively
*** Deutschland-Ticket

Paper Consumption

Tonnes (t) 2023 2022 2021
100% recycled paper
25.9 22.1 20.3
Chlorin-free paper
32.4 41.2
48.3
Chlorin-bleached paper
0.4 0.1
1.3
Total 58.8 63.4
69.9
Per FTE
0.012 0.013
0.015

Volume of Waste by Type

Tonnes (t) 2023 2022 2021
Total paper
414.424 355.541 375.376
Per FTE
0.082 0.073 0.078
Total electrical/toner/lighting
4.716 10.541 8.541
Per FTE
0.001 0.002 0.002
Total mixed packaging
84.451 79.578 80.314
Per FTE
0.017 0.016 0.017
Total non-recyclable
156.806 190.386
173.533
Per FTE
0.031 0.039
0.036
Total commercial waste
346.063 227.630
242.730
Per FTE
0.068 0.047
0.051
Total kitchen waste
66.577 45.060
28.083
Per FTE
0.013 0.009
0.006
Total waste
1,073.037 908.736
908.577
Per FTE
0.211 0.187
0.189

Volume of Waste by Method of Disposal

Tonnes (t) 2023 2022 2021
Landfill
1.49 0.00 0.60
Incineration 167.01 212.44
235.19
Recovery
904.54 696.30 672.59
Other (specialist)
0.00 0.00
0.20
Total
1,073.04 908.74
908.58

Water Consumption

Megaliters
2023 2022 2021
Total
81.988 70.182
73.604
Per FTE
0.016 0.014
0.015

Reducing CO2 emissions

Sustainability in their own operations is of great importance to all subsidiaries of DZ BANK Group. DZ BANK Group has been working together for many years in the Competence Center Environment (KCU) to reduce their ecological footprint. With 2009 as our baseline year DZ BANK Group, which accounts for a total of around 35,000 employees, has already reduced its CO2 emissions in business operations by almost 50 percent.

You can find out more about our climate strategy here.

DZ BANK is an ECOPROFIT member company

DZ BANK is a member of the ECOPROFIT Club of the cities of Frankfurt RhineMain  and Düsseldorf. The two main branches have been certified as "ECOPROFIT operations" for many years. ECOPROFIT stands for "Ecological Project for Integrated Environmental Technology". The nationwide project aims to systematically promote environmental management in companies and municipal facilities. In addition to ecological and economic goals, ÖKOPROFIT also focuses on social components. These include, for example, making employees aware of and motivating them to protect the environment within the company.

The "Pavillon Cityhaus II" building, which opened in 2016, was certified according to the DGNB Gold Standard.

Environmentally friendly travel

Mobility is important for our activities. As a central bank, we support the business of the independent cooperative banks, including through on-site visits. Face-to-face interaction with our customers and stakeholders is important even in the age of digitalization and virtual meetings. DZ BANK's goal is to further reduce CO2 emissions from travel. When traveling on business, public transport is to be used as a preferred means of transport. In the area of electromobility, the conversion of the vehicle fleet to environmentally friendly e-vehicles is being driven forward. By the end of 2023, 85 of almost 400 vehicles were already either purely electric or hybrid vehicles.

In addition, DZ BANK supports its employees in making greater use of public transport on their way to work by providing job tickets as well as travel allowances. The monthly travel subsidy can be used by employees for the Deutschland-Ticket or any other public transport ticket. Since September 2020, DZ BANK has also been offering its employees the option of converting salary components into the lease of a bicycle with "DZ Rad". Since 2022, employees at the Frankfurt site have also had access to free electric rental bicycles, which can be used for business trips in the city centre as well as for private purposes.