A core part of Deutsche Bank’s sustainability strategy is our commitment to act as a reliable partner in financing and advising clients on the path toward the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Deutsche Bank will deploy three principal levers to decarbonise by:

• providing transition financing
• rebalancing our loan portfolio towards clients focused on developing decarbonisation plans
• reducing exposure to clients with limited capacity or willingness to decarbonize

Find more about our path towards net zero emissions

Moreover, another of our most important environmental commitments is for our operations and business travel to remain – as they have been since 2012 – carbon-neutral. We achieve this by consuming less energy, traveling less, and purchasing more renewable electricity, and by offsetting our remaining Scope 1 and 2 emissions as well as those associated with our business travel.

Our corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives contribute to the bank’s stated purpose of enabling economic growth and societal progress. They are how we make a positive impact for people and communities.

The strategic focus of our social engagement is on education, enterprise, and community. We encourage our employees to contribute their professional expertise and life skills. We aim to maximize the impact of our CSR activities by engaging our stakeholders, forging long-term partnerships with charities, supporting advocacy initiatives, and working with other companies and organizations to promote impact monitoring.

All of our CSR activities help build trust, deepen employee commitment and client loyalty, and enhance our reputation as a socially minded enabler, reliable partner, and catalyst for societal change.

Find more about our corporate social responsibility programs

Empowering and and supporting our employees is an integral part of our HR strategy. We promote a speak-up culture where our people can be heard and turn ideas into impact. We want all individuals to feel welcomed, accepted, respected, and supported. Our leaders strive to empower their teams to contribute their best work.

Find out more about our HR strategy

The transition to a sustainable and carbon-neutral economy will create opportunities. Simultaneously, we must scrutinize our business activities and our operations for potential negative impacts and understand the environmental and social risks involved. Systematic evaluation of these risks is an integral part of our risk management processes.

This also covers reviewing our business activities under Deutsche Bank’s Environmental and Social (ES) Policy Framework and our Sustainable Finance Framework.

Our Sustainable Finance Framework, established in 2020, outlines the methodology and associated procedures for classifying financial products and services offered by Deutsche Bank as sustainable financing and investments. The framework serves as a basis for informed decisions on sustainable products and services.

Our Sustainability governance helps us to manage, measure, and control our sustainability activities across the bank. The most senior forum is the Group Sustainability Committee that focuses on adjustments to ESG metrics, transition dialog with clients, and deep dives on the bank’s sustainability targets, ambition level, and key milestones. In September 2022, we established the role of Chief Sustainability Officer to bolsters sustainability activities.