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Sustainable Finance

One of the ways we contribute to sustainability is by managing potential environmental and social risk in our lending and investment activity.

To help us do this, we follow international standards of good practice, and have our own policies to guide how we work with certain business sectors.

HSBC also believes that real commercial opportunities lie in the new low carbon economy. By building understanding and expertise on low carbon technologies, and by arranging the finance that will help bring these technologies to market at scale, we believe we can make a major contribution to a low carbon future, whilst generating new revenue streams for the group.

Sustainability risk

HSBC manages potential environmental and social risks in our lending and investment activity by identifying the key sectors where such risks can arise and developing policies to guide how we do business in those sectors - forest land and forest products; mining and metals; chemicals; freshwater infrastructure; and energy. We also have a defence equipment policy which clarifies our approach to companies involved with weaponry. The policies apply to all lending and other forms of financial assistance, primary debt and equity markets activities, project finance and advisory work.

HSBC is also a signatory to the Equator Principles, a set of voluntary guidelines that help financial institutions assess and monitor environmental and social impacts when providing finance to large projects.

HSBC's annual sustainability report tracks our progress on our implementation of the Equator Principles and our own sector policies. See page 13 of the 2010 Sustainability report for the latest figures. Follow this link to download the 2010 report.

Climate Business

We define climate business as the goods and services that will thrive in the transition to a low carbon economy and we have identified four major areas of opportunity:

Low carbon energy production, such as bio-energy, nuclear, solar and wind
Energy efficiency in buildings, industry and transport, as well as energy storage
Adapting to the impacts of climate change, particularly in agriculture, infrastructure and water
Providing climate finance, including environmental markets, debt and equity investment and insurance

Related case studies

Renewable Energy, UK

Wind is currently the most viable renewable energy source in the UK. Paul's Hill is one of two wind farms financed by HSBC in Scotland. Together the wind farms provide enough electricity to power 115,000 homes a year.
One Rickshaw at a Time, India

Shukla's husband was a rickshaw puller. He rented a rickshaw for 25 to 30 rupees per day and earned around 2,200 rupees per month.

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