At Sterling Bank, our goal is to remain socially and environmentally responsible, and we believe we have a responsibility to minimize our business impact on the environment. As a global company, we have a unique opportunity to contribute to the efforts being made in mitigating climate change impact, a cross-border challenge requiring global corporate carbon policies with a portfolio of actionable initiatives. Climate change is also closely linked to other essential sustainability topics such as water, biodiversity, public health, and other socio-economic issues.

We have voluntarily tracked and reported on our environmental footprint for years and, more recently, have implemented internal policies to drive accountability throughout our organization for our environmental goals and commitments.

As a socially and environmentally responsible financial institution, Sterling Bank recognizes that its business operations and activities, including that of its clients, may directly or indirectly generate greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming, and thus climate change. We are therefore committed to mitigating such related risks by:

• Abiding with applicable environmental legislation and sustainability commitments.
• Setting carbon footprint targets by reducing energy consumption and efficiency. To achieve this, the Bank will implement an action plan to achieve our annual objectives, including the necessary budgets and resources to enable investment in cost-effective technical improvement.
• Measuring and analyzing our energy consumption to establish performance and identify trends and opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint further and improve energy efficiency.
• Training and promoting environmental awareness and responsibility amongst employees, partners, contractors, and customers on reducing GHG emissions and continuously improving their environmental performance.
• Collaboration with stakeholders on affordable and clean energy and climate action initiatives.
  The articulation of the carbon footprint policy is an effort to guide the Banks’ daily business operations and activities that will enhance the Banks’ Environmental Social and Governance Risk Management (ESGRM) process.