Sustainability is firmly embedded in the corporate values and strategy of the DZ BANK Group. We incorporate the sustainable development goals and the Paris climate agreement into our core business and our finance function. A new committee, the Group Sustainability Committee (GSC), was established at the level of the Board of Managing Directors in 2023. The GSC is a platform for sharing information across the group, with the aim of integrating sustainability even more closely into the core business.

We have chosen some examples from entities in the DZ BANK Group that illustrate how they have integrated sustainability and incorporated it into their business processes.

At DZ BANK, a number of projects included in its sustainability program have paved the way for the integration of new ESG key figures, an appropriate user interface, and the underlying data management into the lending process. Union Investment is one of Germany’s largest providers of sustainable investments and has firmly embedded ESG aspects into its investment processes. The real estate sector has a key role to play in the achievement of the targets in the Paris climate agreement. The relevant entities in the DZ BANK Group are DZ HYP and Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall. The two companies place green mortgage Pfandbriefe and are supporting the provision of energy-efficient housing that remains affordable over the long term. R+V’s investments serve the fiduciary purpose of investing policyholders’ money safely and profitably in liquid assets. They are also a key driver of sustainability activities in R+V’s overall business. Moreover, R+V offers sustainability-oriented product solutions in nearly every insurance segment.