Zhitong Finance App News. Recently, Guangzhou Agricultural Commercial Bank (01551) released the “2023 Social Responsibility (ESG) Report”. This is the seventh ESG report issued by the bank since 2018 to disclose information on environmental sustainability, social and corporate governance.

In 2023, Guangzhou Agricultural Commercial Bank ranked 159th among global banks and 31st in the Chinese banking industry for its comprehensive strength, and won awards such as “Financial Institution Outstanding Contributing to Rural Revitalization”, “Excellent Competitiveness SME Service Bank” and “Annual Wealth Management Award”.

According to the ESG report, the board of directors, as the highest decision-making body for ESG management of Guangzhou Agricultural Commercial Bank, is responsible for carrying out corporate governance duties, deciding on the Bank's social responsibility management structure and management strategy, formulating environment-related strategic decisions, carrying out effective management and supervision on environmental, social and governance matters, and evaluating and managing major environmental and social risks. At the same time, the bank attaches great importance to communicating with internal and external stakeholders, establishing diversified services and communication channels, fully listening to the opinions and feedback of various stakeholders, and promptly responding to and satisfying the relevant demands of stakeholders.

Strengthen internal compliance control and improve supplier management

In 2023, Guangzhou Agricultural Commercial Bank plans the “Year of Compliance Construction” campaign to make every effort to build high-quality financial services, comprehensive customer management, efficient organizational management, and the “four basic capabilities” of agile scientific and technological innovation. The entire bank promotes development through compliance, risk prevention and quality, and promotes the steady development of the entire bank's operations through comprehensive improvement of the compliance internal control system, and consolidates the foundation for high-quality development.

In terms of supply chain management, the Guangzhou Agricultural Commercial Bank has established a supplier management system to implement an entry system for centralized procurement suppliers to review the qualifications, capabilities, reputation, intentions, etc. of suppliers; at the same time, priority is given to purchasing green, energy-saving and environmentally friendly products, and does not purchase high-energy, high-pollution, or phased out products that the country restricts or encourages production, procurement, or use.

The bank uses a dynamic assessment and evaluation method that combines the daily management assessment of suppliers and the annual assessment and evaluation of transaction suppliers to carry out supervision and management; it also carries out relevant inspection work on the bank's procurement and supplier performance through on-site inspections, off-site inspections, questionnaire surveys, etc. As of the end of the reporting period, Guangzhou Agricultural Commercial Bank's centralized procurement project had 619 major cooperative suppliers, including 616 domestic suppliers and 3 overseas suppliers.

Develop green finance and implement green operations

In order to support the construction of clean energy projects, Guangzhou Agricultural Commercial Bank actively uses bond underwriting tools to help enterprises broaden green capital channels on the basis of increasing green credit support. In 2023, the bank assisted an energy company to complete the issuance of 300 million yuan of ultra-short-term financing notes, and all of the funds raised were used to support the construction of renewable energy power generation projects. At the same time, the bank continues to launch a series of Jinmi products to promote the innovation and implementation of green finance products and help the development of green finance.

By the end of the reporting period, the bank had 462 green credit customers, an investment balance of 1,318 billion yuan in green bonds, and green credit assets reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 258,542.22 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Guangzhou Agricultural Commercial Bank focuses on guiding employees to consciously save water, electricity, and materials, improve resource utilization efficiency, and improve management tasks such as garbage sorting and green procurement. In 2023, the bank's office water consumption was 126,355.00 tons, electricity consumption was 23,022.56 megawatt-hours, and paper consumption was 20.76 tons; total greenhouse gas emissions (range 1+2) were 12,290.74 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, and the emission density was 0.11 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per **** meter.

Caring for employees and contributing to social responsibility

Guangzhou Agricultural Commercial Bank pays great attention to the gender diversity of employees, fully respects the decision-making opinions of female employees, and is committed to creating a fair and friendly career development environment for women in the areas of personnel promotion, remuneration and benefits, achieving gender equality among employees, and ensuring that gender diversity has a positive effect on the bank's operations. By the end of the reporting period, the bank had a total of 8,751 employees, of which 4,039 were women, accounting for 46.15%.

In 2023, Guangzhou Agricultural Commercial Bank will accelerate key team building and talent development, strengthen cadre team building, and promote rapid implementation and innovation in education and training. It has promoted more than 500 projects, covered more than 95,000 participants, and conducted 430 live online training sessions. As of the end of the reporting period, the total training time for all employees of the bank was 793,764.55 hours, and the number of training hours per capita was 98.49 hours.

In addition, the bank carried out in-depth research in counterpart Bangfu towns and villages, donating 1 million yuan to support projects such as the construction of a rural revitalization and landscape demonstration belt in Qigong Town, Yangshan County, Qingyuan City; donating 900,000 yuan to support the procurement and installation of street lights and environmental remediation projects in nine Bangfu villages in Bijie City, Guizhou Province. At the same time, participate in consumer support work, give full play to the advantages of trade union organizations, donate for purchases, buy and help buy agricultural and sideline products to help agricultural enterprises and farmers increase production and income.

(Link ESG researcher Deng Shixia)