Barclays goes carbon neutral in UK

London, 15 March: Barclays has made its UK operations carbon neutral, the bank announced on Monday.

"Climate change has a significant potential impact on our business – on the markets in which we operate and on the customers and clients we serve. Reducing our environmental impact is a business priority," said group chief executive John Varley.

The bank says it has a "phased approach" to going carbon neutral, involving targets to improve energy efficiency and increasing its use of renewable energy before offsetting the remaining carbon emissions.

It aims to reduce its UK carbon intensity – its emissions of carbon dioxide per million pounds of income – from 16.8 tonnes in 2005 to 12.9 tonnes by 2010. From April this year, it will buy 50% of its energy from renewable sources, saving approximately 120,000 tonnes a year of carbon dioxide.

Barclays has recently spent £1.7 million ($3.3 million) offsetting the 226,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide it produced at its UK operations during 2006. It said 60% of these tonnes were offset by retiring certified emission reductions, the credits produced by projects that qualify under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. The remaining 40% was offset through investment in small-scale projects operated by Climate Care and the CarbonNeutral Company, which generated verified emissions reductions.

"Going carbon neutral is a milestone in our environmental strategy but is absolutely not an end in itself. Focusing on energy consumption and sourcing an increasing part of it from green sources remain our top priorities," said Andrew Flett, head of environmental management at Barclays.

However, the bank has not gone as far as HSBC which in 2004 announced plans to go carbon neutral across its global operations. In January, Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis also announced a global carbon-neutrality goal.

A spokeswoman said it was "too early to say" if Barclays was going to go carbon neutral outside the UK. The bank, which is headquartered in the UK, is waiting to see what lessons it has learned from the initiative before considering a global roll-out. "We are looking at energy efficiency and renewable energy worldwide," she added.

The bank employed consultants at ICF International to advise on Barclays' approach to carbon neutrality. SGS, an inspection and certification company, verified Barclays' emissions inventory and the accounting and offsetting processes.