Hana Financial Group announced on Oct. 11 that it has obtained approval for a carbon reduction target from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in order to promote ESG management and a transition into a low-carbon economic system by expanding financial companies’ social contribution.
The SBTi is a global initiative to help companies set and verify greenhouse gas reduction targets based on scientific evidence in order to implement the Paris Climate Agreement (limiting an increase in the average global temperature to 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrialization level).
In accordance with the SBTi standard, Hana Financial Group will reduce carbon emissions at business sites by 42 percent by 2030 and 75.4 percent by 2040 compared to 2020.
It is planning to achieve a 32.8-percent reduction by 2030 and 64.6 percent reduction by 2040 compared to 2020 as intermediate goals, and to achieve carbon neutrality (carbon emissions: zero) by 2050 following this carbon-neutrality path.
Accordingly, Hana Financial Group plans to continuously reduce energy consumption by expanding investment in eco-friendly facilities to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at its business sites.
It will manage assets in industries affected by the ESG initiative by applying its sustainable finance industry policy guide to industries that emit a lot of greenhouse gases to reduce its asset portfolio while ramping up investment in low-carbon companies and industries.
“With this SBTi approval as an opportunity, we will further strengthen group-wide low-carbon economy practices,” a Hana Financial Group official said. “We will continue to do so in the mid- to long-term.”
Hana Financial Group is taking the lead in playing environmental and social roles by continuously expanding participation in global initiatives.
It adopted the Equator Principles to manage environmental and social risks when dealing with large-scale project finance, declared support for the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to strengthen the disclosure of non-financial information that reflects climate risks and joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) as part of its promotion of ESG management.
In May, it also joined the Net Zero Banks Association (NZBA), a global interbank leadership group that aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in order to strengthen climate risk management and join a movement toward a zero-carbon world.
Meanwhile, Hana Financial Group announced on the same day that Smart Window M developed by Hana Bank and Hana Financial Convergence Technology Research Center of Hana TI took home the Best Innovation Prize at the Ergonomic Design Awards for the first in the Korean financial industry.
The Ergonomic Design Award which marks its 22nd anniversary this year is the most prestigious award in Korea in the field of ergonomics hosted by the Korean Society of Ergonomics.
Its prize winners are decided after rigorous evaluations in various categories — the ease of use, efficiency, functionality, quality, stability and marketability.
Smart Window M is a system that provides direct financial services through tablets. Judges heaped praises on its excellent ergonomic design which features integrated search and writing functions, a fool proof function to prevent human errors and a smart screen design that boosts work efficiency based on UX design friendly both with customers and employees.
In addition, Smart Window M focuses on an electronic form filling function without restrictions on places and time.
It is expected to enhance customer convenience by realizing paperless offices and workplaces, protect financial consumers by shortening business processes and strengthening security and provide house call services in consideration of the financially underprivileged.
“This honor of winning the prize has led us to confirm the importance of customer-centered design in establishing a business environment that connects face-to-face and non-face-to-face sales in the financial sector,” a Hana official said.
“In the future, we will focus more on creating a system that helps customers attain their goals through financial services as well as increasing usability and availability by steadily introducing more advanced user experience (UX) design.”
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