DBS Bank India teams up with Climes for carbon-neutral business events

In a significant step towards sustainability, DBS Bank India has announced a partnership with Climes, a frontrunner in climate finance, to make all its BusinessClass foundED events carbon neutral. This initiative, in collaboration with the Headstart Network Foundation, underscores DBS Bank’s commitment to fostering innovative entrepreneurship while maintaining responsibility towards the environment.

The alliance empowers DBS Bank to gauge the carbon emissions of each foundED event using Climes’ advanced carbon neutral event calculator. Following the calculation, the emissions are offset by encouraging attendees to support various environmental projects like reforestry, agroforestry, and climate-smart agriculture within India. The Mumbai edition of foundED marked the beginning of this eco-conscious integration, with plans to extend it to other cities.

Shoma Narayanan, Managing Director at DBS Bank India, highlighted the importance of responsible operations to the company’s ethos, stating, “DBS Bank India continues to lead by example by adopting responsible business operations and making a conscious effort to manage our environmental footprint. As purpose-led and innovative businesses are key to tackling pressing climate issues, integrating such partners into our operations allows us to mitigate the carbon footprint of our events. This also gives us a platform to educate our attendees, partners, and customers on making climate-conscious choices.”

Echoing the sentiments, Anirudh Gupta, co-founder of Climes, emphasized the synergy between the two organizations, stating, “We are pleased to partner with a Gen-C (Generation-Climate) champion like DBS Bank India. The bank is setting a benchmark with its holistic approach to sustainability. We focus on climate action by collaborating with businesses and helping them adopt our tech-based Products to effectively manage their environmental impact. Our goal is to make sustainability an engaging and rewarding experience for all stakeholders, accelerating our collective climate impact.”

Beyond the events, DBS Bank India is deeply committed to integrating sustainability across all operations. The bank employs a four-lever strategy to address its carbon, energy, water, and waste footprint, which includes reducing resource consumption, generating renewable energy, purchasing green products, and utilizing Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and carbon offsets. Notably, since 2017, the bank has expanded its renewable energy initiatives in India with solar installations across 13 locations in Tamil Nadu and Telangana, contributing over 278 kW of capacity.