The increasing
corporate focus on the challenges and opportunities of sustainable growth has
been a positive development. Many companies – and their stakeholders, investors
and banking partners – are nonetheless still only at the initial stages of
exploring how to incentivise and embed sustainable behaviours.
Bpost, Belgium’s
leading postal operator, is pioneering a novel approach in working with
financing partners and data specialists to help realise its sustainability
ambitions. A €300 million sustainability loan in October 2017 provided that
incentive: by varying the margin it pays to the lender depending on an
independently evaluated annual sustainability score, it has a positive
incentive to reduce its carbon footprint – and satisfy the sustainability goals
of its stakeholders and investors.
Thibault d’Ursel,
Bpost’s Head of CSR, Energy and Environment explains: “The more initiatives we
take, the better the interest rate will be. And that is for me an important and
interesting lever to push our initiatives within the company.”