First of all, uh let me introduce myself and thank you for being in this session with me with me. My name is Victoria. I am the Strategy and Business Officer of Unicredit Bull Bank. This is the largest bank uh here in Bulgaria.And I'm also responsible for creating and um leading the implementation of our own ESG strategy of unicredit Bank. Uh It's very interesting. I see other people are joining. So welcome to the new um new uh visitors, attendees in this session. So to the people in this session, I would like to say uh today's uh my special day, it's uh no presentation Tuesday day for wiki. So I'm not allowed to use, I, I don't allow myself to use powerpoint presentations one day a week because uh if you work in a corporate world, I mean, we are kind of sick of it. So I have to find other ways of expressing myself today and I, I try to find so you will not see slides, you will see me, but I really hope that uh we can participate also in the chat. So basically, uh I'm responsible for the ESG strategy of our company. And what I believe is that, uh, when you do something, you need to share your knowledge so that, um, other people can use it and also do it. So let's start with the ESG.

So this is the way that I will be doing the slides today. So, uh, from 1 to 5, probably one being the least and five being the, the most. How much do you know about the EHG topic? How do you assess your personal knowledge? Could you, could you state in the chat from 1 to 5? How much do you think you know about what EHG exactly is? So Lud Mia says three, Maria seems very highly educated. 333. OK. Rosie 3d 3. OK. I would say also myself uh around um around four. So I've done a couple of um training in uh what ESG is. So just to align ourselves, uh ESG is, relates to the environmental, social and governance factors in the way that we manage our businesses and make them sustainable no matter small or big business in the different parts of the world. Because I see we are from different parts of the world. The topic is differently developed. Like for instance, if you came to our institution to my bank one year ago, nobody would know what ESG is. There were no trainings, there were no education, there was no, not an ESG strategy. There is now almost everybody knows it, but I don't think that society is ready, like Maria, uh I in Sweden is ready to uh adopt the topic.

So basically, uh what we do now is we are uh f first of all, when building your uh ESG strategy, the first point is always start with education. And uh if you're interested uh since the people who are joining now, uh I'm Vicky and I will not today share any slides because uh it is a no presentations, Tuesday for Vy. So I've done this. So this is my email address. And uh if you just screenshot it or copy it, I will write it. Show it a couple of times. I can send you a very extensive list of where you can start educating whether yourself or your teams with um different levels of um advancement of the topic, different levels of pricing because I've done quite a lot of research on that. So this is my email address. If you are interested to uh you or your people to learn more about what is ESG, then write me an email and I will send you a full list of places where you can learn. These are not sponsors. I'm not getting any money of any of those. It's just the things that I've studied myself and I believe could be useful for you. So when you start to build your ESG strategy, then uh really uh start with um start with uh with education. Now, there are two news from this week.

I don't know whether you, you've heard them. There are two news from this week which are extremely interesting and one of the news is um Elon Musk. We know who Elon Musk is. Elon Musk tweeted this week. Eg is um a scam. Um Anybody familiar with the why he did that? So is ESG A scam? Is the environmental social and governance factors a scam. Um It's not the reason that um Elon Musk tweeted that was because his company Tesla, Tesla, which is producing the cars Tesla, which are supposedly super environmentally friendly and the future of automotive sector, his company was excluded from standard and poor's uh ESG index.

And you know, the reason why the reason is that he might be e but he's not s so the reason he was excluded is because he didn't match the S part of the ESG equation. And this is why I would always urge you to look at the ESG in its uh uh entirety and technology is the solution to most of the topics that we have now open in the ESG. So uh I wanted to point out for you because a, you know, it's environmental and we're going to talk about, but I want to point to you about the fact of the s and you can do a screenshot of that, but I will also make sure that you receive also in your email if you send me an email and ask me for it.

So basically, when people think about the s in the eg there is the common myth that the s is donations and charities that your companies are doing. In fact, it's something different what I'm suggesting when building your ESG strategy, when you think about, think what you do in your company on these topics and I would just follow it a little bit. So the well being of the employees, what are the benefits that you're offering to the employees? Just list them, make uh an inventory of everything that you do and provide your employees with everything from, I don't know, tech companies usually give um free food or to cards for fitness and all of that. But then again, think about the other topic, think about diversity, equity and inclusion. So what are the key KPIS on diversity equity and inclusion in your company? And then think about another topic because when you think about inclusion, we are usually considering diversities.

So how many women, how many men, uh people of color, uh sex uh and all of all of this. But what is important for your company is also to have inclusive products? So how affordable and inclusive are your products? Can they be used with um uh uh from people with disabilities? So, my associates here uh uh in the, in the ESG strategy section in the bank, my associate is uh she can do everything you and I can do only she can do it blind. So what I have to think about it because she's not seeing. I have to uh make sure that our elevators have braille uh alphabet so she can press on the relevant um on the relevant number of the elevator and come to the third floor or uh we have another associate which is remotely working and uh she has um iii I don't know the, the, the disability but uh she, she has some, some form of disability which don't allow her to move that much.

This would mean that when we make meetings, we have to make them inclusive, both uh hybrid, both online and offline and uh make her part of the conversation. So as I said, when you think about uh S part, these are many of the other types of KPIS that you need to be looking for and uh working on and build some specific KPIS in order to complete and then I come to the E part. And usually when we say about the E part, what we believe is how much our company uh companies footprint is, right? But I urge you to think about E in, in two dimensions. So one thing is about how much your company's uh carbon footprint is. So really here you can build in the E part, what you can do is you can start building your own carbon footprint reduction program. Uh By the way, I don't know whether you are, uh, measuring, uh, your, um, your carbon footprint. Do you measure in your company's your carbon footprint? Um, I, if you can hear me, hello? Hello. Do you measure your carbon footprint? I'm wondering, uh, because I do not see any. Uh, yes. Ok. Uh Dash Meat do not measure. Ok. I would recommend to check one company. We are just starting. Ok, we do. So I would recommend one company which is called uh plan A. So look at it, uh it's a Bulgarian company based in Germany. They're doing measuring for bit but also for small companies.

So if you're a small company, ask for a small company uh fee. So they have some KPIS and they measure the carbon footprint and they also give you, they also give you a program how to reduce it. I give you an example. So uh first of all, you might decide whether to produce, uh you know, um um plastic, uh whether to produce uh uh glass bottles as a present for your employees and not use the plastic ones. But another way would be if you're uh doing in your company, your energies received from non sustainable sources. Then in your carbon footprint, uh program reduction program, you can decide that you're going to buy from your electricity suppliers from more sustainable sources.

So this would require some research from your part on the e but you know, uh you can do all of that you can do all types of initiatives in which you also plant trees with your colleagues, et cetera. But most importantly, what you should look for is how much uh your products are affecting the carbon footprint that the clients uh that the clients are uh having I have here. Uh Dash me that says I'm from BC G and we do have carbon footprint induction. Yes. Uh So dash me uh maybe you can share some links uh here with everybody. So it's a learning session that uh people can uh in fact uh use good examples uh from you from your carbon footprint reduction program. In our company, the carbon footprint reduction program consists of uh you know, putting led lights everywhere because they are more uh they are more expensive, but they are more energy efficient and they last longer or uh now we are considering putting um uh photovoltaics on our roof.

So there are different things that you can do in your internal carbon footprint reduction when you talk about your own company. But then I urge you to think more even about this. So this is about leading by example. So to do everything that you would require from your clients, but this one, the clients is how your product affects the clients. So when the clients are using your product throughout its life cycle, what carbon footprint do they make? So most of you probably produce uh digital products.

But then I urge you to consider this. So I'm I'm sure that here everybody knows what is an NFT. But based on a research, imagine an NFT with a cat put on a rocket going to the moon, this NFT in order to be sustained, this little NFT with the cat put on a rocket going to the moon, uh takes the energy of three month average, consume consumption of a European person three months.

So basically my urge to you as tech people, what kind of energy consumption do your products uh uh do is something that you might think about. I'm working in the field of banking. So the biggest carbon footprint that we ever do is uh in fact, the carbon footprint uh from the operations that we finance. And basically, if you're not a bank, if you want to search for financing at some point, not very far along in the future, all financing will be looking also for these eg factors. So if you haven't started measuring your carbon footprint, the carbon footprint of your company, start researching and start doing it. I recommended one company with the Bulgarian um owner plan a ba plan A based in uh based in uh in uh in uh Germany. But really you can Google, you can really Google and find any others that, that measure the carbon footprint. By the way, if you want to measure your own carbon footprint, I found uh uh uh a completely um a completely uh free of charge, way to do it. So it has been developed developed by WWF in um their UK site. So if you write in your um Google search, uh WWF uh UK carbon footprint, you will get to a page which will allow you yourself to, to measure your carbon footprint depending on your daily consumption.

But this is my, my message to you when you're building your strategy. So focus on each of the topics ES and G and I will speak a little bit also about uh the G part. So start with um with an inventory of everything that is being done in any department that you might have. If you're a small company, it's easy. If you're a big company, it's uh a little less easy. If you're an international company, it's a nightmare, but you can do it. I'm sure. So start with an E. So do an inventory of uh what your company's carbon footprint is or start thinking about it, start finding who can do it for you, then think about the carbon footprint that uh relates to the products that you're selling. And I give you an example. We are selling also in the bank specific products which are related to drawing the attention to the E part. For instance, we have a green mortgage which is uh green mortgage, which is um um with lower interest rate. Uh if you buy an energy efficiency uh house or we have also an S product for start ups and for women entrepreneurs, we have lower interest rates for instance, but really think about the product. So this is your most important impact.

Then on the S part, again, I show you this. So what type of employee relations do you have? Uh as I gave the example of Tesla, so Tesla was thrown out of the ESG index of S and P due to bad relations with the employees, bad conditions for their employees, for their phenomenal fantastic uh ears. But they need to also keep note on the S part. Uh Then um yeah, we have a lot of session on diversity inclusion. So I'm not going to go into that detail and then we have to go to, to G so the governance, why I think this is something easily forgotten because you start thinking about the environment, you start thinking about uh the society bringing good, but then none of it can happen unless you have the proper structure.

So basically, I would recommend when you find when you do the inventory in your company, what type of E or S you have, then you start thinking of making working groups. Uh So in our company, I'm sharing our experience, we have eight working groups. I will share them with you. So this is how we govern our ESG strategy and make sure that we progress on it. Uh These uh working groups should be part of the everyday business. So do not create a separate department in your company is my humble opinion that is dealing only with the ESG topics. If you want to make an ESG a workable topic, then you should make it the business of everybody in the company. And I give you an example. So in our products for the clients, for the S and for the E part, we have our business units responsible. So we have a working group which I'm supervising, but they are the responsible ones uh which are dealing with everything we do for our clients, corporate clients and everything we do for our retail clients. Um A recent example, we launched a new um credit cards, a new card with Visa, which is made out of um made out of um uh not of plastic, but of recyclable materials. It's made of some type of uh some part of the core.

But as we say to our clients do not put it in the, in the microwave, the card will not become popcorn, but these are things that are happening within the product section. Then we have two streams which I find very important, which are looking internally into us. One of the streams is in real estate and logistics, which is um looking into our own carbon footprint. So they are the owners of our carbon footprint reduction program. They are measuring how much we need uh with external provider. They are uh thinking of new ways, how we can reduce our own car carbon footprint. And then there is the super important part of people and culture. So you know that the hr departments are now called people and culture. So there you have a very strong team which is providing, finding ways to educate and to raise the awareness of the topic. I give you an example, we have a podcast which is called um which is actually I can show you here. So it's called Espresso. So we are, our institution is owned by uh an Italian Bank. So, you know, espresso is something we are strong, but our espresso is called is Depresso. So we have a way to educate also our people. But also uh we have a way to, to uh to connect with the external public. So we do have this uh podcast, we also create short videos uh with which uh to explain terms like um what is the Paris Agreement?

So what does the Paris Agreement mean for us? Uh So this is where um this is where uh the decision to keep the levels of temperature, not above 1.5 before uh degrees Celsius, before the uh industrial age. Uh So the, the the thing is we explain also the what is the SDGS the Sustainable Development Goals of UN? Basically, we try to speak to our employees and to the external public through educational materials uh and through internal educational initiatives uh to speak to them about what ESGS and what they can do about it. As I said, at the beginning, just repeating, this is my email address and you can screenshot it in order to be able to receive from me. Uh a list of um places uh institutions where you can learn more what ESG is and learning that you can just start do doing your internal inventory and building your own ESG strategy and following up on it. So, coming back to the G what you need is so I went to the four working groups, but we are a bank. We have a working group also in uh uh rules and regulations then uh which is uh which is um uh where uh risk colleagues are.

And then we have another working group which is uh about monitoring and reporting. So this is extremely important because as you know, Peter Drucker says, uh if you don't measure it, you cannot improve it. So you really need to have KPIS. I'll give you an example of the KPIS for some of the working streams. So one of the working streams is um uh let's say people and culture. So we really see how many people have taken the courses that we offer. And then we also offer some tests to see whether they're familiar with the results. And do you know how you measure if your ESG strategy is actually working? It's not when IV I go and tell to the people do something. It's when people come to me and they say I have an idea, an idea and even better. I don't have an idea. I have a solution that is going to help our ESG strategy. And luckily after one year of really talking about it with many people in the company, I, we finally reached the stage where people from the different working groups are giving their own ideas. So ESG bring uh brought to the company for top to bottom is the worst thing that can happen to you. ESG is a topic that can excite people and you need to build it in your companies from bottom to top.

And since I I see here, uh dash me Kaur II, I, sorry if I don't uh um uh if I don't um pronounce your name, right? But I would love BC G to write some articles about the need to build ESG from bottom to top because from top to bottom, it is never going to work. And if you want your colleagues, your employees excited about the topic, bringing ideas so they can build a better future, start from the bottom. Then again, I speak about organizations. So all of those working groups that you build, which are dealing with different topics of ES or G you need to have leaders to those working groups. And in order to also include the top management, my proposal was and it was agreed by our top managers that each board member responsible for the different areas is going to be responsible also for the ESG topic. So you can imagine in our ESG working groups for um uh for education, for carbon footprint program, internal for risky regulations, we have people who are genuinely, genuinely excited from the topic, but they are also supervised and they get visibility from the highest level from a board member.

And in order, since we are going about uh talking about regulations, how are our working groups working? Basically, we have KPIS for each of the working group that we follow and we follow on a monthly basis. This means that I set up a meeting on a monthly basis with each group. And we need to see whether we have had business results, whether we have had reduction of the carbon footprint, whether we have had more people engaged in our um ESG programs, uh whether we have had enough communication. So basically, the role of you, if you're going to be uh your company's chief Sustainability Officer Strategy and Sustainability, or if you want to hire one should be this, they should follow up and they should empower, educate and really um mm energize all the teams to work on that.

So you really need to have exact teams with leaders and exact roles, really give the people the roles. So you are the chief uh manager of the carbon footprint Program reduction Program. This would make people empowered if you are just uh going to them and tell them uh in the US. Uh Yes. Uh Eliza. Um uh I, I just want to draw your attention to what Eliza was saying in the eu uh us, we are seeing eg topics being hijacked by politicians stunting. Absolutely. This is the worst thing that can ever, ever happen. And I will give you, I told you one news with Tesla and I will give you another news now which is from the recent days it was in um don't allow this. We need to fight this. We really need to fight this. Uh So uh another news from, from the recent days, it was top news in the financial times. The investment arm of uh Deutsche Bank DWS is called the company. Police went into this company and uh they were accused with police and prosecution of greenwashing. So really know this word and try to avoid this word. So is it greenwashing or social washing or don't allow your company or politicians to, to speak about this topic? Uh Without any results, I want to give you a, a tip.

So this is my, my blog, Victory corners.com where I share some uh materials that might be useful to you in terms of uh sustainability ESG topics and really how to talk to people about sustainability. So everything is free. I'm not selling anything. So don't worry about this.

So it's called Victory corners.com. My latest article is about, uh, the myths related to ESG. And one of the myths uh, related to ESG is that really, it's some kind of, you know, in the, in the, uh, old time there was, um, indulgence. So rich people who committed some crimes could pay some fee to the church. And, uh, you know, they are, uh, excused of their sins. This is ridiculously wrong. And another thing because we spoke about so go to, to uh Victory corners.com and you will be able to, to read uh uh my latest article about the myths. So this is one of the myths and the other of the myths is uh you know, uh uh politicians and uh some companies don't talk about um offsetting their carbon emissions. So what does it mean? There are no standards exactly. Uh II I will speak to that also, Mary, uh some politicians, uh some companies, what they're doing is they're polluting and then they're kind of offsetting, what does it mean? They pay the price? Victory corners.com? Thank you, Kuba. Thank you so much for sharing it. Um They're paying the price as if it's and in indulgence to continue to commit these crimes for the pollution or hire um Children to, to produce their sneakers or whatever we are in power and we need to educate our uh clients that they are in power to vote with their money for this bullshitting.

And we need to fight this and we need to talk about it. And yes, allow me to go to marry uh which says very, very nicely. Mary says that there are no standards to evaluate, ok. There are no certain standards in the US. You have, you have SAS B in uh Europe, you have GR I in Europe, you have also the youth taxonomy which is not completely developed. But guys, we know common sense, we should not allow bureaucrats to prevent us from doing with our ESG strategy. What is actually common sense? You as responsible leaders, you are aware of what is just bullshitting, excuse me for using uh this word and what is really green. Uh I give you an example of something that is really circular economy, but we don't even market because there are no appropriate marking for this. So um there is a nice company called 00 Wave in Bulgaria. And you know that they, they are producing very nice um crackers from the molds remaining from the production of beer. So when you produce beer, there is mols remaining, they are throwing it away or giving it to animals to eat or something like this. These guides found a way to use this waste. And when they use this waste, they um produce these crackers which are in fact full of protein and for anybody who exercises so protein is better than carbohydrates. So people buy them when they are doing sports.

So this is a true example. But uh you know, do they get some acclaims for being green or um uh doing it in this way? Still not, but at some point they will uh I would tell you that this will come from the banking sector. Uh What we have been given as ideas from the European Central Bank is that um there will be incentives quite a lot of incentives uh when it comes to green And when we finance green, um green businesses like businesses who are not polluting or brown businesses who are green finding their productions.

We're going to get uh incentives. If we are continuing to, to do the brown businesses, we're going to get punished and we are going to get punished very hard by asking us to increase our capital. So uh yes, I know Mary. Yes, I know. So uh I, what I want to say is that really one by one, we need to, to be together and we need to work in the direction of making this a workable solution. Because what we know is that if we allow the temperatures and they're already get going into that direction if we allow the the world temperatures and I'm not here uh talking whether it's men uh it's done by men because some say, oh men have nothing to do with the temperature.

Temperatures are factually rising. So if we want to achieve not increasing above two degrees, we need to each of us in our own power contribute to that and we cannot bullshit our way around it because after two degrees, the climate becomes unpredictable. This would mean more uh and it will be for our Children. And I want to see uh is there a linkedin ESG group for these discussions? This would be fantastic if we can, if uh if we want to set up um Eliza, would you like to set up a um a linkedin group for ESG discussion? So I would be happy to participate in something like this ESG No bullshit. Exactly. So th this is really something that uh you can, you can start creating it today. So I'm sure that uh quite a few of us uh on this session. Uh We are uh OK. So Mary is uh thank you, ELISA. I'm really looking forward to joining uh this group. Uh uh So Mary has a lot of nice comments uh related to uh ESG and pointing to greenwashing. Uh And to uh you know, the needs to be more open of what ESG you're doing and what not and not pretend with uh with the bullshit KPIS. Uh Basically um look, you're technology people, I believe uh I mean, we are here in, into the technology business.

I believe that we are the right people to, to be the leaders in this, in this. Let's not wait for the CEO S of banks, you know, let's not wait for the politicians to claim the topic. It's us, let us build the group, let us start the podcast, let us start educating um our colleagues and our um and, and, and our um you know, close ones what to do. By the way, I'll give you an example. Uh If, if we do not, um if we do not take care of ESG uh it's our Children who are going to make us care about ESG because they want to live also. Well, so because I see it's 1212 49 I have this speech as notes. So I would like to send you the, the blueprint so you can start creating your strategy or improve it or uh just uh you know, benchmark it from what we are doing at unicredit Go Bank. This is my email address, write to me whether you want me to send you the, the, the blueprint uh in, in written and whether you want me to send you also the materials uh about where to continue your education related to ESG. And as Mary said, let's not accept uh any false claims. And we really need to expose the false claims and let's not wait for the CEO S.

And if you are a CEO, don't get offended, II, I believe that you are a leader if you are on, on these sessions and you're not part of these leaders who are just bullshitting around ESG. So really let us take the responsibility and start working as Eliza said uh to ESG no bullshit, ELISA is going to make uh a working group in, in Linkedin. So let's let's connect. Uh uh Mary, I'm very, very um very, very happy with uh with, with your uh um activity today and everything is extremely, extremely useful. What you share uh from a text pers perspective. I'd love to discuss more about science taken society. Yes, you're absolutely correct. Let's talk about uh you know, in this group, we can talk about social media. So how the s part is changing the world uh wi with the social media and what can be the solutions. So this will be a very exciting work to be in uh since my time is up. I'm um I wish you all a good day. Let's connect on, on linkedin. Let's take part of the group and let's see what we can probably create ourselves as a, as a working group. Have a good day, everyone and it has been an honor to be part of this session with you. Thank you, Marna Fox. Thank you.

It was fantastic to, to have you here. So all the best to everybody. Again, this is my email, write me if you would like um the the blueprint to be sent to you and also the materials related to where to study more about ehg asthma IC U. Thank you Georgetta. Thank you also for participating and uh have a nice, they everyone.