Listen to episode seven of the ‘Don’t Break The Bank’ podcast and subscribe here, Spotify, Apple or Google Podcasts:
Matthew O’Neill, Industry Managing Director, Advanced Technology Group, VMware Office of the CTO.
Sustainability in banking has been around, in some form or other, for a very long time. I can remember being involved in drafting green IT plans almost twenty years ago – huge documents which could effectively be summarised as “print less, switch off monitors, use more conference calls and less flights”.
Time has moved on. Now, banks and other financial service providers are putting more focus on Environment, Social Responsibility and Governance (ESG) initiatives and products. This has been driven by customers asking about banks’ commitment to sustainability. In fact, there are early indications that the coronavirus pandemic is driving a surge in ESG-related investing, with a JPMorgan note quoted by CNBC as saying “The rebound in civil society has been impressive, with an increase in volunteering, social cohesion, community support and focus on public good vs. private freedoms. We see the Covid-19 crisis accelerating the trend to ESG investment.”
So, is sustainability shaking off its CSR/tick box origins and taking its place as a true differentiator? To find out, Brian and I had Nicola Acutt, VMware’s Vice President for Sustainability Strategy, on the latest episode of Don’t Break the Bank. Nicola has some fascinating insights and relates them to VMware’s own route to sustainability – extremely pertinent when more FS providers are aspiring to be technology companies with banking licenses.
With a self-described ‘non-traditional’ career path into sustainability leadership, Nicola took Brian and me through what she’s seeing as banks strive for sustainability, how it relates to innovation and, importantly, resilience. This is so critical in the current era, and something we’re constantly talking to customers and industry peers about – how enterprises inject resilience into their operations, and it was fascinating to discuss this with Nicola and hear her take on it.
As Brian rightly put it, we came away learning so much, and I hope you will too. I urge you to have a listen, even if you think sustainability isn’t something you need to concern yourself with – you might be surprised.
We’ve also included a number of additional links and reports Nicola mentions during the podcast for further reading, so try not to print them, but take a look and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, any of the issues we’ve discussed over the series, or anything you’d like looking at in future, so please do give us feedback.
Listen to episode seven of the ‘Don’t Break The Bank’ podcast and subscribe here:
If you want to know more about the themes discussed in this episode, Nicola shared a great list of resources you can access:
- An ESG article from CNBC: Sustainable investing is set to surge in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic
- VMware’s Sustainability Page
- The latest IDC report that documents VMware’s commutative impact in carbon avoidance for our customers
- Video: VMware: A Force For Good (please note: the data is old, but the messaging is still revelant)
- Video: VMware: Reboot the Earth
- VMware’s Carbon Finance project in Guatemala
