Podcast Ep 263: Colette Shirley, director of Sustainability at Bank of Ireland explains why it is vital banks support businesses on their sustainability journey.
Bank of Ireland recently launched its new Sustainable Business Coach online platform. Along with its Green Business loans, this is one of a plethora of sustainability resources emerging from the Bank.
Colette Shirley, director of Sustainability at Bank of Ireland talks about the development of the Coach and why it is vital to support businesses on their sustainability journey.
“The Sustainable Business Coach doesn’t just deal with the E – it also deals with the S and the G. It helps businesses understand where they are in terms of their employee policies, whether they have gaps, and what they’re doing in their community. It’s quite an holistic tool”
The Coach is a free digital tool that is designed to support SME customers with sustainability planning to identify their ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) priorities.
The platform is unique to the Irish market in that it is designed as an ESG questionnaire that uses an online assessment capability to deliver a tailor-made report on their current sustainability situation and provides a plan of action.
Closing a knowledge gap
“At Bank of Ireland, we recognise our responsibility to have sustainable products, and we do have a good suite of them,” Shirley explained on the rationale for creating the Sustainable Business Coach. “But when we were talking to our customers, we realised that what was actually quite important to our business customers, particularly, was education around sustainability and making sure that there was correct support tools for how they could get started – understand where they are, next steps, that type of thing.
“We actually commissioned some research with Red C, and we found that the majority of SMEs didn’t really understand what ESG meant for their business, but over 70% of them were concerned about the impact of ESG on their business. We used this research along with customer feedback and identified a clear knowledge gap with our SMEs seeking support and understanding around their existing position on sustainability, how they benchmark themselves against peers, and identifying key actions.”
The Sustainable Business Coach was created by Life Moments, which is a UK-based company that specialises in digital customer solutions. ]
“It was important for us that the tool was based on a science-based framework – it was developed in collaboration with Future-Fit Foundation, which is a non-profit industry expert. The platform provides a range of questions that are aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, assesses each business’s ESG priorities, and provides recommendations that are grounded in robust environmental and social research.
“We commissioned a pilot in 2024 with over 50 Irish SMEs, which we got overwhelmingly positive feedback for, and we decided to go ahead and provide this tool. We launched it in May.
Shirley explained that the tool is free to use and is easy to navigate. But what it delivers at the end of the process is a valuable output, especially for businesses that form part of a greater supply chain.
“It isn’t time consuming, so you can do it in less than 90 minutes, but alternatively, you can save your changes and come back at another time if you need to.
“It’s designed as an ESG questionnaire which allows businesses to identify their own ESG priorities and goals. It breaks down complex topics and suggests specific actions for each business, tailored to the answers you’ve provided about your business. It’s targeted at Irish SMEs and is very useful for both sustainability and finance personnel alike.
“It delivers a report for each business which provides you with a score and illustrates where you’ve got to in your sustainability journey, what actions you’ve already taken, and what you need to do. This report can be shared internally – there are specific actions around various different topics, so it’s very practical in terms of helping you with next steps. You can use that report to develop a sustainability strategy and think about an action plan.
“It also creates a PDF report that can be used externally. If you want to share with stakeholders or customers, it demonstrates where you are in your sustainability journey. We all know that’s important given the regulatory environment around things like CSRD.”
Leading the charge on ESG
Launching the Sustainable Business Coach: Colette Shirley, Director of Sustainability, Corporate and Commercial, Bank of Ireland; John Feeney, CEO, Corporate and Commercial, Bank of Ireland; and Louise Cluskey, Director, Customer Products & Solutions, Corporate and Commercial, Bank of Ireland
Bank of Ireland has positioned itself at the coalface of ESG-related change in the banking industry. In its 2024 Sustainability Report, the Bank said it had deployed €14.7bn in sustainability-related finance in 2024, up 32% year-on-year. Not only that, the Bank predicts it will also smash its €30bn target for 2030.
Shirley says the actions the Bank is taking in relation to climate change and ESG transcends the entire organisation; it is as much about culture as it is about money.
“A few years back, we were looking at sustainability through the lens of products, and we still do that to make sure we have appropriate products for businesses and customers. But we started to realise the challenges businesses were facing around information and education. If you go to the Bank of Ireland Green Business Hub, there’s a huge amount of support for our customers because we realised fairly early on that where customers and businesses need a helping hand is around simple knowledge on this topic.
“On the hub, you’ll see things like five quick steps to become more sustainable, a simple guide to creating a sustainability strategy, webinars on topics from CSRD to transition plans, and tip sheets on what grants are available to businesses. We wanted to make sure the information is brought together in one place, that people can access it, and that it’s easy to read in plain English.
“The Bank does play a key role with our businesses, making sure it’s not just about financial viability, but also ensuring they’re making the best decisions for their own business, employees, and community. The Sustainable Business Coach doesn’t just deal with the E – it also deals with the S and the G. It helps businesses understand where they are in terms of their employee policies, whether they have gaps, and what they’re doing in their community. It’s quite an holistic tool.
“As a Bank, we have a big responsibility from an S perspective to make sure we’re contributing to our community and society. This is how we see the best way of doing it – making sure we have education tools, support tools. We also have financial products customers can use, including our Green Business Loan that’s just come back to market, which allows businesses to borrow against sustainability actions.”
Returning to the evolution of the Sustainable Business Coach, Shirley says it is in the Bank’s best interests to make sure its business customers are fully prepared for the regulatory and customer requirements of the future.
“We see this as a commercial opportunity for businesses. CSRD is coming, so bigger businesses are under pressure to get this data at some point, and they’re going to start asking smaller businesses for this information. If you are a smaller business that’s prepared – you’ve started thinking about your emissions, started to track and measure them, started thinking about your environmental or employee policies – that can only be a positive for you in terms of your big customers. They’re going to want this data, and it gives you a USP as a small business and perhaps places you ahead of your peers.
“Any business that’s not thinking about this is going to get left behind. It’s really a commercial viability piece.
“There’s a very interesting quote from Larry Fink, who’s the CEO of BlackRock: ‘We invest in sustainability not because we are environmentalists, but because we are capitalists.’
“It’s really about future-proofing your business and making sure you’re operating and collecting data correctly from a sustainability perspective,” Shirley concludes.
“It’s also about making your business more attractive for winning new business, attracting talent, and positioning yourself positively against your peers.”
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