Own operational footprint

Data Centres: Using experimentation to reduce energy consumption in our data centres has led to a reduction in 206,304 kwh per annum. This was achieved through initiatives including increasing the IT server air inlet temperature to provide more ‘free cooling’ days and installing variable speed drives on air handling units, which optimised airflows to match IT heat load and reduced fan speeds to 37Hz from 40Hz.

LED: Our LED investment programme continued in 2024 with an upgrade at Melville Gate data centre providing annual savings of 84,222 kWh and 134 out of 140 LED installs completed this year in our branch network.

Building Management Systems: Have been installed to optimise the control of energy-using systems in our buildings. As a result, we have achieved savings of 11,429,296 kWh since the programme’s inception in November 2021.

Electrification: In 2024 we experimented with methods to find the right solution to electrify our branch network. This included identifying branches in scope through the Capital Investment Programmes and developing our specification with principal contractors to replace decommissioned heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment with our preferred solutions. This year seven branches have been through this process, and we will continue to look for opportunities in 2025.

Spinningfields office: There has been a 49% reduction in energy consumption at our Spinningfields office in Manchester since it opened in October 2023. This was achieved through electrifying operations, installing building management systems and LED lighting. Spinningfields continues to be our flagship building for sustainability.

Renewable Energy (RE100): Following the achievement of our RE100 commitment last year, we have maintained 100% renewable electricity across our global operations. This was achieved through green tariffs⁶, on-site solar and purchasing Renewable Electricity Certificates for our landlord supplied properties, where we are unable to specify a requirement for renewable electricity due to the existing structures of energy supply and billing systems. The solar panels installed at 440 Strand generate enough electricity at peak performance, to power all desktop computers in the building. In 2024, this level of output was achieved for four months of the year. Looking forward, in 2025 we expect 39% of our UK electricity to come from corporate power purchase agreements.

Electric Vehicles (EV100): In 2024 we met both of our EV100 commitments. We installed a further 55 electric vehicle (EV) chargers and now have EV chargers in 15% of our large office spaces across the UK. We have also transitioned our owned and operated fleet to fully electric, fulfilling both of our EV100 commitments. It is worth noting that the life cycle of electric vehicles is not fully sustainable yet and it is challenging to obtain data to draw meaningful comparisons of emission reductions. Looking ahead, we plan to continue encouraging colleague uptake of electric vehicles through the availability of EV chargers across our property portfolio.

Outside of our EV100 commitment, we have demonstrated innovation and commitment to sustainable transport with two electric mobile banks, currently used to serve customers in remote areas. The second phase of this project is underway with plans for an additional three electric mobile banks to be rolled out in 2025.

Energy Productivity (EP100): We met our EP100 commitment during 2024, improving energy productivity by 114% from a 2015 baseline. This was due to a consistent approach to reduce energy consumption across our portfolio, as well as global property rightsizing and reductions in full time employee equivalent (FTE).

_{(6) Using green tariffs and purchased renewable electricity certificates. Tariffs are labelled as green if some or all of the units of electricity are ‘matched’ by units generated from a verified renewable energy source.}

We have experimented with and continued to implement measures which strive to enhance our approach towards the principles of circular economy, which has resulted in a 60% reduction in waste⁷ since 2019. We have also optimised our waste services across our buildings in the UK mainland, resulting in a reduction in waste of 16.8 tonnes compared with 2023. New waste streams were introduced at our data centres during 2024 which improved their waste recycling rate by 30%. During 2024 we diverted 99.9% of waste from landfill, to either energy recovery, recycling or reuse.

_{(7) Routine operational waste includes waste from our UK and Republic of Ireland offices, branches and data centres, and excludes construction waste.}

We achieved our ambition to reduce paper consumption by 70% by 2025, against a 2015 baseline. Consumption has consistently reduced since 2015, with a reduction of 73% achieved between 2015 and 2024. This was due to the continued implementation of digitisation programmes as well as our paperless programme, which has resulted in a reduction in 16 million envelopes during 2024.

Sustainable buildings in India: We have continued to broaden our focus to include our overseas offices, collaborating with our landlords to promote energy and water efficiency in our India offices. Our Chennai and Gurugram offices are now Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Operation & Maintenance platinum rated, representing the highest level of achievement in LEED. Buildings that earn this certification demonstrate exceptional energy efficiency, resource conservation and sustainable design practices. These buildings are also LEED Gold Certified in Interior Design and Construction, as well as Design & Build LEED certified.

Designing a more sustainable work environment: We have continued to retrofit our buildings in line with the environmental assessment methodology and benchmarking tool SKA and furthered our progress in 2024 by achieving four gold accreditations in office and branch fit outs. In our branch design, back of house upgrades⁸, including kitchen, staff room and toilets, are now included as standard while banking halls are being refreshed, resulting in further reductions in carbon emissions and energy consumption as more efficient initiatives are put in place.

_{(8) The scope of our refresh programme was extended to include back of house spaces – kitchen, staff room and toilets, to improve conditions.}

NatWest Group’s supply chain emissions make up 65% of our 2024 operational emissions, offering a key opportunity for decarbonisation. Total supply chain emissions have reduced by 40% between 2019 and 2024. As we predominately use spend-based methods, changes in influenced spend will directly impact emissions.

An update to the industry-average emission factor database has been the main contributor to the reduction in purchased goods and services emissions in 2024. Therefore, we continue to work with suppliers to obtain supplier-specific data to reduce our reliance on industry averages emission factors and to measure supplier emissions trajectory to help inform choices across our supply chain.

As our supply chain emissions account for the majority of our operational carbon footprint, we aim to use supplier climate data with ESG risk combined weightings to measure supplier climate maturity and help inform choices across our supply chain. Supported by:

• Engagement: Expand our supplier and business area engagement during 2025 to further develop cross-departmental support as well as supplier and service-specific data provision.
• Data: Continue to improve the accuracy of our emissions reporting through experimentation.
• Insights: Utilise further third-party data to gain additional insights on our supplier base.

For further details on supply chain decarbonisation activities undertaken in 2024, refer to page 50 of the 2024 Sustainability Report.
 

In support of our commitment to contribute to projects that aim to remove carbon beyond our operational value chain⁹, we are aiming to continue to invest in nature-based solutions. 2024 is the last year of retiring 120,000 carbon credits purchased from a sustainable grazing project. For details of how NatWest Group used carbon credits to neutralise emissions in the past, refer to pages 41 and 43 of the 2023 NatWest Group Climate-related Disclosures Report.

At the same time, we have also started to explore technology-based solutions which are gaining prominence on global carbon removal markets due to their permanence and reliability. As an experiment, we purchased 500 CO2 Removal Certificates (CORCs)¹⁰ the equivalent of 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide captured and sequestered. The process captures carbon from biogenic sources and sequesters it in manufactured limestone for 1,000 years, the estimated geological life.

_{(9) The SBTi recommends that companies invest to mitigate emissions beyond their value chain while they transition towards a state of net-zero emissions. In accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, our absolute emission reductions of 70% for Scope 1 and Scope 2, 50% for Scope 3 and 90% for all operational emissions by 2050 are not achieved through the use of carbon credits.
(10) CORCs purchased from the Carbon Removers, which are verified by the puro.earth methodology for carbonated materials.}

RENEW: In 2024, we collaborated with the University of Exeter’s RENEW programme, participating in an experimental pilot study to measure the UK biodiversity footprint of our direct own operations and supply chain. RENEW is a five-year collaboration aimed at developing solutions for the renewal of biodiversity. The aim of the pilot was to evaluate the impact of our direct own operations and supply chain on UK biodiversity, based on 2019, 2022 and 2023 consumption data used for our emissions reporting.

The measures presented are estimates based on NatWest Group’s operations and cannot be easily interpreted in terms of ecosystem damage for comparison between organisations, as each organisation will interpret results in terms of their own portfolio and sector. This is therefore an initial estimated output specific to NatWest Group’s UK own operations.

For key findings and further detail, refer to page 63 of the 2024 Sustainability Report.

Location-specific analysis: Using location-specific data and risk overlays, we deemed that <1% of our global sites were assessed as high for overall physical biodiversity risk¹¹ specifically sites located in India, Hong Kong and the United States of America. The assessment also revealed that <1% of our global sites were deemed high or very high for overall water risk. The analysis showed that operational sites in India, United Arab Emirates and Greece, dependent on water extraction, were deemed high for physical basin risk, water scarcity risk and overall physical water risk.

_{(11) Estimated using WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter. Biodiversity risk includes both physical and reputational risks. Physical risks: provisional services, regulating and supporting services (enabling and mitigating), cultural services and pressures on biodiversity. Reputational risks: environmental factors, socioeconomic factors and additional reputational factors.}