Our indirect environmental impact
Our largest environmental impact is indirect, through financing, insuring and investing in other parties. These activities may have a positive or negative environmental impact. Although initially our focus was on climate change, we are now continuously expanding our scope to include other environmental objectives.
Scope 3 calculations
We calculate the impact of the majority of our products and services on the environment:
- Lending portfolio: KBC has calculated financed emissions (i.e. KBC’s Scope 3) for at least a portion of its lending portfolios since 2019. We have been producing estimates of emissions that are financed by our entire lending portfolio since 2021.
- Investment portfolio: We have assessed the carbon intensity of our investment portfolios since 2020.
- Insurance underwriting: In 2023, we calculated the emissions of part of our insurance portfolio for the first time.
Targets
We formulated decarbonisation targets for a portion of our indirect environmental impact. Specifically, we set targets for:
- Sectors that make up the majority of our lending portfolio
- KBC Asset Management's Responsible Investing funds
- KBC Insurance’s own investments
The scope of targets includes the combined equity and corporate bond portfolio of KBC Insurance.
More information on our indirect environmental impact and our progress towards our targets can be found in our Sustainability Report.