RBC publishes 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Report and Climate Report

TORONTO, March 6, 2023 /CNW/ – Today, RBC shared updates on its purpose-driven approach to helping clients thrive and communities prosper through the release of three key reports. These reports reflect the importance that RBC places on identifying, understanding and responding to the ESG topics that matter most to our stakeholders and our business. They also reflect our belief that financial institutions can play a pivotal role in solving the challenges of today, and that our ability to manage ESG matters will be core to our long-term success.

Our 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Report offers insights into RBC’s approach to ESG and our 2022 performance across our key ESG strategic priorities and focus areas.
Our 2022 Climate Report summarizes RBC’s progress in advancing how we manage climate-related risks and opportunities in line with our enterprise climate strategy, the RBC Climate Blueprint and in implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.
Our 2022 Public Accountability Statement (PAS) outlines our contribution to the economy and society in Canada – key measures supporting RBC’s Purpose to help clients thrive and communities prosper.

“To tackle some of the greatest challenges our society faces, businesses, governments and individuals must work together with greater focus and more ambition. At RBC, we’re proud to play our part as we demonstrate and measure our progress to hold ourselves accountable. These reports and disclosures reflect our ambition to help build a more inclusive and sustainable future for our clients and communities,” said Dave McKay, President and Chief Executive Officer, Royal Bank of Canada.

Highlights from across the 2022 reports include:

Making progress on our sustainable finance commitment

We provided $84.8 billion in sustainable finance in 2022, for a cumulative total of $282 billion since 2019, as part of our commitment to provide $500 billion in sustainable finance by 2025 to support our clients’ ESG objectives. We also released our Sustainable Finance Framework, which defines our approach and methodology for classifying, tracking and disclosing our performance towards this commitment.

Supporting the transition to net-zero emissions

In 2022, we disclosed initial 2030 interim emissions reduction targets for lending in three key sectors: oil and gas, power generation and automotive – a key milestone in our commitment to achieving net-zero in our lending portfolio by 2050.
We signed our second long-term renewable energy Power Purchase Agreement, advancing our goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our global operations by 70 per cent (relative to our 2018 baseline) and to source 100 per cent of our electricity from renewable and non-emitting sources, both by 2025.
We published timely thought leadership to advance decarbonization in key sectors, such as The Next Green Revolution series on emissions from Canada’s agrifood systems and strategies to reduce them.
Through RBC Tech for Nature™, we provided over $12 million to more than 100 universities and charities that are working on solutions to pressing environmental challenges like climate change by leveraging technology and innovation.

Building vibrant and thriving communities

We are proud to invest in the communities where we work and live. In 2022, RBC and the RBC Foundation® provided cash donations and community investments totaling more than $154 million globally, including specific support for disaster and humanitarian relief.
We continued to invest in a beyond-banking venture called Arrive®, where the objective is to help newcomers achieve their life, career and financial goals in Canada. In 2022, on average, more than 150,000 newcomers a month accessed the Arrive® platform, demonstrating the significant need for relevant information and support during these uncertain times.
In 2022, we set a community investment target of 1 per cent of net income before taxes in support of charitable and non-profit initiatives – based on a five-year rolling average – in RBC core markets (Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Europe) by 2025.
In 2022, we invested a total of $65.5 million in youth-related organizations and increased the number of youth we have had an impact on by 1.7 million. Since 2017, we have invested over $331 million and partnered with more than 840 organizations to deliver programming to a cumulative total of 5.3 million youth.
Our annual Employee Giving Campaign went global for the first time with 81 per cent of employees taking part. Together, employees and retirees personally donated $21.8 million to more than 9,500 global charities.

Strengthening our culture of inclusion and belonging

In 2022, 51 per cent and 43 per cent of new hires were women and BIPOC, respectively.
We ranked in the global 2022 Refinitiv Top 100 Diversity & Inclusion Index for the 4^th consecutive year.
We also launched our STEPS Leadership Development Program: A five- to six-month leadership program for nominated, priority talent women who are new leaders. The program is designed to deepen leadership capabilities, accelerate development and prepare for a path to senior leadership. In its inaugural year, 40 participants completed the program and 25 per cent of participants were promoted.

Delivering a strong foundation of trust

For the 2023 performance year, we plan to include a climate modifier to be considered by the board when granting equity to the CEO and Group Executives. The climate modifier outlined in the 2022 Climate Report gives the board flexibility to make modifications to executives’ Mid-Term Incentive and Long-Term Incentive awards, taking into consideration their actions supporting our climate strategy.
We updated our primary Enterprise Policy on Environmental & Social Risk to reflect our enhanced climate commitments and objectives.
We enhanced our client and supplier risk assessment and due diligence processes to more fully identify and address potential human rights risks. We also reviewed our supplier contracts to confirm that respect for human rights forms part of the contractual obligations.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of certain securities laws, including the “safe harbour” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any applicable Canadian securities legislation with respect to Royal Bank of Canada’s (we, us or our) 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Report, 2022 Climate Report and Public Accountability Statement.

Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements relating to our economic, environmental (including climate), social and governance-related objectives, vision, commitments, goals, metrics and targets, including our initial 2030 interim emissions reduction targets (interim targets) as well as our impacts, our commitment to providing $500 billion in sustainable finance by 2025 to support our clients’ ESG objectives and our approach and methodology for classifying, tracking and disclosing performance towards this commitment; our goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our global operations by 70 per cent (relative to our 2018 baseline) and to source 100 per cent of our electricity from renewable and non-emitting sources, both by 2025; our community investment target of 1 per cent of net income before taxes in support of charitable and non-profit initiatives (based on a five-year rolling average) in RBC core markets (Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Europe) by 2025; and our plan to include a climate modifier to be considered by the board when granting equity to the CEO and Group Executives, as outlined in the 2022 Climate Report. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is presented for the purpose of assisting our stakeholders, including holders of our securities and financial analysts, in understanding our vision, commitments, goals, metrics and targets, as well as our economic, environmental (including climate), social and governance-related impacts and objectives, including the ways we intend to address climate-related governance, strategy, risks, opportunities, metrics and targets, and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as “believe”, “expect”, “expectation”, “aim”, “achieve”, “foresee”, “forecast”, “anticipate”, “predict”, “intend”, “estimate”, “commit”, “goal”, “plan”, “strive”, “objective”, “target” and “project” and similar expressions of future or conditional verbs such as “will”, “may”, “might”, “should”, “could” or “would”.

By their very nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that our predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that our assumptions may not be correct, and that our objectives, vision, commitments, goals, targets and strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate-related risks and opportunities, and economic, environmental, social and governance-related impacts and objectives will not be achieved. Moreover, many of the assumptions, standards, metrics and measurements used in preparing this press release continue to evolve and are based on assumptions believed to be reasonable at the time of preparation, but should not be considered guarantees.

We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of risk factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements.

These factors – many of which are beyond our control and the effects of which can be difficult to predict – include but are not limited to: the need for more and better climate data and standardization of climate-related measurement methodologies, climate-related conditions and weather events, the need for active and continuing participation and action of various stakeholders (including governmental and non-governmental organizations, other financial institutions, businesses and individuals), technological advancements, the evolution of consumer behaviour, varying decarbonization efforts across economies, the need for thoughtful climate policies around the world, the challenges of balancing emission reduction targets with an orderly and inclusive transition and geopolitical factors that impact global energy needs, our ability to gather and verify data, our ability to successfully implement various initiatives throughout the company under expected time frames, the risk that initiatives will not be completed within a specified period or at all or with the results or outcomes as originally expected or anticipated by RBC, the compliance of various third parties with our policies and procedures, and their commitment to us, financial market conditions, our business operations, our financial results, condition and objectives, the legal and regulatory environment, and regulatory compliance (which could lead us to being subject to various legal and regulatory proceedings, the potential outcome of which could include regulatory restrictions, penalties and fines), strategic, reputation, competitive, legal and regulatory environment and systemic risks and other risks. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations in such forward-looking statements can be found in the risk sections of our Annual Report for the year ended October 31, 2022 and the Risk management section of our Quarterly Report for the three month period ended January 31, 2023.

We caution that the foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive and other factors could also adversely affect our results. When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to us, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. Except as required by law, none of RBC nor its affiliates undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.

About RBC

Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 97,000+ employees who leverage their imaginations and insights to bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada’s biggest bank and one of the largest in the world, based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our 17 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 27 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com.

We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at rbc.com/community-social-impact.

SOURCE RBC