Our First Sustainability Bond Report
Tuesday 12 July 2022
UniCredit is proud to present its foundational Sustainability Bond Report detailing how we’ve allocated funds from the Group’s first ever own Green Bond and our first Retail Social Bond issued in 2021, helping to finance and boost renewable energy, education, health and social services projects.
In June 2021, our Bank successfully issued its inaugural Senior Preferred Green Bond for EUR 1 billion. This was followed by the issuance of our first Retail Social Bond for EUR 155 million in September 2021. Both issuances marked significant milestones in our sustainability journey, allowing the Bank to provide further support to renewable energy and green buildings in Italy while also advancing welfare and social support services in the country.
Andrea Orcel, CEO of UniCredit, commented: “At UniCredit, we are committed not only to the green energy transition, but also to ensuring that this is a fair and just transition for all of society. Sustainability is central to how we do business: it underpins our corporate culture and ensures we are always acting in the best interests of all our stakeholders. We will continue to build on the success of our inaugural Green and Social Bonds and work to create a more sustainable and equitable future for both businesses and individuals. As a bank, it is our responsibility to fulfil our purpose of Empowering Communities to Progress, and also to deliver a positive social and environmental impact as we do so.”
Both issuances took place under the Group’s Sustainability Bond Framework, based on the principles and guidelines of the 2021 version of the Green and Social Bond Principles and the Sustainability Bond Guidelines of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), ensuring the transparent allocation and tracking of proceeds. The framework further allows all the Group’s main issuers (in particular, UniCredit S.p.A., UniCredit Bank AG and UniCredit Bank Austria) to issue green, social and sustainability bonds, as a recurring part of UniCredit’s funding activity.
In addition to UniCredit S.p.A., also UniCredit Bank AG issued its first Green Mortgage Covered Bond worth EUR 500 million in September 2021 and UniCredit Bank Austria successfully placed its first Green Covered Bond on the capital market in May 2022 with a total volume of EUR 500 million.
The full Green Bond proceeds have been dedicated to fund renewable energy, specifically photovoltaic (EUR 408m), wind (EUR 293m) and biomass (EUR 44m) energy sources, as well as green buildings, including the Top 15% of Mortgages (rated for energy performance) across all regions (EUR 228m) and Real Estate (EUR 27m) in Italy.
Meanwhile the Social Bond proceeds have been allocated to finance projects with a positive social impact. So far, the focus has been on welfare and social support services (75.1% of allocations). Other projects supported include education and training, health and medical assistance and additional social services. The indirect impacts generated through the bond proceeds include a total of 1.52 million beneficiaries (149% of 2021 target); the delivery of 2.62m training hours, 482 training courses, 193 professional internships, 108 social integration activities; and the provision of 1,322 beds in elderly homes, 1.21m medical services and 555 social houses (mainly in social tourism).
To discover more, please read the full report here.