In our effort to promote a sustainable future, we have chosen to focus on 7 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which represent the agenda to achieve a sustainable world by 2030. Avanza can contribute long-term to all the SDGs, but the 7 we focus on are those with the strongest ties to our business and where we have the greatest opportunity to have an impact.
Goal 5: Gender equality – Gender equality is essential to sustainable and peaceful development. At Avanza, gender equality is embraced throughout the organisation, and we have concrete goals for parity between women and men both in the organisation as a whole and at the management level. In terms of savings capital, one of our sustainable development goals is to increase gender equality in savings.
Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy– Access to renewable and clean energy is a must in order to meet several of challenges the world currently faces, such as poverty, climate change and inclusive growth. As an organization, we strive to reduce our energy consumption and we buy classified sources of energy for our offices and server rooms. We offer our customers simple-to-use decision support to identify investment opportunities in companies and funds that can contribute to the green energy transition.
Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure – Resilient, stable infrastructure is fundamental to all successful societies. We are working to continuously develop and improve our decision support with the hope that it helps our customers to invest in sustainable industries, research, environmentally friendly technology and innovation. Furthermore, our Corporate Finance department assists small and medium-sized enterprises with various types of ownership changes, acquisitions, divestments and funding, which often are critical to their ability to continue to grow and develop.
Goal 10: Reduced inequalities – Leave No One Behind is the promise of the SDGs, and Goal 10 exemplifies this. Sharing knowledge and insight on personal finance is a key to reducing inequality in society. Our free courses give everyone the opportunity to improve their economic well-being and create a secure future. We try to make what seems complicated easy and express ourselves in a way that even those with limited prior knowledge can understand the information. In designing our service, we try to make it accessible to everyone regardless of limitations. We have an accessibility council that provides training internally and accessibility days when our developers and designers dedicate themselves to this issue. In terms of price, we have worked since the start to keep prices low and increase transparency in the financial market.
Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production – Global consumption is at levels far beyond what our planet can handle. The transition to sustainable consumption and production of goods is necessary to reduce our impact on the climate, environment and human health. For Avanza, it is a matter of reducing both the direct and indirect emissions that our operations give rise to. Avanza will reach net zero emissions of greenhouse gases as soon as possible, and to get there we have joined Business Ambition for 1.5°C. This means we are committed to setting science-based targets in line with what is needed to meet 1.5°C. The target, and the methods to get there, will be approved by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) not later than 2024.
Goal 13: Climate action – Climate change is a real and undeniable threat to civilisation. With the help of concrete net zero targets, we are working to reduce our own climate impact and the indirect emissions our operations give rise to. We measure and monitor our impact and have joined the Science Based Targets initiative and Business ambition for 1.5°C. We are also further developing and improving our decision support, so that customers in the best way can include climate aspects in their investment decisions. Reducing the sustainability risk in customers’ portfolios is one of Avanza’s sustainable development goals.
Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions – Peaceful societies and freedom from oppression are a key to sustainable development. As a bank, we have a major responsibility to promote peaceful and inclusive societies and we work actively to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing. We have routines to continuously investigate and report suspicious activity to the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Swedish Police. Internal training programmes are in place to ensure that employees have the knowledge they need in this area, and all employees receive basic training each year. The goal is to effectively and efficiently minimise the risk that the products and services Avanza provides are used in financial crime.
