This week is London Climate Action Week, which sees people gather from all over the world and across industries to focus on the urgent need for climate solutions. At ClearBank, we’re on our own path to net zero. We believe that responsible business isn’t just an ethical imperative; it’s the wise choice for long-term value creation. 

A more sustainable business model helps us weather economic shocks, attract the best talent, and create shareholder value. I believe sustainability is increasingly a competitive advantage in financial services, as consumers begin to understand how their financial choices create both social and environmental impacts at home and abroad.

I’m mindful that we don’t have all the answers at ClearBank. But we’re committed to learning, improving and being transparent every step of the way.

You’ve probably heard the term “net zero” thrown around often. But what does it mean?

In simple terms, net zero means balancing the amount of greenhouse gases we release into the atmosphere with the amount our planet can remove. To get there, we must reduce emissions while protecting our natural removal systems – like our forests, oceans, and wetlands – so that they can absorb the unavoidable emissions that remain.

The path to net zero is similar for most businesses: reducing emissions as much as possible and investing in removal systems for those unavoidable emissions they can’t operate without. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is the established standard framework for tracing businesses’ progress to net zero. The key principle for SBTi is that businesses can’t buy their way to net zero by purchasing cheap carbon offsets. A true net zero business must first act to reduce its emissions (by 90% for most industries) and then invest in durable carbon removals to offset what remains. 

The challenge in financial services is unique. We don’t manufacture goods or operate factories, but we do power the holding, movement and growth of money. That gives us a huge opportunity and responsibility to influence change, and as a result, our regulators place a unique expectation upon us to enable the transition to net zero.

We’ve set an ambitious goal: reach net zero by 2040, ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement. To achieve this, we need to act fast. We’re aiming for a 75% reduction in carbon intensity (emissions per payment) by 2030, compared to our 2022 baseline.

To make that vision a reality, five core principles guide our approach to net zero: robust planning, meaningful action, clear accountability, fostering collaboration and maintaining transparency.

1: Clear targets, credible plan 

We’ve built our targets using the SBTi framework and developed a detailed transition plan aligned with the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce. In addition to focusing on reducing our own footprint, our net zero plan aims to build resilience in the wider economy and address long-term climate risks and opportunities.

Three areas we’re especially excited about are:

• Partnerships: Launching our Sustainable Partnerships initiative to support clients and suppliers with expert guidance and tools.
• Products: Developing sustainable products in collaboration with our clients.
• Tech innovation: Exploring low-carbon tech and AI solutions with partners like Microsoft.

2: Meaningful action and measurable results 

So far, we’ve delivered a 51% reduction in carbon intensity compared to our 2022 baseline, putting us on track for our 2040 and 2030 goals. This means that we’ve saved over 2,600 tonnes of emissions since 2022, equivalent to powering 100 homes for a year.

Our progress is driven by a focus on key decarbonisation levers:

• Microsoft collaboration: We have built a strong relationship with our key technology partner. Through our investment in low-carbon technology, including Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), we avoided 189 tonnes of emissions in 2024.
• Operational efficiency: As the bank has grown and payment volumes scaled, we’ve managed to do so without major increases in both hiring and supplier spend.
• Proactive supplier engagement: We’re working with suppliers to align on net zero ambition, collaboration on low carbon innovation and agree net zero contractual commitments.
• Education: We’ve trained our Technology and Product teams in green software development, helping embed sustainability into our technology.
• Clean energy: We’ve invested in renewable energy for our London office, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 46 tonnes. Nearly 90% of that energy was produced in the same hour as we used it (known as ‘hourly matching’), a significant improvement on the UK ‘annual matching’ standard.

3: Accountability and reporting 

Long-term goals require consistent accountability. To achieve that, we’re embedding sustainability into decision-making across the business:

• Sustainable culture: We integrate environmental data into key decision points, like executive committees and product development, ensuring sustainability is considered alongside cost, revenue and risk.
• Product-level accountability: We’ve integrated net zero data into product health reporting alongside cost and performance metrics, which has been a major driver of carbon efficiency.
• Quarterly carbon data: In partnership with Normative, we deliver carbon performance metrics to each function every quarter, supporting year-round decision-making.

4: Collaboration is a superpower 

Net zero is a systemic challenge that no bank can solve alone. While financial institutions are an essential part of the puzzle, systemic challenges require broad collaborative responses, which many organisations want to participate in.

That’s why we’ve focused on building partnerships that can amplify our impact, including:

• Bankers for Net Zero and Project Perseus: we’re contributing expertise to help SMEs automate emissions reporting and access transition finance, a critical initiative as SMEs account for 50% of UK emissions.
• Big Clean Switch and Granular Energy: Helping us pioneer hourly renewable energy matching for financial institutions and corporates in the UK.
• Sustainability partnerships: This year, we’re launching our ‘Sustainability Partnerships’ initiative to drive decarbonisation across our value chain.

5: Transparency and acknowledging uncertainty 

We’re proud of our progress to date, but we’re also clear-eyed about the challenges that remain. We are uncertain about how ‘known unknowns’ will affect our emissions in the years ahead: 

• Data accuracy: Over 75% of our emissions come from our supply chain. While suppliers calculate 48% of those, the rest we estimate based on spending and industry averages. And our suppliers are estimating, too. As data improves, we may find substantial additional emissions.
• Future gains: We’ve made substantial early progress, but future reductions will be more complicated and expensive as the ‘quick wins’ are already behind us. In future, we will see greater conflict between the cost of achieving net zero and other business priorities.
• AI adoption: Like many firms, we already use AI across the business and are constantly exploring new use cases. But the emissions impact of AI is difficult to predict, considering the tech is evolving rapidly.
• Measurement choices: We use payment volume as our carbon intensity measure, which best reflects our growth, while most companies use turnover or FTE. Our aim is to innovate carbon measurement, creating absolute focus on the carbon cost to serve our core business. However, this assumes payment volume continues to be the best indicator of our growth, so to mitigate this and support peer benchmarking, we also report emissions per FTE.

We’re embedding sustainability across our business – from product design to procurement to performance reviews. In particular, we aim to increase our impact through:

• Sustainable products: We are developing business cases for two priority use cases in 2025 that align with our sustainability goals and client needs.
• Client emissions data: By 2026, we will provide clients with unit-level emissions data for our services, helping them make more informed, climate-conscious decisions.
• Net Zero Accelerator: Launching in 2026, this initiative will support UK sustainability start-ups on their growth trajectory.

Achieving net zero is not just a technical challenge, it is a transformative opportunity that reshapes how we operate, innovate, and create value. It positions us at the forefront of a changing world where sustainability drives economic resilience, earns trust from consumers, and delivers long-term value for investors.

The path ahead is complex and uncertain, but we know that even small steps can lead to meaningful progress. We are committed to learning, adapting, and moving forward together.