RBS 2013 Annual Report Download - page 33

“ The success of a bank
depends on two things.
A strong financial position;
and a reputation for great
customer service based
on a deep connectivity
with the society the bank
supports, and is in turn
supported by.”
Ross McEwan
Chief Executive
31
Sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability at RBS means building our
future on long term thinking that focuses
on our customers and supporting the
communities in which they live. We are
committed to being open and transparent
regarding the challenges faced by our
business, so our stakeholders can see what
we are doing to become a more sustainable
bank. You can read more about the issues
raised here, as well as about our wider
sustainability agenda, at rbs.com/sustainable.
Governance
The sustainability programme at RBS is
built on a robust governance framework
that provides direction on our sustainability
objectives. The Group Sustainability
Committee (the “Committee”) is a Committee
of the Board and comprises three independent
non-executive directors. The Committee is
chaired by our Senior Independent Director,
Sandy Crombie, and attended by senior
representatives from the customer facing
divisions as well as Human Resources,
Sustainability, Risk Management,
Communications, Legal, Strategy and
Corporate Services. The Chairman of the board
also regularly attends the meetings. The work
of the Committee is essential to ensuring that
our approach to issues is managed effectively
and debated at the appropriate level.
The Committee has overseen a number of
important developments within the company
since it was established in 2009. For more
information on the work of the Committee in
2013, see the report of the Chair of the
Committee on page 64.
Stakeholder engagement
Operating in a sustainable manner is about
managing our business in a way that takes
account of the impact of our activities on our
stakeholders. As such, we work with a number
of stakeholder groups to understand their
views of our organisation, to help shape the
way we do business. As a large company we
have many stakeholders and we engage with
them in a variety of ways, from focus groups to
meetings to online forums. These interactions
inform decision making and ultimately
improve our company. More detail about our
stakeholder engagement is available at
rbs.com/sustainable.
As part of our wider stakeholder engagement
programme, the Committee runs its own
programme of structured stakeholder
engagement sessions. In 2013, the Committee
took part in seven of these stakeholder sessions,
open forums where advocacy groups can
discuss key areas of concern with the most
senior decision-makers in RBS.
We will continue to host these sessions to
ensure that we understand our stakeholders’
priorities. For more detailed information on
these sessions see our sustainability pages on
rbs.com.
External commitments
RBS is a signatory to a number of voluntary
sustainability commitments and standards.
We understand that implementing
commitments is an ongoing process, and
we are continuously working to integrate
these into how we run our business. We are a
member of the Equator Principle (EP)