Earlier today, I had the tremendous opportunity to talk to business professionals from Allied Irish Bank and Goodbody Clearstream, where they talked about how Allied Irish Bank practices sustainability as well how companies try to achieve it in the EU.

One thing I learned about was how Allied Irish Bank has a series of guardrails to ensure that they are meeting their sustainability goals, including agreeing to a plan, working with customers through that plan, and creating enhanced asset management. Through these guardrails they ensure people that their words are not empty. Another thing I learned was how sustainability laws in Ireland operate on three different levels, national (ROI Climate Action Plan, EU (European Green Deal), and Global (Paris Climate Agreement). These three levels ensure that companies are being held accountable by three different governing bodies. A third thing I learned was that small businesses have a harder time transitioning to a sustainability based mindset, due to smaller profit margins and steep overheads, a problem that Allied Irish Bank says they try to help with through Sustainability loans.

One thing I found particularly interesting was how transparent the professionals we talked to were, especially Paul. He leveled with us that the company isn’t perfect and that banks have a bad reputation due to the financial crisis and the huge bailouts. I really appreciated the transparency from Paul, Kathy, and John. Another thing I found interesting was how Goodbody Clearstream’s main goal is to make sustainability as easy as possible for companies, so that they can achieve their goals while also undertaking good sustainability practices. One thing I’d like to learn more about is the different kinds of Carbon Accounting, Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3. They were addressed in the presentation but I’d to look more into it and how companies address it on my own.