Case study: How Scotiabank creates economic value for its stakeholders
Scotiabank is a Canadian-headquartered bank with a focus on high-quality growth markets in the Americas, a top-five universal bank in each of its core markets, and a top-15 wholesale bank in the U.S., delivering superior advice and services to help its customers get ahead. Scotiabank uses its business to create value for all of its stakeholders Tweet This!, including communities, employees, customers, and many more.
This case study is based on the 2020 ESG Report by Scotiabank, prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards, that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
Realising that its long-term success is fundamentally intertwined with the futures of those around it, Scotiabank is committed to generating sustainable economic value for all its stakeholders. In order to create economic value for its stakeholders Scotiabank took action to:
- create economic value for employees, suppliers and customers
- create economic value for communities, shareholders and the environment
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Scotiabank has identified;
- How Scotiabank proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Scotiabank to create economic value for its stakeholders
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2020 ESG Report Scotiabank identified a range of material issues, such as customer satisfaction, climate change risks, employee health and well-being, responsible procurement, financial inclusion and access. Among these, creating economic value for its stakeholders stands out as a key material issue for Scotiabank.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups Scotiabank engages with:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement (in 2020) |
| Customers
| · Proactive outreach to vulnerable customers during COVID-19 pandemic · Customer feedback through The Pulse survey and follow-up calls · In-person interactions through the Branch network · Digital banking products and services · Contact Centres · Social media |
| Employees
| · Online through internal social networking platform, email and intranet · Conducted three listening sessions between more than 200 employees and executive management focused on diversity and inclusion, in which employees could share their experiences anonymously (79% of participants self-identified as BIPOC) · In-person and virtual town halls and team meetings · Virtual events celebrating Global Inclusion Days, for example Black History Month, LGBT+ Pride, National Indigenous Peoples Day and Orange Shirt Day, Mental Health Day and International Day of Persons with Disabilities · Regular engagement through employee survey – ScotiaPulse, including COVID-19-focused surveys |
| Shareholders, investors, rating agencies and research analysts
| · Management participation in virtual investor conferences · Shareholder proposals and inquiries · Annual general meeting and quarterly earnings update calls · Social media |
| Government
| · Dialogue with policy makers and government officials · Public submissions to government consultations · Member of joint public-private sector Sustainable Finance working group of the Institute of International Finance · Canadian Standards Association Technical Committee for the development of a Green and Transition Finance taxonomy for Canada |
| Suppliers
| · Procurement procedures · Sustainability assessment of prospective suppliers · Third Party Risk Management programme |
| NGOs, community development and advocacy organisations and academia
| · Community partnerships · Virtual events and webinars · Employee volunteerism · Investment in academic partnerships · Work with Business for Social Responsibility on human rights |
| Global and national sustainability organisations
| · Signatory of the UN Global Compact · Signatory of the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles · Signatory of the UN LGBTI Standards of Conduct for Business · Signatory to BlackNorth Initiative CEO Pledge |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics Scotiabank engaged with its stakeholders through interviews with experts from 80 stakeholder organisations, including NGOs, investors, peers and advocacy organisations.
What actions were taken by Scotiabank to create economic value for its stakeholders?
In its 2020 ESG Report Scotiabank reports that it took the following actions for creating economic value for its stakeholders:
- Creating economic value for employees, suppliers and customers
- In 2020, Scotiabank paid $8.6 billion in salaries and employee benefits for its 90,000+ employees and invested $63.4 million in training and development, spent $5.9 billion in procured goods and services from third party suppliers (Scotiabank has approximately 20,000 suppliers globally) and, as regards customers, $120 billion of relief was provided during the global pandemic and $603 billion in loans.
- Creating economic value for communities, shareholders and the environment
- In 2020, Scotiabank invested nearly $85 million in communities through donations, community sponsorships, employee volunteering and other types of community investment, paid $4.6 billion in dividends and, as regards the environment, over $28 billion have been mobilised to reduce the impacts of climate change since November 1, 2018, with more than $22 million invested in energy reduction initiatives.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed
Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Targets: 8.1, 8.2
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Targets: 9.1, 9.4, 9.5
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References:
This case study is based on published information by Scotiabank, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:
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