Case study: How Societe Generale works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices

Stakeholder identification and consultation

Please describe which stakeholders (or groups/ types of stakeholders) you have identified, consulted, engaged, collaborated or partnered with for the purpose of implementing the Principles and improving your bank’s impacts. This should include a high-level overview of how your bank has identified relevant stakeholders, what issues were addressed/results achieved and how they fed into the action planning process.

Societe Generale actively collaborates with its key stakeholders, including civil society (regulators, supervisors, NGOs, media), customers, investment communities (shareholders, investors, rating agencies), employees, and other partners such as suppliers.

The Group aims to continuously enhance its engagement processes, aligning them with stakeholder expectations. It promotes the exchange of best practices across business units and monitors industry standards that address its own concerns, fostering ongoing improvements in its stakeholder dialogue.

How did Societe Generale work with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities?

In its 2025 PRB Progress Statement Societe Generale reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:

Societe Generale’s client engagement approach to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy is outlined in its climate strategy, which is formalized through a transition plan. This plan includes decarbonization targets, key levers for achievement, and the policies and actions implemented to support its execution. For more details on how Societe Generale engages with clients and customers on climate issues, please refer to its URD and Climate Alignment report.

Societe Generale’s management of potential climate change impacts is based on the Group’s comprehensive framework for identifying, assessing, preventing, and mitigating significant environmental and social (E&S) risks. This framework is integrated into the Group’s operational processes and includes the General E&S Principles and ten sector-specific policies focused on clients and transactions—six of which directly address climate change mitigation. In 2024, the Group advanced the practical application of this impact management framework by developing tools to assist business lines in their monitoring efforts.

Additionally, the Group has established a Duty of Care plan aimed at preventing serious violations of human rights, fundamental freedoms, health, safety, security, and environmental standards that are linked to the products and services it provides.

Societe Generale has developed its own taxonomy to classify economic activities as environmentally and/or socially sustainable. This taxonomy, which draws on the European taxonomy, sets criteria for the banking and financial products Societe Generale offers—such as credit, debt and capital markets, guarantees, and advisory services—to ensure their sustainability is validated.

Having successfully contributed EUR 300 billion to sustainable finance by 2024, the Group has set a new goal of EUR 500 billion between 2024 and 2030. This target comprises approximately EUR 400 billion in financing—including advisory services—and around EUR 100 billion in sustainable bonds, with roughly 80% directed toward environmental activities and 20% toward social initiatives. This commitment supports Societe Generale’s efforts to align the credit portfolio within the same timeframe. A significant portion of this financing will target low-carbon energy projects, sustainable real estate, low-carbon mobility, and industry-related environmental transition initiatives. In 2024, Societe Generale also announced the launch of a EUR 1 billion fund dedicated to supporting emerging leaders in the energy transition, as well as nature-based and impact solutions, including up to EUR 700 million in equity investments.

UN Principles for Responsible Banking: Accelerating a positive global transition for people and the planet

With over 300 signatory banks representing almost half of the global banking industry, the Principles for Responsible Banking are the world’s foremost sustainable banking framework. Through these Principles, the banking community takes action to align core strategies, decision-making, lending and investment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement.

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References:

This case study is based on published information by Societe Generale, 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:

https://www.societegenerale.com/sites/default/files/documents/2025-04/prb-responsible-banking-progress-statement-2025.pdf

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