Case study: How Coop Pank promotes a culture of responsible banking among its employees

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.

Coop Pank recognizes its significant impact on society as a financial institution. Therefore, it regularly consults and collaborates with various stakeholders to gain a comprehensive understanding of societal challenges and opportunities. This approach helps Coop Pank contribute more effectively and enhance its positive influence.

Coop Pank actively participates in numerous local initiatives and is involved in several collaboration networks that promote and develop responsible business principles at both Baltic and international levels.

As a member of the Estonian Banking Association, Coop Pank actively engages in all its working groups. Through this membership, the bank contributes to initiatives such as promoting financial literacy among youth and adults, advancing sustainable finance, and more, all aligned with the principle of supporting life in every corner of Estonia. For instance, in April 2025, Coop Pank organized a financial literacy seminar in Rakvere, a small town, and during Financial Literacy Month in March and April, it delivered financial education lessons nationwide.

Participation in the Banking Association’s working groups enables Coop Pank to consult and collaborate with various stakeholders, including government institutions, ministries, the Bank of Estonia, and other influential organizations in developing the fields of financial literacy and of sustainable finance. This platform facilitates cross-sector cooperation, allowing key issues to be addressed more rapidly and with a greater societal impact than working independently.

Furthermore, Coop Pank is involved in cooperation among Pan-Baltic banking associations and individual banks. The bank participates in monthly meetings within the Banking Association and every six weeks at the Pan-Baltic level. Together, they have developed a unified ESG questionnaire and a GHG calculator for the Baltic region.

Coop Pank has also been an active member of the Responsible Business Forum—renamed Sustainable Business Estonia (KELL) in 2025—working with various stakeholders to more effectively pursue shared societal goals.

Since 2024, Coop Pank has collaborated with the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Estonia and the Foundation for the Development of National Defense in establishing the Reservists’ Fund. Both the bank and its customers contribute donations to support Estonia’s national defense. Through the “Kaardivägi” (Card Guard) program, customers donate €0.01 for each card payment, which Coop Pank matches with an additional €0.01. All donations are transferred to the Foundation for the Development of National Defense. In recognition of its support, Coop Pank received the highest honour from the Ministry of Defense—the Gold Badge. 

Since 2023, Coop Pank has been working with the pension association Tuleva to provide its clients with the opportunity to participate in Tuleva’s second and third pillar pension funds. This partnership aims to enhance the financial well-being of people in Estonia.

Coop Pank also collaborates with the Estonian Athletic Association and the Estonian Volleyball Federation to support the development of volleyball and decathlon sports in Estonia.

These partnerships reflect shared values with the bank’s collaborators and demonstrate Coop Pank’s commitment to improving life across every corner of Estonia.

Regarding employees as a stakeholder group, an example of a collaborative network focused on employees and broader social aspects is PARE—a supportive community for HR managers and professionals—in which Coop Pank is an active member.

Gradually, Coop Pank has increased employee involvement by raising awareness and organizing various seminars and training sessions. Starting from 2024, the employee satisfaction survey includes a dedicated section on sustainability. In the coming years, this will enable Coop Pank to more clearly and systematically monitor employees’ attitudes, awareness, and opinions regarding the bank’s sustainability initiatives.

Since 2024, Coop Pank has been collaborating with TalTech to diversify academic learning, support students, train bank employees, and conduct research. A practical example of this collaboration is that Coop Pank provides students with ideas for bachelor’s and master’s theses and offers input when students wish to base their theses on the bank’s case. The partnership also involves co-organizing events such as the School of Business and Governance internship fair and the IT internship café. Additionally, Coop Pank awards scholarships of €3,000 each, with the 2024 recipients being students interested in artificial intelligence and ESG topics.

Coop Pank actively participates in knowledge sharing, particularly in the fields of ESG and AI, through the University’s entrepreneurship and research portal Trialoog, which is primarily aimed at entrepreneurs and decision-makers. The bank collaborates on bachelor’s and master’s theses and offers internship opportunities. Overall, this cooperation encourages student interest in areas that Coop Pank considers vital for increasing the competitiveness of Estonian banking and the broader economy.

During the 2024-2025 academic year, one master’s thesis and one bachelor’s thesis were completed in partnership with Coop Pank and TalTech, both focusing on sustainability. Each thesis utilized data from Coop Pank, and their findings provided valuable feedback to the bank. The results were presented to the entire organization during a seminar, which also included an external expert to offer broader perspectives on the topics.

Moreover, Coop Pank invests in educating the public on various matters, including ESG, through organizing webinars, participating in seminars and conferences organized by others, accepting speaking engagements, and publishing articles. The bank’s spokespeople regularly share knowledge through different channels to promote awareness and understanding.

How does Coop Pank promote a culture of responsible banking among its employees?

In its 2025 PRB Responsible Banking Progress Statement Coop Pank reports that it took the following actions to promote a culture of responsible banking among its employees:

Since the beginning of 2020, Coop Pank has adopted a more strategic approach to fostering a culture of responsible banking among its employees. The first sustainability and ESG-related training sessions were conducted in 2021, serving the entire bank and tailored to specific employee groups.

From 2021 onwards, Coop Pank has implemented a Green Office policy that defines principles and guidelines related to environmental and sustainability considerations both within the bank’s offices and more broadly. The policy affirms that sustainability is integrated into all aspects of the bank’s activities, with efforts to minimize environmental impact. Guided by this understanding, sustainability principles are embedded in daily operations, both internally and in collaboration with partners and customers.

Coop Pank contributes to raising employees’ environmental awareness by introducing them and new hires to the objectives of the Green Office policy, its management system, and the environmental initiatives undertaken at the office and beyond.

In addition to policy-based engagement, Coop Pank has organized various awareness-raising activities, including environmental challenges, themed training days, and morning coffee sessions focused on sustainability. These initiatives aim to build capacity, foster a sustainability-minded culture, and incorporate sustainable practices into the bank’s everyday operations.

Here are a few examples:

All Coop Pank employees have the opportunity to submit proposals through digital solutions aimed at making the office and operations more environmentally friendly and sustainable. The Green Office working group reviews these proposals and, if needed, involves other employees or external partners to implement the suggested solutions. Additionally, there is a separate questionnaire for waste sorting and other sustainability-related questions and suggestions from employees.

Furthermore, each spring, Coop Pank provides a comprehensive overview of its carbon footprint and financed emissions to the entire bank. This initiative helps to foster a culture of responsible banking by ensuring that climate impact remains an important and prioritized topic.

In 2024, Coop Pank conducted ESG training for business client managers. The training offered insights into the overall ESG landscape, with a particular focus on evolving trends and how to prepare for them within client-facing roles. The bank will continue to raise awareness and provide training to its employees.

As part of its internal sustainability engagement and awareness-raising efforts, Coop Pank hosted a morning seminar in June 2025 focused on sustainable commuting. The event featured a TalTech student presenting a master’s thesis based on a case study of Coop Pank, followed by a discussion led by an expert on urban mobility and the role of city planning in promoting sustainable choices.

Since 2024, Coop Pank’s employee satisfaction survey includes a dedicated section on sustainability. In the coming years, this will enable Coop Pank to monitor employees’ attitudes, awareness, and opinions regarding the bank’s sustainability initiatives more clearly and systematically.

A key aspect of responsible business at Coop Pank is also holding its partners accountable.

Coop Pank collaborates with partners who share its values. When selecting partners, the bank reviews the backgrounds of their beneficial owners and the nature of their activities. The aim is to work with companies whose beneficial owners have clean records, are not sanctioned individuals, and whose companies are not subject to international sanctions or linked to negative impacts on communities.

Additionally, Coop Pank’s procurement procedures include the principle that services are not purchased from companies engaged in unethical activities, human rights violations, corruption, or those that have a significant negative impact on the environment.

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 Coop Pank, 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://res30f.cooppank.ee/image/upload/dokumendid/coop_pank_lehed/keskkonna_heaks/en/Coop_Pank_PRB_report_2025.pdf

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