Case study: How First West 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.

As a member-owned cooperative, First West regularly engages its members and community in various activities.

First West utilized a diverse approach to engage its members and teams on the Principles and the impacts of First West. This approach included:

1. Conducting a quantitative survey of both members and team members to gain a broad understanding of key issues and opinions from their perspectives.
2. Conducting in-depth interviews with employees and members to delve deeper into key issues and opinions.

The aim of this research was to gather primary feedback from key stakeholders to better understand:

• The material issues they perceive.
• Prioritization and focus areas for efforts related to the six pre-selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Awareness of any overlooked impact areas.
• Ideas to advance efforts related to priority SDGs.
• Identifying members interested in participating in future-related research.

First West engaged its communities by organizing discovery sessions with non-profit organizations addressing food insecurity. The goal of these sessions was to enhance First West’s understanding of the work being done and the impacts of food insecurity in First West’s trade areas. These sessions were conducted in collaboration with Vancouver-based social impact entrepreneur Mark Brand.

This approach has already provided valuable insights into opportunities for growth and raising awareness of First West’s impact.

Members (Retail and Commercial/Business)

• Online survey involving 361 members

18 in-depth individual interviews and focus groups, selecting participants based on the following:

– Members who opted in based on emails sent out.

– Members in personas that showed alignment with ESG values.

Employees

• Workshop attended by over 250 First West leaders at the 2022 Leaders’ Summit.
• Meetings with representatives of the seven employee network representatives.
• Ongoing polling and discussions with 92 employees through First West’s internal community platform.
• Discussions with multiple teams to inform and gather feedback on the selected SDGs.

Community Groups

Food for Good Discovery Sessions

First West brought together food security champions (both charitable and sectoral), knowledge leaders, and business leaders to address the challenges, changes, and impacts of food security in the Kelowna and Victoria regions.

The insights gathered will be organized thematically and utilized to guide First West’s investment decisions in innovative programs, long-term sustainability initiatives, partnerships, and new opportunities to make an impact in root cause systems and solutions.

• A total of three discovery sessions were conducted, with one held in Kelowna and two in Victoria, gathering a total of 120 attendees.

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

In its 2023 PRB Report and Self-Assessment First West reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:

First West works with its members, partners, and role holders and gathers their input through surveys, meetings, interviews, and focus groups.

As First West further analyses its operations and identifies priority areas, it will develop and formalize these practices to comply with the PRB’s requirements. This involves consistently and actively involving its members, teams, and partners, and deepening its understanding of areas of impact.

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.

FBRH Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) Assurance:

First class PRB assurance services: The result of solid, hands-on ESG/ Sustainability experience

• • • FBRH is a GRI Certified Training Partner (Global), IEMA Training Centre and a member of CPD.
    • FBRH builds trust. Over 200 reviews from top professionals from around the world demonstrate our ability to build strong, trusting business relationships.
    • FBRH possesses a unique skill set that combines ESG/sustainability certified training, experience in advisory services and report preparation, and ESG/sustainability report assurance.

The combination of all the above empowers FBRH to provide first class Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) assurance services.

References:

This case study is based on published information by First West, 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://assets.firstwestcu.ca/2024/04/08104945/UNPRB-Self-Assessment-2023.pdf

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