Zhitong Finance App News. Recently, Dazhong Financial Holdings (00626) released the “2023 Environmental, Social and Governance Report” to showcase the Group's policies and performance in environmental, social and governance management and corporate sustainable development.

Dazhong Financial Holdings is an investment and property holding company. Its main subsidiaries are Public Bank (Hong Kong), Dazhong Finance, Express Connect and Volkswagen Securities. The group employs 1122 employees in Hong Kong, China, and is committed to providing excellent sustainable banking and financial services.

The ESG report shows that Volkswagen Financial Holdings has established a sustainable development framework. The Board oversees the Group's environmental, social and governance management policies, strategies and performance and assumes overall responsibility; reviews the Group's key environmental, social and governance issues, approves relevant policies and goals, and adopts the Group's environmental, social and governance reports. At the same time, the Group actively seeks opinions from stakeholders and continues to communicate with them through various channels to better understand their concerns and expectations.

On the environmental side, in 2023, the resources used by Dazhong Financial Holdings are mainly electricity, water and paper. Emissions include exhaust gas and greenhouse gas emissions, commercial wastewater emissions, and solid waste disposal. The Group's main emissions come from the use of diesel, while the GHG emissions are mainly Scope 2 (indirect energy emissions). By exploring alternatives to reduce exhaust emissions, including increasing efforts to purchase vehicles equipped with Euro 6 standard engines and reducing energy consumption in daily operations. During the review period, the Group's exhaust gas and greenhouse gas emissions decreased compared to FY2022, with year-on-year decreases of 14.40% and 9.03%, respectively.

In view of the rapid development of the green finance market, the Group is also continuously enriching its green finance products and services, including “Green Mortgage Plan”, “Green Business Financing Plan”, “Green Vehicle Financing Plan” and “Green Taxi Financing Plan” to influence and help customers move towards a green future.

In terms of sustainable social development, Dazhong Financial Holdings strives to create a diverse, inclusive, energetic and harmonious working environment, giving priority to the welfare and career development of employees. On December 31, 2023, the group achieved gender balance of full-time employees, with 58% women and 42% men. By providing employees with training and development plans including internal training programs, external training funding schemes, and publicly recognized professional examination funding schemes, etc., in 2023, 100% of the Group's employees received a total of 23,452 hours of training. They understood the latest market trends/regulatory requirements through various courses and enhanced their knowledge and abilities.

In terms of supply chain management, as a responsible banking group, Dazhong Financial Holdings strives to ensure the quality, integrity and social responsibility standards of suppliers, and strongly encourages suppliers to improve their environmental and social performance above compliance. In addition to a complete supplier selection and recruitment process, the Group is also committed to implementing green procurement in operations through the following actions: the publications and reports published by the Group use paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as much as possible; and when purchasing electrical appliances such as refrigerators and microwave ovens, give priority to appliances with a Tier 1 energy label.

Furthermore, Dazhong Financial Holdings strives to integrate environmental, social and governance into its daily operations to promote the sustainable development of the entire enterprise, while actively exploring opportunities and setting further goals for the future.

(Link ESG researcher Xie Yuxia)