We measure our impact on the environment and on society and we support our approach to sustainability to ensure we’re having a positive impact. Our approach is aligned with those areas where we believe we can have the most impact and positively contribute – our ESG Framework has 5 pillars, described below.

We report against these ESG pillars to our Board, setting out our levels of activity, transparency and accountability in relation to them.

HTB is committed to acting in a sustainable and responsible way in respect to all its business operations.

Sustainability encompasses three ESG “Factors” covering a wide range of topics: 

Environmental – supporting the climate transition and reducing our climate impact.  

We want to embed climate into our corporate DNA. 

Social – embracing diversity internally and externally and contributing to charitable activity in both the communities we serve and helping disadvantaged communities.  

For our customers we ensure positive outcomes and always act in line with Consumer Duty. We see ourselves as having a duty of education for our customers, supporting them in the transition to Net Zero by signposting funds and grants for greener building and living. 

Governance – following good governance practices, including sound management structures, and complying with all laws and regulations.  

We are developing standardised metrics to analyse and report on board effectiveness, whistle-blower policies, diversity and regulatory compliance, among others.  We maintain robust governance and data-driven risk management and are committed to transparent and accountable disclosures. 

Our sustainability ambition 

With our ESG plan, sustainability in every regard is being integrated across our organisational strategy and decision making. We’ve made significant progress in reviewing our policies and processes and developed key performance indicators to help drive change. 

What we are doing 

Environment: 

Since 2022 we have partnered with Carbon Footprint Ltd. to calculate and report our operational carbon emissions, while better understanding how our carbon footprint is made up. 

We are currently offsetting our emissions by supporting the Zoba Anseba Community Safe Water project, to back the provision of safe water to communities in Eritrea. 

Social: 

We are committed to attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse and talented workforce and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the workplace. We ensure that recruitment is fair, open and inclusive and that our internal processes and procedures are inclusive, so we can retain diverse talent. 

As a feature of our EDI actions, we identified a cohort of female talent who embarked on the Women in Finance Apprenticeship Programme in May 2023. We also ensure all employees have equal opportunities to access learning, training and professional development.  

Governance :

We have a comprehensive ESG plan in place and have built an ESG Committee and ESG Working Group made up of colleagues from across the business to ensure the execution of the plan.