IBOS Sustainability Project

Sustainability

Is defined as: ‘able to maintain’ or ‘exploiting natural resources without destroying the ecological balance of an area’.

In terms of the IBOS business sustainability this means two things. (1) Reducing the environmental impact of the business and compensating where appropriate for any harm done. (2) Consider the implications of the growth of the business and evaluating the business periodically to maintain its success. In 2009 a Sustainability Report was compiled that looked into three areas;

The first section produced an Environmental Policy to be applied to the IBOS office and practices.

• Environmental awareness and commitment are ever-growing concepts, not just in banking but in all businesses. Discussions in researching this report have borne this out, with many clients asking for banks’ environmental policies as part of the RFP tendering process. The increased global pressure from governments and from within business is making the need for an environmental policy ever greater. The IBOS environmental statement is a list of commitments that IBOS and its staff all commit to, and plans that will mitigate the adverse effects the business has on the environment.
  

The second section aimed to discover how IBOS has sustained itself so far.

• It is essential to understand a system before trying to improve it. This section covered what makes IBOS sustainable and evaluated ideas and comments that could be implemented to improve IBOS further.
  

The final part produced a Sustainability Policy for the growth of IBOS. This brought together two streams of work. (1) The growth plan of IBOS as a business - How it operates via meetings and any new offices which are required to support the new banks. (2) The role of IBOS members - How they can help to add value to the IBOS group by therefore assisting the growth of the Association.