Developing a Tool to Assess the Integration of Sustainability Into Banks: a Case Study on a Bank in Egypt a Thesis Submitted To
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Developing a Tool to Assess the Integration of Sustainability into Banks: A Case Study on a Bank in Egypt A Thesis Submitted to Graduate Program in Sustainable Development in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Sustainable Development by Arwa Izzedin Sayyadi Under the supervision of: Dr. Mohga Badran Professor Management Dr. Mohamed Abou Zeid Professor Construction 05-2017 Acknowledgments I would like to firstly express my gratitude to my advisor Dr. Mohga Badran for her continuous time and patience with me, as well as her meticulous and insightful input. I would also like to thank my co-advisor Dr. Mohamed Nagib who always made the time to discuss my thesis and provided me with invaluable advice and recommendations on all aspects of this work. I am highly thankful to the thesis committee, Dr. Salah El Haggar and Ms. Dalia Wahba, whose recommendations and comments helped perfect the thesis and who both added very insightful industry knowledge. Secondly, I would like to thank all the interviewees who agreed to give me their time and insights. As many wished to remain anonymous, I cannot thank them individually, but I am very grateful to each and every person I’ve spoken to in the bank. I would particularly like to thank Mr. Hassan Abdalla and Dr. Dalia Abdel Kader for allowing me to use the bank’s name and enabling me to carry out my interviews across the bank. I would also like to thank the Center for Sustainable Development. I am very grateful for all the help and facilitation provided by Dr. Hani and Muhammad Khaled. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents, specifically my mother, for her endless support, motivation, and tolerance with my hectic schedule and stress over the past period. 1 Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter I. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 5 I.I. The Importance of the Banking Sector for Sustainability ..................................................... 6 I.II. Business Case for Integrating Sustainability....................................................................... 7 I.III. What is Sustainability and What are the Sustainability Megatrends? ................................. 9 I.IV. Objectives of the Study .................................................................................................. 12 Chapter II. Literature Review ................................................................................................ 14 II.I. Vision and Strategy.......................................................................................................... 16 II.II. Core Business ................................................................................................................. 18 II.III. Culture and Leadership ................................................................................................. 32 II.IV. Communication............................................................................................................. 38 II.V. Internal Environment...................................................................................................... 47 II.VI. Summary ...................................................................................................................... 61 Chapter III. Methodology ....................................................................................................... 63 III.I. Recapping the Objectives of the Study............................................................................ 63 III.II. Developing the Tool-Inputs ........................................................................................... 63 III.III. Developing the Tool -Outputs ...................................................................................... 77 III.IV. Sample Selected........................................................................................................... 80 III.V. Challenges Faced .......................................................................................................... 88 Chapter IV. Results................................................................................................................. 89 IV.I. Overall Bank Results Generated by the Tool .................................................................. 89 IV.II. Breakdown of Results ................................................................................................... 90 IV.III. Summary ................................................................................................................... 118 Chapter V. Refinements to the Tool ..................................................................................... 119 Chapter VI. A Tool to Account for the Future .................................................................... 138 Chapter VII. Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 148 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 154 Appendix-1: The Full Tool Input Table ............................................................................... 161 Appendix-2: The Refined Tool ............................................................................................. 193 Appendix-3: The Tool to Account for Future Activities ...................................................... 233 2 Appendix-4: Interview Dates ................................................................................................ 272 Appendix-5: Consent Form for all Interviewees .................................................................. 274 3 List of Figures and Tables Figure 1: The Role of Banks in the Economy ............................................................................... 7 Figure 2: Sectors most affected by climate change. Divided by level of risk and type of business impact ........................................................................................................................................ 11 Figure 3: Standards reflecting a bank that has integrated sustainability, split into respective aspects. ...................................................................................................................................... 15 Figure 4: Key Areas of a Bank's Sustainability Footprint............................................................ 49 Figure 5: The structure of the tool inputs. ................................................................................... 64 Figure 6: The sub-aspects of the core business aspect ................................................................. 65 Figure 7: The sub-aspects of the culture and leadership aspect ................................................... 65 Figure 8: The sub-aspects of the internal environment aspect (energy is the only sub-aspect with a further division, and that is transportation). ................................................................................ 66 Figure 9: An example of two standards and their corresponding questions to be asked, under the core banking aspect. ................................................................................................................... 66 Figure 10: An example of two standards, their corresponding questions to be asked, and the sources to approach. ................................................................................................................... 68 Figure 11: An example of two standards, their corresponding questions to be asked, the sources to approach, and the multiple-choice options for the answers. ........................................................ 69 Figure 12: An example of two standards, their corresponding questions to be asked, the sources to approach, the multiple-choice options for the answers, and the drop down list generated by the tool for the appropriate response. ............................................................................................... 73 Figure 13: Zoom-in of Figure 12 to reveal the tool’s drop down menu to make the selection of the chosen response easier. .............................................................................................................. 74 Figure 14: A hypothetical example of the chosen response and the automatic score for that response. .................................................................................................................................... 75 Figure 15: An example of a score and the formula input for this score........................................ 76 Figure 16: Example of the selected sample for two standards, shown in column D. .................... 80 Table 1: List of Respondents Targeted for Interviews. Divided by Hierarchy ............................. 83 Table 2: List of respondents interviewed, not permitted, and non-existent. divided by hierarchy 87 Figure 17: Output of the tool depicting the score for each of the standards ................................. 90 Figure 18: The results of the tool with respect to the vision and strategy aspect .......................... 91 Figure 19: The results of the tool with respect to the core business aspect .................................. 93 Figure 20: The results of the tool with respect to the culture and leadership aspect