ICICI Bank plans to go paperless in green drive

New Delhi: ICICI Bank plans to go paperless by putting a host of banking services on a digital platform to reduce its carbon footprint as part of its environmental sustainability drive.

"As a responsible bank, ICICI Bank always focused on all the societal stakeholders, including the environment. We have been endeavoring to go paperless by introducing an array of digital banking services which will help us to reduce the usage of paper," ICICI Bank Senior General Manager Saurabh Singh told PTI on the occasion of World Environment Day.

Tab banking, internet and mobile banking and contactless mobile payment solutions are among the efforts towards managing the environment alongside growth, he said.

"We have also aligned and upgraded our internal operations to minimise the usage of paper. We undertake image based processing at our central operations, the internal memos are all digitised; even our income tax proof submission happens electronically," Singh said.

The country's second largest lender in the last few years has focussed largely on reducing its carbon footprint by bringing in more efficient technologies and processes.

"We will continue to leverage on our strengths to build a more sustainable and self-sufficient ecosystem. In this regard, we would aim to go completely paperless as an organisation in our processes", he added.

In its goal towards environment conservation, he said ICICI Bank in the last few years has reduced its overall energy consumption by 15 per cent in 2015-16.

"To give you a perspective, this saved energy of 29 million units could power 24,000 urban households or 32,000 rural households for an entire year", Singh said.

Also, 15 of ICICI Bank's large offices and two data centres reduced carbon dioxide emission by 15,500 tonnes in last fiscal as compared with fiscal ended March 2013.

ICICI Bank said it reduced its paper consumption by one-third in 2015-16 compared to 2013-14.

This reduction in paper consumption is equivalent to saving around 13,770 trees. Thus, all the green initiatives of the bank have delivered positive results and will encourage us to push the envelope further, he added.

The official said the bank has consciously made efforts to adopt more efficient and eco-friendly initiatives and a big portion of this is driven by its employees.