Environment

Since 2003, BCF has been actively committed to reducing its CO₂ emissions, implementing concrete measures each year to have a positive and measurable impact on its carbon footprint.

The signatories of the Paris Agreement, including Switzerland, have undertaken to limit global warming to well below 2°C compared with the preindustrial era by strengthening resilience to climate change and aligning financial flows with a low-carbon economy.

In Switzerland, the Swiss Climate and Innovation Act (KIG), adopted in 2023, sets a target for companies of net zero by 2050, primarily covering their direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scope 2) energy emissions.

BCF’s carbon footprint has been calculated according to Greenhouse Gas Protocol standards since 2008 and in accordance with ISO 14064 taking account of direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scopes 2 and 3) emissions. The scope of analysis has been adapted and broadened several times to improve the representativeness of GHG emissions generated by operations at BCF. Historically, due to the time lag between the reporting period and availability of data, the report published at the start of year N covered emissions from year N-2. This year, BCF stepped up its efforts to offset this disparity and align the reporting period with the carbon balance. As a result, the 2024 footprint was finalised during 2025, and the 2025 footprint in early 2026. In this report, the Bank’s CO₂ emissions from 2025 are analysed for the operational part and financed emissions (Scope 3, category 15) are calculated for 2024 and analysed separately at the end of the chapter.

BCF systematically promotes the saving of energy and natural resources in all its activities. It is continuing its efforts to contribute to reducing energy consumption and preventing an energy blackout in Switzerland. In addition to one-off measures, the Bank launched a number of long-term initiatives, such as the replacement of lighting and the renovation of its head office ventilation system, as well as the refurbishing of several other sites. In each of these renovations, energy efficiency was a key criterion, with the aim of reducing the environmental footprint while optimising energy consumption.

Environmental criteria are also integrated into BCF’s purchasing process. Suppliers, products and services, preferably from the Bank’s area of activity, must not only meet price and quality requirements but also comply with environmental and social responsibility standards.

As part of its commitment to transparency, the Bank has been publishing data on its environmental impact for several years. It continues to work on these metrics with the aim of refining and strengthening them in future reports.

The Bank continues to upgrade its buildings for the best possible energy performance. It is following this ambition by renovating its heating systems and building envelopes. Wherever possible, photovoltaic panels are installed. Moreover, the Bank ensures the proper operation of its premises and seeks to gain efficiency by taking measures to improve and optimise its energy consumption.

In 2025, initial steps were taken towards replacing the heating systems at the Estavayer-le-Lac branch. The building will have a geothermal heat pump from spring 2026. The head office at Fribourg will soon be connected to the district heating system. The project is under way and the required installations are already in place. The Chiètres branch will also be connected to district heating in 2026.

BCF also works with the company YORD, located at the bluefactory site in Fribourg, to optimise its energy performance. YORD enables savings of up to 40% of a building’s energy consumption through its intelligent management of heating systems, while guaranteeing the comfort of its users at the same time. A test phase was held with the Bank’s head office in 2025. If it is successful, the system will be rolled out to the branches.

The electricity supply is 100% green electricity from Hydro Fribourg. BCF prefers LED or low-energy bulbs for the exterior and interior lighting of its buildings. When modernising its buildings, it installs automatic lighting management. The Bank signed several district heating contracts for its buildings for the 2024-25 period.

BCF’s customers are encouraged to help protect the climate by using e-banking.

The review of the Bank’s online services to attain Carbon Fri labelling is ongoing with a view to certification for 2026. The scope of analysis was expanded in 2025 to take account of technical developments. This certificate attests that the CO₂ footprint has been calculated by an accredited organisation that guarantees compliance with the ISO 14044 standard. The carbon impact of BCF’s online products is included in its calculation of CO₂ emissions. This allows for the measurement of the carbon impact of its services from supply chain (upstream provider), through the output of BCF to downstream use by the customer. The Carbon Fri certificate also ensures the existence of a climate policy as well as a statement of intent to reduce CO₂ emissions and the existence of a certificate of investment in the Carbon Fri Foundation.

The majority of BCF’s IT services are outsourced to Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd, one of the world’s most sustainable IT providers in the telecommunications sector.
https://www.swisscom.ch/en/about/sustainability.html

100% of the paper used by BCF is FSC certified (paper made from wood fibres from responsibly managed sources). Thanks to e-documents, BCF also offers its customers the possibility of doing without paper mailings. Counter receipts have been issued and signed electronically for a number of years. The Bank has reduced its paper consumption by 40% since 2019. In 2024, automated customer notices were revised to further reduce paper usage and digital archive storage.

The Bank is also mindful of the material used for its bank cards. It only uses cards made from a recyclable primary component.

The Fribourg Agglomeration has recognised BCF’s mobility plan since 2022. The plan offers employees financial advantages on annual Frimobil transport passes. The Bank provides financial support for its employees when they purchase an annual public transport pass (job abo).

In 2025, the Bank also decided to offer a half-price subscription to all its employees, thereby giving tangible support to employees’ use of shared transport when going to work and in their own time.

In 2024, three hybrid/electric cars were made available for business travel. BCF has also installed charging stations for its employees’ electric vehicles.

This year, BCF defined its science-based goals according to the ACB (Activity-Based Carbon Budget) method on the basis of its 2025 data, which determines the carbon budget not to be exceeded in order to stay below the 1.5°C global warming mark. The Bank has established an action plan to comply with this budget and with goals required by law, illustrated by the chart below:

The vertical axis represents tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. The horizontal axis shows the years. The horizontal straight line at over 14,000 tCO₂e represents the Bank’s carbon budget that must not be exceeded in order to contribute to restricting warming to 1.5°C. The blue line shows the projected trajectory of the Bank’s cumulative emissions if it were to take no action to reduce its emissions. The yellow curve shows the estimated effects of the measures outlined in BCF’s transition plan. These projections should allow BCF to comply with its carbon budget and thus contribute to the goal of the Climate and Innovation Act and the international Paris Agreement.

The carbon footprint scope is based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol methodology. As a financial institution, BCF’s carbon footprint comprises direct and indirect emissions stemming from its internal operations (Scopes 1, 2 and 3) and indirect emissions generated by its lending and market activities (Scope 3, category 15). Lending and marketing undergo a separate evaluation process.

In 2025, total emissions arising from BCF’s operations came to 1,135 tCO₂e. The main emission sources are “Commuting” (employees going to and from work; 43%), “Heat production” (heating of premises owned by BCF; 30%), “Office supplies” (external prints, purchase of computers, postal services and purchase of paper; 11%) and “Upstream leased assets” (heating of premises rented by BCF; 7%).

The development observed over the past few years can be attributed to the company’s growth in most cases. The exception is “Office supplies”, which has included computer purchases since 2022.

After that come “Business travel” (including company vehicles, privately owned vehicles and public transport; 3%), emissions from “Electricity” consumed (3%), “Transport” (outsourced supplies to branches since 2020 and included in the category since 2025; 2%) and consumption of “Water” (0%).

A number of changes in the “Electricity” category are significant. Since 2017, BCF has used a 100% hydraulically powered electricity contract. Increases recorded in 2022 and 2025 result from an adaptation of emission factors published by Swiss databases.

Emissions, classified by the GHG Protocol guidelines into three scopes: direct emissions (Scope 1), indirect emissions connected to purchases of energy (Scope 2) and other indirect emissions (Scope 3) apart from Scope 3.15 which is treated separately (financed emissions) are as follows:

99% of Scope 1 emissions at BCF relate to heating premises owned by the Bank. This is the main challenge for the Bank because it needs to reduce emissions drastically to comply with science-based goals and net zero by 2050, obligatory for Scopes 1 and 2 under the Climate and Information Act.

Scope 2 is relatively low (1.5 tCO₂e). This shows the direct efficiency of the Bank’s policy of buying 100% renewable electricity.

The second environmental challenge stems from Scope 3, commuting (Scope 3.7; Employee commuting), which alone accounts for 43% of the carbon footprint. However, this situation is not unusual for a service company.

BCF has published the change in its key indicators since 2020 in the interests of transparency. Absolute emissions increased from 2024 to 2025 (from 1,007 to 1,135 tCO₂e). This increase does not reflect a reduced effort by the Bank. It is rather the direct consequence of its strong growth. Headcount grew by the equivalent of 50 full-time equivalents over the same period and the energy surface area grew by almost 500 m².

Intensity indicators (relative KPIs) are good for measuring performance:

• Structural decrease in business travel
• Optimisation of energy consumption for heating and electricity by m²
• Stability of intensity by Full-Time Equivalent (tCO₂e/FTE)

The Swiss legal framework requires all companies to achieve net zero for Scopes 1 and 2 by 2050. It also encourages the setting of intermediary targets. In addition, companies are called on to define their goals by using a science-based target model. This involves using known models to calculate intermediary goals and carbon budgets still available.

The ACB method – Activity-Based Carbon Budget – allows companies to set CO₂ emission reduction targets that are both realistic and ambitious. The starting point for the method is the CO₂ global budget, i.e. the limited quantity of greenhouse gas that can still be emitted globally to keep global warming well below 2°C, and ideally at 1.5°C. This budget is based on climatological calculations and constitutes the scientific basis of international climate goals. Once this budget has been exceeded, the goals for limiting warming to 1.5°C can no longer be complied with.

The specific nature of the ACB method stems from its approach based on operations specific to the company: instead of setting a standard proportional reduction from the actual emission level, it takes the company’s operational requirements into account. The CO₂ budget can be established realistically using this approach, while remaining consistent with a science-based trajectory.

This method has already been used to create many roadmaps approved by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE). It is preferred to the SBTi approach of the Science Based Targets Initiative as it complies with national emission budgets, takes account of measures already implemented by BCF and allows for growth in the Bank’s operations.

A total budget of 14,417 tCO₂e was set for BCF in 2025. This is the total emission volume not to be exceeded before attaining net zero emissions. The majority of the budget was attributed to central activities “Heat production” and “Commuting”, which represent the majority of activities associated with the company. Other categories make a modest contribution to the total budget and have accordingly been taken into account.

All activities combined, BCF’s emissions in 2025 were slightly below the Swiss average for comparable activities, with a U factor of 0.9. This result is mainly due to relatively low kWh emissions in heat production and electricity consumption.

A U factor below 1 indicates better than average performance, while a U factor over 1 means emissions are higher than average.

The action plan established in collaboration with Climate Services allowed for the definition of the list of reduction measures over the short, medium and long term and the measurement of their impact to ensure achievement of climate goals.

The three scopes were taken into account in the action plan, despite the legal obligation to reach net zero by 2050 only applying to Scopes 1 (Heat production, business travel in a company vehicle) and 2 (purchase of energy: electricity and district heating system).

Priority means of action for BCF:

1. Thermal renovation (Scope 1 and 3.08): as outlined in the Energy chapter (GRI 302), the connection of the head office in Fribourg to the district heating system in 2028 will allow for a drastic reduction in direct emissions from fossil fuel heating (currently 26% of the balance). Changes to heating systems have been planned for 2026 to 2040 for the rest of the branches owned by BCF and heated by fossil fuels and the resulting reductions are incorporated into the action plan.
2. Mobility (Scope 3): in view of the predominant volume of emissions from commuting (489 tCO₂e in 2025), BCF plans to update its mobility plan every 5 years from 2027, in order to strengthen its encouragement for gentle mobility and public transport for its employees, and to ensure measures are sufficiently appealing and in accordance with the infrastructure changes to comply with the reduction target.

Rigorous monitoring of planned measures and reductions will allow for incremental adjustments to the action plan to ensure compliance with the carbon budget but also to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions to net zero by 2050.

Financed emissions

In 2025, BCF performed a full quantification of its financed emissions corresponding to Scope 3.15 of the GHG Protocol, with data from 2024.

The PCAF Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials is a global initiative led by the financial sector to measure and disclose greenhouse gas emissions associated with loans and investments. The PCAF published the Global GHG Reporting and Accounting Standard in 2022 to respond to demand from the financial sector for a standard accounting method for greenhouse gas emissions. This method has been validated by the GHG Protocol for several categories of assets, including shares and bonds of listed companies, corporate loans, commercial real estate and mortgages. This approach was therefore chosen for this analysis.

An important element in the qualification of results is the PCAF score, determined on the basis of data quality. PCAF rates the data quality of the financed emissions from 1 to 5 depending on their accuracy:

• Score 1: data reported directly by the company (highest quality).
• Score 2: physical activity data (e.g. energy consumption).
• Score 3: sector-specific emission factors (economic averages).
• Scores 4-5: estimated or proxy data (less reliable, to be avoided).

The aim is to prioritise scores 1 to 3 for more robust results.

a) Corporate loans

Emissions have been calculated on the basis of the borrowers’ economic activity. Emissions are estimated on the basis of the turnover or assets of the share financed by BCF. Data is converted into CO₂ emission equivalents by applying sector-specific emission factors and the results thus correspond to a PCAF score of 4. The degree of coverage (share of evaluated portfolio) is 54%. BCF intends to refine its calculations by improving the accuracy of data collected from companies. A project will be initiated to that end in 2026. More detailed results will be published once this analysis is complete. The sectors with the largest volumes of financed emissions are energy production and transport.

b) Listed equities and bonds

This category covers listed equities and bonds. The same method applies for indirect investments (funds for example) if the details of the investments are available. The following portfolios were analysed to measure emissions financed by BCF:

• Own financial investments (balance sheet)
• Discretionary mandates
• Non-discretionary mandates (advice and execution)

Current exclusions (using the PCAF method):

• Green bonds, public debt, derivative products (futures, options, swaps)
• Short/long positions and special cases (such as initial public offerings)

Quantification was on the basis of emission factors from the MSCI database by activity sector. The PCAF score is thus 4 and the degree of coverage is 42%. BCF intends to analyse these results in greater depth and refine the data in the same way as for corporate loans. This goal will be pursued in 2026.

c) Public debt

This asset category includes government bonds and public loans of any duration issued in the national or a foreign currency. Financial institutions must declare the following under the PCAF:

• Scope 1: national emissions (territorial) by public sector borrowers, including emissions from exports. This data is taken from national inventories. To declare with and without LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry), because they are handled differently depending on the country.
• Scope 2 (optional): emissions from local electricity use, heating, steam or cooling imported from other regions.
• Scope 3 (optional): emissions linked to the import of non-energy goods.

Emissions are thus quantified on the basis of countries’ emission data. The degree of coverage is almost 100% and the PCAF score between 1 and 2.

d) Mortgage loans

The impact of the mortgage loan portfolio was evaluated on the basis of the Bank’s mortgage portfolio. Missing data was mainly replaced by using the Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings (RBD), which contains information on the age of buildings and their surfaces (to measure energy requirements) plus information on heating systems. This data was collected from the mortgage portfolio of BCF and weighted to reflect the proportion of real estate financed by BCF.

The total emission volume financed by BCF mortgages comes to 114,562 tCO₂e. The main source of emissions at 36% comes from single-family homes that still use fossil fuels for heating. BCF has organised training for its advisors in direct contact with property owners to make them more aware of this issue and prompt energy renovation. Co-owned properties still have 41% fossil fuel heating. They account for 49% of properties but only 19% of emissions. Over 60% of commercial properties and industry use fossil fuel heating but only represent a few percent of the portfolio.

Synthesis

Total financed emissions for the analysis in question (Scope 3.15) by BCF are already over 100 times higher than emissions generated by its own operations. Emissions financed by portfolios under review (corporate loans and listed equities and bonds) also need to be added to this total. BCF understands how important financing conditions can be in decarbonising the canton’s economy and real estate. As a result, it has implemented measures including client advice, preferential rates for Minergie buildings or equivalent and exclusion criteria in investment funds in order to take a more active role in decarbonisation.