Our sustainable financing activities to support the decarbonisation of the economy
As the bank of the energy transition, we are making a contribution to the sustainable transformation of the economy and infrastructure with our financing. We do not interpret green finance as an isolated product offering, but as an integral part of our ESG strategy, underpinned by clear criteria and transparent reporting.
At NORD/LB, green finance includes financing that contributes to environmental and climate goals – in particular to the transformation of energy, heating and industrial processes away from fossil fuels with high CO₂ emissions towards renewable energies, energy-efficient buildings and sustainable infrastructure. All our green finance activities are based on recognised market standards and internal frameworks.
Biodiversity Use Cases in the Context of Lending
In the context of lending, we want to develop biodiversity use cases that go beyond pure financing. These use cases are designed to enable additional biodiversity-promoting measures in parallel to financing, for example by providing funds for nature conservation projects, reforestation measures or the restoration of ecosystems – even independently of the actual object of financing.
Our goal is to systematically integrate biodiversity aspects into financing decisions and to enable our customers to align their business activities with biodiversity positivity beyond the specific project. A central component of this approach is structured client dialogue, including the analysis of dependencies and impacts of business models on ecosystem services as well as active advice on complementary biodiversity-promoting measures.
Testing Processes & Quality Assurance
Our review processes and quality assurance measures for sustainable financing activities
Financing is classified as "green" along a structured process:
- Criteria-based testing along defined frameworks and guardrails
- Application of minimum standards and exclusion criteria
- Documentation of the basis for decision-making and traceability
- Monitoring and regular review
- Further development in line with regulatory requirements and market standards
Reporting & Key Figures
Transparency is a central part of our approach. We regularly report on our sustainability activities as well as on selected green finance-related key figures as part of our existing reporting formats.
EUR 3,684 million *&
Volume of sustainable emissions (liabilities side) as of 30 Sep 2025
EUR 6,990 million *
EU taxonomy-compliant share as of 30 Sep 2025
External review
ISS Corporate has audited the Green Funding Reporting
EUR 9,330 million *
Volume of committed green financing in new business as at 31 Dec 2025
* according to CSRD report 2025
Our frameworks and criteria for sustainable financing activities
The implementation of our green finance activities is based on defined frameworks and guidelines that are regularly reviewed and further developed.
EU Taxonomy
The EU taxonomy serves NORD/LB as a regulatory reference system for classifying sustainable economic activities. In particular, it shall support
- the structured assessment of environmental criteria,
- identifying taxonomy-eligible (Eligible) and taxonomy-compliant (Aligned) shares across the entire financing portfolio – including, but not limited to, green finance activities,
- as well as transparency in the context of regulatory reporting (e.g. CSRD)
The application of the EU Taxonomy is carried out within the framework of the applicable regulatory requirements and is disclosed in our reporting formats.
Sustainable Loan Framework (SLF)
For further internal classification and classification of sustainability-related credit exposures, we use a Sustainable Loan Framework that is strongly oriented towards the EU Taxonomy, but also addresses topics that have so far been incompletely taken into account by the EU Taxonomy. This framework supports us in the consistent application of sustainability-related criteria in the credit process and serves the internal control and evaluation of corresponding financing.
Transformation Guidelines
With our Transformation Guidelines, we define how sustainability is applied in our financing activities. They define clear minimum standards, exclusion criteria and sector-specific guidelines in order to systematically include ecological, social and ethical aspects in financing decisions and to actively accompany the transition to a more sustainable economy.
Green Funding Framework
Our Green Funding Framework describes how we use capital for sustainable projects in a targeted manner and on the basis of defined criteria, processes and reporting requirements, and how we implement green financing in a transparent and impact-oriented manner.
This includes, among other things:
- permissible project categories and use of funds
- Selection and testing processes
- Management of revenues
- Regular reporting and external review
NORD/LB's Green Funding Framework was also reviewed and evaluated by an independent second party opinion from ISS ESG.