Banque Cantonale Vaudoise : 2022 Sustainability Report

2022 Sustainability Report

1 - L'Isle

Le Chauderon, source

2 - L'Isle

Lake at the Château

of the Venoge

de L'Isle

3 - Ferreyres

Tine de Conflens

4 - Pompaples Moulin Bornu Continental divide

5 - Eclépens Canal d'Entreroches

6 - Cossonay Canal banks and natural river banks

7 - Penthalaz

Fishway

8 - Saint-SulpiceRiver mouth, Lake Geneva

The Venoge River, immortalized in a 1954 poem by local poet Jean Villard Gilles, is beloved by the people of Vaud. Onlookers cannot help but be charmed by the countless nooks and crannies that dot this meandering river along its nearly 40-kilometer journey from the foothills of the Jura Mountains to the shores of Lake Geneva. The Venoge is the Vaud region - and its soul - writ small.

This year's report features images of the varied scenery to be found along the Venoge. The photographs and accompanying commentary - provided by experts from the Maison de la Rivière - invite the reader to follow the Venoge as it wends its way through our Canton and to learn about the various natural and manmade features encountered along the river.

Cover image

Free-flowing rivers and manmade canals offer opposing visions of the relationship between humans and nature. Today, major efforts are underway to rewild rivers and let them return to their natural course. Thanks to a restoration project between Lussery-Villars and Penthalaz, the Venoge has reclaimed its original riverbed, helping increase biodiversity in the area.

Contents

Moving forward with our Canton	2	Socially responsible investing (SRI)	54
Who we are	4	Proprietary investments	56
About this report	5	Our pension fund	56
Our main contributions to the Sustainable		Managing our clients' assets	57
Development Goals in 2022	6
CSR at BCV	8	Responsible lending	70
The dimensions of CSR	10	Our lending philosophy	72
Our mission	11	Mortgage loans	73
The evolving CSR landscape	12	Lending to local businesses	75
Stakeholder expectations	14	Trade Finance	78
Sustainable Development Goals	18
Dialogue with stakeholders and transparency	19
Our CSR ambitions and strategy	20	Being a benchmark employer	82
CSR governance and organizational structures at BCV	21	Our employer philosophy	84
		Focus on training	84
		Diversity and equal opportunity	87
A positive, long-term economic impact	24	Work-life balance	89
Long-term value creation, solidity, and financial		Working conditions	91
performance	26
Contributing to Vaud's economic development	27
Promoting innovation and sustainability in Vaud	30	Corporate citizenship	96
		Playing an active role in the community	98
		Direct environmental impact	103
Ethics and corporate governance	32	Responsible, local sourcing	109
Our values and code of conduct	34
Corporate governance	35
Due diligence and tax compliance	37	GRI content index	112
Rules on bribery and conflicts of interest	38
Data protection	39
Cybersecurity	40
Climate-related risk	41
Responsible selling	42
Meeting our customers' needs	46
Close ties with our customers	48
The products and services customers need	49
Our culture of service quality	51

Moving forward with our Canton

We have deep roots in the Canton of Vaud. BCV was founded in 1845 to serve the people and businesses of Vaud, and we've grown and evolved in step with our Canton ever since. For us, corporate social responsibility is part of this long-term mission. We work hard to foster the sustainable development of our region economically - through our role as Vaud's cantonal bank - as well as socially and environmentally. Our aim is to meet today's challenges in ways that leave a healthy environment for future generations.

These principles underpin how we do business at BCV. Our business model is built on sustainable growth, a moderate risk profile, and long-term profitability. That makes us a source of stability here in Vaud, reliably providing the funding our Canton needs to thrive - even in uncertain times like what we've experienced

with the war in Ukraine, the return of inflation, and the energy crisis. This means we are fulfilling our mission and

creating positive impacts for our stakeholders. To take just one example, we paid out the equivalent of CHF 649 per household to Vaud Canton and municipalities in 2022.

We implement our corporate social responsibility strategy based on these strong foundations. Our goal is to make a meaningful contribution to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement targets by focusing on the four ambitions set out in our roadmap to 2025.

The first relates to responsible investment solutions for our clients. We proactively offer a wide range of such solutions, and we've incorporated environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria into our management processes. As firm believers in the value of rigor and transparency when it comes to ESG issues, we are particularly attentive to the recommendations of regulators and industry associations in this area. For example, starting in 2023 our investment reporting will include climate indicators aligned with the federal government's Swiss Climate Scores.

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The second concerns sustainability in our lending business. We intend to play a major role in financing Vaud's energy transition, and we're working toward that goal on many fronts. For example, to encourage local companies to reduce their energy consumption, we're helping pay for energy audits by our partner PEIK and offering a discount on capital expenditure loans that may be needed to act on the audit's recommendations. On top of this, individual and corporate clients can take advantage of preferential terms on mortgage loans for energy- efficient properties and renovations. In 2022, all our banking advisors and credit analysts completed training on these offers. We also provided additional energy-saving information for homeowners, including an online simulator to estimate the return on new heating systems and solar panels. In 2023, this topic will become even more important in the home-financing advice we provide to our customers, which will include information on possible improvements and the administrative and financial steps in the renovation process.

The third involves reducing our direct environmental footprint. We have committed to cutting our CO2 emissions by 35% from 2019 levels by 2030, in line with cantonal and federal government targets. To achieve that goal, we're using an environmental impact assessment to pinpoint the sources of our emissions and find ways to reduce them. In 2022, we continued moving forward with our CO2 reduction plan, improving the energy efficiency of our buildings and generalizing the use of recycled paper. We also initiated a plan to

source locally, working with Vaud- based companies when possible.

Our fourth ambition has to do with social responsibility. We place great emphasis on our employees' working conditions. As part of this, we make a major commitment to training, with a long-term vision. Our approach focuses on industry trends and the twin goals of maintaining our staff's long-term employability and preparing the Bank's future managers. In addition, to promote diversity, we have set a target of having 25% of senior leadership positions held by women by 2030.

BCV is also actively involved in the local community. We back over 750 associations and events, supporting cultural, social, and athletic programs that produce a wide range of benefits. For example, by contributing to 42 Lausanne, a local computer programming school, we're helping train Vaud's future IT professionals. We're also promoting careers in sports through our partnership with Vaud Générations Champions. And we're nurturing innovation by funding the Foundation for Technological Innovation, which provides grants and interest-free loans to Vaud startups. We also encourage our employees to support good causes by giving them one day of paid leave for volunteer work each year.

Our longstanding commitment to corporate social responsibility has been recognized beyond our Canton's borders. In 2022, we were awarded solid ESG ratings by MSCI and Ethos, and international nonprofit CDP ranked us in its Leadership category

• all clear signs that our approach to sustainability is sound.

But let's bring the focus back to our home Canton - after all, BCV exists to serve the people of Vaud. Alongside other local stakeholders, we will continue to work diligently for the sustainable development of our region, building on the community ties that are our hallmark. In a nod to this fundamental bond, this year's sustainability report features annotated images of the Venoge River, which local poet Jean Villard Gilles celebrated as "unmistakably Vaudois, through and through."

lessen the environmental impact of our employees' commutes. And when purchasing material and services we

Eftychia Fischer	Pascal Kiener
Chair of the Board	CEO
of Directors

2022 Sustainability Report

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