ProCredit Bank began building their headquarters in Georgia in 2008, occupying the building in 2013 and embarking on a programme of environmental improvements which ultimately led to EDGE certification.

Project Overview

ProCredit Bank is a development-oriented financial services provider which aims to conduct banking operations in a responsible manner. This means adopting high social, ethical and environmental standards, and making every effort to minimise the environmental impact of their activities.

ProCredit built their headquarters in Tbilisi, Georgia throughout 2008-9, incorporating the energy efficiency standards from that time into the building. They began occupying the space in 2013 and embarked on an ongoing process to improve the environmental performance of the building.

ProCredit Bank’s mode of operation is to seek constant improvement and to test the viability of new technologies, before promoting it with their clients. They began to collect data on performance, and made a number of small, progressive improvements to the operation of the building. They also started investigating bigger retrofit opportunities such introducing LED lights to reduce energy consumption in 2015-16. Another opportunity was reducing water consumption, so the bank began to harvest rainwater. After research and understanding of the business viability, ProCredit also installed 100kwh capacity solar panels on the roof using a local company for installation. This provides on-site renewable energy, saving energy and carbon, and reducing running costs.

All of these efficiency improvements highlight ProCredit’s commitment to a sustainable future, and to bringing supporting the development of new technologies in the local market. In 2020, ProCredit decided to certify the building against the EDGE standard, as another example of what is possible in the Georgian market and to validate their achievements to date.

Why EDGE?

As a responsible lender, ProCredit has adopted EDGE for all its headquarters buildings around south east and eastern Europe.

EDGE provides a user-friendly application, with in-built environmental performance data and benchmarks. Its option of an early preliminary assessment was very useful to ProCredit, together with the ultimate goal of independent, internationally recognised certification.

EDGE also provided the recognised benchmarks for energy and environmental performance for a building in Georgia – benchmarks and minimum requirements that did not previously exist in the country. EDGE has also helped spread awareness of sustainability performance amongst the wider community of building owners and developers in Georgia, which is another big bonus for the bank.

The preliminary EDGE assessment helped generate ideas of how to improve the building and where to invest if needed. This was then carried through to a detailed analysis of the financial and carbon benefits of green upgrades to the building, which has not only benefited the Tbilisi headquarters but also provided valuable experience for ProCredit’s responsible lending activities and green financing support to their clients.

What’s Next?

ProCredit Bank’s use of EDGE helps position them as a responsible lender, helping to promote net zero carbon buildings, with the added impact of being able to share their experience of their own buildings. ProCredit are pioneering green lending with the backing of EDGE, sharing their experience with existing and potential clients who want to make a positive difference to society and offering a green financing package to developers and building owners interested in entering the green building market.

The initiative, which was launched in partnership with Sintali-SGS, aims to finance green construction under attractive conditions (standard -0.5%). In addition to the attractive financing rate, Sintali and SGS help companies successfully navigate the EDGE certification process and offer special discounts to ProCredit clients undergoing certification.

On a group level, ProCredit has committed to reaching carbon neutrality for its own operations by 2023. This commitment includes a variety of activities, from the procurement of renewable energy to improving the efficiency of its own buildings as certified through EDGE. To date, in addition to Tbilisi, ProCredit have EDGE-certified headquarters in North Macedonia and Bulgaria, and are in the process of seeking certification in Kosovo, Ecuador, Serbia and Ukraine. In Sofia, Bulgaria, ProCredit are the first organisation in Europe to be awarded EDGE Zero Carbon certification, taking the first step to achieving net zero across their portfolio.