DBS Bank India Partners with Climes to Make Business Class found ED Events Carbon Neutral – EQ
In Short : DBS Bank India has partnered with Climes to make Business Class foundED events carbon neutral. This collaboration aims to offset event emissions by investing in climate-positive projects, promoting sustainability and reducing the carbon footprint of these business gatherings.
In Detail : In line with its commitment to responsible business practices, DBS Bank India has partnered with Climes, a leading climate finance company, to make all Business Class found ED events carbon neutral. foundED, hosted in partnership with Head start Network Foundation, is the bank’s flagship initiative to celebrate and encourage innovative entrepreneurship. found ED aims to educate entrepreneurs through a series of networking sessions with startup founders, venture capitalists, incubators, and other ecosystem players.
This partnership allows the bank to measure the carbon emissions from each foundED event using Climes’ carbon neutral event calculator. Once the emissions are calculated, DBS Bank India will neutralise them by encouraging event attendees to select the carbon avoidance and removal projects they want the bank to support. Attendees can choose from reforestation, agroforestry, and climate-smart agriculture projects in India. During the event, Climes will display real-time data on participant engagement. The partnership kicked off with the Mumbai edition of found ED, with plans to integrate this feature for events in other cities.
Commenting on the partnership, Shoma Narayanan, Managing Director, and Head of Group Strategic Marketing & Communications at DBS Bank India, said, “DBS Bank India continues to lead by example by adopting responsible business operations and making a conscious effort to manage our environmental footprint. As purpose-led and innovative businesses are key to tackling pressing climate issues, integrating such partners into our operations allows us to mitigate the carbon footprint of our events. This also gives us a platform to educate our attendees, partners, and customers on making climate-conscious choices.”
Anirudh Gupta, co-founder of Climes, added, “We are pleased to partner with a Gen-C (Generation-Climate) champion like DBS Bank India. The bank is setting a benchmark with its holistic approach to sustainability. We focus on climate action by collaborating with businesses and helping them adopt our tech-based products to effectively manage their environmental impact. Our goal is to make sustainability an engaging and rewarding experience for all stakeholders, accelerating our collective climate impact.”
As a different kind of bank, DBS focuses on redesigning and rebuilding for a better world. The partnership with Climes is part of the bank’s wider efforts to integrate sustainability principles across operations. To address its carbon, energy, water, and waste footprint, the bank has developed a four-lever approach to systematically drive progress. This includes reducing resource consumption, generating renewable energy, purchasing green products and energy, and utilising Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and carbon offsets. Since 2017, the bank has expanded its renewable energy production in India with solar installations across 13 locations in Tamil Nadu and Telangana, adding over 278 kW of capacity.
About DBS
DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia with a presence in 19 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS is in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. The bank’s “AA-” and “Aa1” credit ratings are among the highest in the world. In 2024, CRISIL Ratings reaffirmed its ‘CRISIL AAA/Stable’ rating on the corporate credit facility of DBS Bank India Ltd (DBIL). The rating on the certificate of deposits programme was also reaffirmed at ‘CRISIL A1+’.
Recognised for its global leadership, DBS has been named “World’s Best Bank” by Global Finance, “World’s Best Bank” by Euromoney, and “Global Bank of the Year” by The Banker. As a different kind of bank, DBS is at the forefront of leveraging digital technology to shape the future of banking, having been named “World’s Best Digital Bank” by Euromoney and the world’s “Most Innovative in Digital Banking” by The Banker. In addition, DBS has been accorded the “Safest Bank in Asia” award by Global Finance for 15 consecutive years from 2009 to 2023. In line with its focus on responsible banking, DBS was named the Best Bank for Sustainable Finance – India by Global Finance in 2024. Additionally, DBS Bank was ranked among the top 3 on Forbes’ list of the World’s Best Banks in India for three consecutive years, from 2020 to 2022.
DBS Bank has been present in India for 30 years, opening its first office in Mumbai in 1994. DBS Bank India Limited is the first among the large foreign banks in India to start operating as a wholly owned, locally incorporated subsidiary of a leading global bank. As a trusted partner, DBS provides a range of banking services for large, medium, and small enterprises and individual consumers in India, focusing on a seamless customer experience that helps them ‘Live more, Bank less’. In November 2020, Lakshmi Vilas Bank was merged with DBS Bank India Limited. DBS Bank India now has a network of ~530 branches in 19 Indian states.
DBS is committed to building lasting relationships with customers as it banks the Asian way and understands the intricacies of doing business in the region’s most dynamic markets. Through the DBS Foundation, the bank creates impact beyond banking by supporting businesses for impact: enterprises with a double bottom-line of profit and social and/or environmental impact. DBS Foundation also gives back to society in various ways, including equipping underserved communities with future-ready skills and helping them to build food resilience.
With its extensive network of operations in Asia and emphasis on engaging and empowering its staff, DBS presents exciting career opportunities.
