In the new editorial series of interviews, Sustainability in Action – Leaders’ Innovation Impact, Sustainability Today invites leaders in business to participate in an interview celebrating excellence in sustainability leadership across sectors. This editorial initiative recognizes organizations, projects, and individuals who demonstrate outstanding leadership, innovation, and measurable impact in advancing sustainable practices. 

Find below the latest Interview with the team of The ESG & Sustainability Directorate of Raiffeisen Romania, detailing on the strategic priorities this year, the breakthrough endeavors, challenges and impact of new technologies and positioning within the market landscape in Romania.

1. As sustainability priorities continue to evolve, what are the key strategic sustainability goals and leadership priorities for your organization in 2026, and how are they shaping business decisions across the organization?

At Raiffeisen Bank Romania, sustainability is not a parallel agenda. It is an integral part of how we create long-term value for our clients, shareholders, employees, and communities. In 2026, our strategic priorities focus on consistently implementing the commitments we have already made and to further integrate sustainability into our daily operations and business decisions, covering three interconnected dimensions.

First, supporting the transition to a low-carbon and resilient economy through sustainable finance, portfolio decarbonization, and climate-risk integration. We continue to support our clients’ transition journeys by expanding access to sustainable financing solutions and embedding ESG considerations into financing and investment decisions.This is reflected clearly in our 2025 performance. Sustainable financing reached 25.44% of our corporate portfolio, while 49% of newly granted mortgages financed buildings with energy performance class A or higher, confirming both market demand and our role in supporting the transition toward a lower‑carbon economy. 

At the same time, we strengthened the strategic framework that supports this transition, including through the approval of our Climate and Environmental Transition Policy, which sets out clear directions for reducing financed emissions and aligning our portfolio with a 1.5°C trajectory.Beyond financing, sustainability is embedded in how we operate. In 2025, for example, over 99% of the material used for newly issued cards was recycled PVC, reflecting our focus on reducing resource use and promoting circularity in our own operations. 

Second, strengthening data-driven ESG decision-making through enhanced ESG data management, improved measurement capabilities, and greater use of technology and analytics to assess environmental, social, and governance impacts, risks and opportunities.

All these elements shape how we take decisions across the organization. Sustainability is integrated at governance level, translated into business KPIs and supported through ongoing investments in people, processes and ESG capabilities.

And third, but equally important, creating sustainable value across our entire ecosystem by focusing not only on environmental performance, but also on financial inclusion, employee development, responsible governance, and community impact. Our ambition is to generate positive impact through both our own operations and, more importantly, through the capital we mobilize in the economy.

We continue to see our role as a facilitator of transition, supporting clients and communities through financing, expertise and partnerships that contribute to a more resilient economy.

2. Can you share some of the sustainability projects and initiatives that best demonstrate innovation within your organization? What challenge was it designed to address, and what measurable environmental and social impacts has it achieved?

One of our most innovative sustainability initiatives is the integration of ESG considerations directly into financing activities and portfolio management. We have developed a comprehensive framework that combines ESG risk assessment, sustainable finance criteria, climate transition objectives and portfolio decarbonization ambitions. This allows us to support clients in their transition, while simultaneously managing climate-related risks and opportunities.

Another relevant example is how we support clients beyond financing, facilitating sustainability topics translation into concrete actions for them. Through programs like COMPETITIV, we developed a professional community of experts that works directly with companies to develop sustainability strategies and action plans, addressing a key market challenge: moving from intention to implementation and fostering decision making. In 2025, 28 companies developed concrete plans to integrate sustainability into their business. Registrations for the 2026 edition are now open.

We also see innovation in capital markets. A recent example is our involvement as Co‑Arranger and Joint Bookrunner in a €30 million sustainability‑linked bond issuance by Autonom Group, showing that financial performance and responsibility toward the environment and society can go hand in hand.

Our sustainability bonds channel financing toward sectors that are central to Romania’s transition, such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, energy‑efficient housing and pollution prevention, supporting emissions reduction, resource efficiency as well as towards Romania’s underdeveloped regions, focusing on employment generation or retention and broader socio‑economic development. By the end of 2025, the allocated portfolio reached approximately €1.148 billion across more than 10,000 loans and is estimated to contribute to around 69,500 tonnes of CO₂ emissions avoided annually.

Through their specific measurable environmental and social long-term impacts and benefits, these initiatives contribute to economic resilience, supporting clients in adapting to new market realities.

3. How do you ensure that sustainability objectives are integrated into core business operations, governance, and long-term value creation rather than remaining standalone initiatives?

One of the most important lessons we have learned is that sustainability only becomes effective when it is embedded in governance, business processes, and decision-making structures.

At Raiffeisen Bank Romania, ESG topics are overseen through a structured governance model that includes Board-level involvement: a Sustainability Board, a cross-functional Sustainability Committee, and an extensive network of ESG Ambassadors across business functions.This governance framework ensures that sustainability considerations are systematically integrated into strategy development, risk management, lending processes, sustainable products design, performance monitoring, corporate planning and regulatory compliance.

At business level, sustainability is embedded in lending and risk processes through ESG scoring models and expert assessments for corporate transactions, so environmental and social factors are considered alongside financial risk.

Sustainability reporting is fully integrated into our financial reporting under CSRD, reinforcing that ESG is part of how we operate, measure performance and create value.

In addition, our double materiality assessment serves as a strategic compass, helping us identify the sustainability topics that matter most from both impact and financial perspectives and ensuring that resources are directed where they create the greatest long-term value.

For us, sustainability is therefore both a governance priority and a business transformation agenda.

4. Effective communication is essential for driving engagement and accountability. How does your organization communicate sustainability performance and impact to stakeholders, and what approaches have proven most effective in building trust and transparency?

Our communication is based on consistency and measurable impact. We publish our sustainability performance through a CSRD‑aligned sustainability statement integrated into our annual report, building on a 17‑year track record of sustainability reporting, which reflects our long-term commitment to transparency.

We complement it with our Sustainability Bond Impact Report, which we have been publishing for the past five years, providing a detailed view of allocation and measurable impact.

An important element is making impact more understandable, like using contextual equivalents alongside CO₂ figures. At the same time, we recognize the limitations of sustainability communication in banking. Many indicators, particularly around financed emissions, rely on assumptions and evolving methodologies, which are not always easy to translate into simple messages. This is why we focus on explaining methodologies and boundaries as clearly as possible, while acknowledging uncertainties where relevant, to maintain credibility and alignment with stakeholders, and regulatory expectations.

5. What is the role of technology, digital solutions, and artificial intelligence in advancing your sustainability strategy, improving decision-making, or enhancing the measurement and management of sustainability performance?

The growing complexity of ESG data, climate risk assessment and regulatory reporting requires analytical capabilities that would be difficult to achieve manually. Technology plays a key role, particularly in managing ESG data.

We use a combination of internal systems, customer questionnaires and external sources to collect ESG data. Progressively we integrate AI‑supported tools in data processing, followed by expert validation to ensure accuracy.Digital dashboards allow us to monitor ESG indicators, track portfolio alignment and support decision‑making across the organization.

Technology also supports impact measurement. For example, our sustainability bond reporting applies consistent methodologies to calculate emissions savings, energy production and other indicators, ensuring comparability and reliability of results.As AI-supported solutions help improve data quality, identify patterns, enhance scenario analysis, Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a catalyst for more informed sustainability decisions, while expert oversight remains essential to ensure reliability and accountability.

6. Looking ahead, what emerging sustainability trends, innovations, or technologies do you believe will have the greatest influence on organizations seeking to create meaningful environmental and social impact over the next few years?

One of the most important trends we see in banking is the shift toward treating sustainability as part of core financial and risk management, driven by regulatory requirements and the need for more auditable and comparable ESG data. So, we see a growing role of ESG data, digitalization and AI.

Another key trend is the evolution of transition finance, with a stronger focus on supporting clients across sectors in adapting their business models, particularly in areas such as energy, infrastructure and agriculture.In our case, this is reflected in how we prioritize sectors that are relevant for Romania’s transition, such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, energy-efficient housing and pollution prevention, through instruments like sustainability bonds.

Looking ahead, we believe the most successful organizations will be those capable of combining sustainability, technology and business strategy into a single value-creation model.

Sustainability will increasingly be measured not by commitments alone, but by the ability to deliver tangible, auditable and scalable impact.