The Penta story started in 2017 with the idea of developing a business bank account that can be opened completely online within minutes and is ready to use after a few hours. The founders of Penta missed all that in traditional banking at that time, so they decided to tackle the problem and build the best business banking solution.
Today, thousands of sole proprietors and SMEs work with Penta and use a wide variety of digital financial solutions on one holistic business banking platform. The mission has remained the same: Penta makes banking as easy as possible, so their customers can focus on what they truly love — their business.

Sustainability has become an integral part of our everyday life – and business banking should be no exception. That’s why we at Penta decided to rethink how we work. The result? Business banking that makes a positive contribution to climate protection while empowering founders and companies for a sustainably successful future. Besides tackling internal measures, we want to communicate our sustainable journey as transparent as possible to inspire other businesses to change their way of working for a better tomorrow.

Map and assess all packaging used for your products 

Necessity check

Avoid single-use plastic

Involve your supply chain partners

Choose alternative types of packaging 

Test the packaging

Use sustainable packaging

Pre screen your  products

Identify certifications to work with

Get engaged and put pressure on brands and suppliers

Highlight sustainability labels on your website

Build internal and external awareness

Certify your own products

Highlight sustainability labels on your product pages

Estimate your current packaging footprint 

Build a case for the environmental and business benefits of reusable packaging

Choose a reusable packing provider  

Plan a take-back and cleaning procedure

Run live tests offering your customers the reusable packaging option at checkout

Pilot reusable packaging

Mark as done to participate

Join the Teams Challenge

Join our Time for Climate Action campaign

Customize your microsite

Add the badge to your website and link to the microsite

Implement our “We Take Climate Action” badge and microsite

If you want to find out what donation options are available to support LFCA, contact Philippe philippe@lfca.earth

Donate to LFCA

Examples for climate non profits can be found here

Donate to some other climate non-profit

Donate to charities fighting climate change

Have an internal conversation about the causes you wish to support 

Set aside a budget 

Find a provider

Prioritise nature-based solutions

Ensure projects do not have adverse effects

Prioritise projects with an immediate effect

Ensure environmental and social safeguards

Contribute to global adaptation

Ensure robustness

Purchase credits

Keep a net positive mentality 

Report on progress

Compensate for your emissions to help society reach net zero faster

Talk to your hosting company

Power your digital infrastructure using 100% renewable energy 

Appoint a member of the executive team to be responsible for your commitments

Appoint a member of leadership team to be accountable for commitments

Find a green hosting service

Get the Green Web Foundation label

Get certified

Select a provider that operates on actual renewable energy rather than renewable energy credits

Host your website with a provider that uses 100% renewable energy

Spread the word about tools that empower personal action

Support strikes

Educate about the carbon footprint

Educate and engage your customers in climate action

Evaluate the landscape and decide if you want to switch to a different provider or region

Minimize the carbon emissions generated from your cloud computing

Penta

Collect examples and benefits to convince others

Check if you are ready

Think beyond decarbonization

Secure support to embed your plan within business strategy

Run our planning workshop

Fill out our climate transition plan template

Realise it is an iterative process

Publish your plan

Develop and publish a climate transition plan

Run a survey to define what you need to know

Examine sustainability management status

Examine waste management policy

Examine forestry, energy, and water usage

Examine delivery and packaging

Examine need for capacity building

Tailor the questionnaire to your needs

Track data, set goals and establish timelines

Assess new suppliers

Communicate your policies and codes

Incentivize to take action 

Educate suppliers

Keep everyone up to date and cooperate

Disclose your carbon footprint transparently and publicly

Engage your value chain in climate action 

Establish baseline

Set goals and prioritise 

Identify employee touch points

Build a case internally 

Find relevant and engaging climate content

Identify suitable formats to educate employees

Identify key climate dates

Facilitate climate conversations

Raise awareness on footprint compensation 

Raise awareness about high-impact reduction actions

Organise sustainability-focused team (building) activities 

Add a climate clause to your employee handbook or employment contracts

Consider sustainability in employee benefits

Identify fun ways to reward employees

Encourage colleagues to join a climate strike 

Offer trainings, courses and workshop on key climate issues

Incentivize your employees to support climate-focused causes

Create collaborative space on the topic of footprint reduction 

Share how you educate and engage your employees

Questions on your mind?

Educate and engage your employees in climate action

__Set your company’s measurable “big” goals for the current year. Some examples:__
- become climate neutral on Scope 1 and 2,
- become climate neutral including Scope 3,
- reduce your carbon footprint by __% this year compared to the previous year,
- improve your CO2 emissions per revenue, or CO2 emissions per employee ratio, etc.
Get a bit of inspiration for what climate-related goals the [US’ biggest companies](https://youtu.be/PvSGMiIA4CQ) and [many others](https://sciencebasedtargets.org/companies-taking-action/) have.

__It’s even better if you can make these targets [science-based](https://www.unglobalcompact.org/library/5652).__
Science based targets are goals set by companies to reduce GHG emissions in line with the latest climate science suggestions to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement (limit global warming to 1.5% above pre-industrial level). These targets can be externally verified by signing up to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) which is a collaboration between the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), World Resources Institute (WRI), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Understanding your carbon impact across your full value chain will be a key part of setting your target. This must extend to Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

Every quarter, plan specific OKRs or KPIs to implement some climate-positive actions, such as initiatives that you can find in the current action plan. Set the process to measure your footprint quarterly to track dynamics and make the right decisions. 

In addition, __you can use an environmental management system (EMS)__ to systematically set targets and monitor progress. It measures the impact of your business (input, output, and everything in between), identifies areas and assets that have a significant impact, assigns a point score to each, and creates a list of targets to work toward. 

Set specific climate-related goals and OKRs

If you are ready to reconsider your business model, appoint a transition team.
This team will set a new strategy for the business, which includes setting science based targets and steps for implementing changes to the business model. External input might be required if your in-house capability is limited. 

1. Start by identifying areas of conflict, or potential conflict, between your core business model and factors of potentially negative environmental impact (e.g. production of or reliance on fossil fuels or other finite resources). 
2. For each conflict, review ways in which the negative impact identified could be altered to become positive. In many cases this will require some radically creative thinking and a workshop environment.
3. Facilitation by an outside expert could be useful. For example: If your company manufactures washing machine components, and you identify that your (finite) raw input material is likely to become scarcer (therefore more expensive) over the next 10 - 20 years, you could consider a move to a leasing model whereby you retain ownership of the component, lease it to your customer, and recover it for remanufacturing or reuse after it has reached end of life. 
4. It is vital to identify where your business has the biggest carbon impact. These departments should then be considered a priority. Remember, your biggest impact could be outside of your head office.

Business model transformation

A “Green” team is a group of people working on reduction measures throughout your company. In most cases it’s their additional area of work, aside from their regular work. They are driven by personal values and interest in climate topics. 

How to organize the team’s work:
- conduct meetings at least once a month, 
- offer anyone to join, but ask for a commitment to actively participate,
- invite senior-level colleagues, representing departments which influence your carbon footprint the most to this team, 
- if more than 10-12 people want to participate, build smaller sub-teams,
- set objective goals and work on actions that have the biggest impact on your carbon footprint, 
- let all employees know your green team's plans and successes transparently and regularly.


Set up a “Green” team 

- Develop and implement formal, and job-specific, training on key sustainability issues for all executives and employees, and facilitate coaching, mentoring, and networks for sustainability knowledge sharing. 
- Educate employees about the structure of your footprint and how they can reduce it.
- Make sure that all new employees go through an induction process and training program to get them involved in your vision of sustainability strategy. It gives everyone a good grasp of what they’re here for and how they can contribute. 

Once everyone buys into the vision, you can quantify the environmental impact of various things and bring them to people’s attention. 
Teams start to see that there are budget implications, staff implications, environmental implications, and resolving this one issue could potentially improve the situation.

Develop internal sustainable management course/standards

Mark this action as done if you conduct regular sustainability workshops with external experts/consultants at least once a year. It’s important to stay updated with new industry solutions and use external inputs to drive inner projects.

Sustainability workshops for your team

Consider linking part of employees’ bonus compensations to performance of carbon emissions. 

Bonus for sustainable achievements

Compose your company’s Code of Ethics. Sometimes called a Code of Conduct or Code of Business Standards. 
This is a formal document that establishes behavioral expectations for the organization and the people who work there. The cultural aspects of the organization need to align with the behaviors and beliefs congruent with tackling the climate emergency. Integrating the right language when talking about this topic is key. Companies must focus on the positives of taking climate action while communicating with organization members, and avoid using ‘frightening’ or ‘threatening’ language as it can be demotivating and make people increasingly skeptical.

Develop code of Ethics

Develop sustainable management principles 

Make sure that:
- you have a company-wide recovery and recycling program that includes: paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, metal, and composting
- you recycle waste not only from the kitchen but also all papers in your working spaces, cartons at your warehouse, etc.
- your utility service works with all types of waste after you separate it, so it goes into the correct waste sorting centers.

Ensure proper waste separation

What you can do to print less:
- implement electronic signature systems where possible
- instead of printing reports before business meetings, use more screens in meeting rooms
- decrease the amount of pages by reducing font or page border sizes of regularly printed documents: contracts, agreements, etc.
- add a reminder to print less in your corporate signatures
- as a default setting, double-sided printing in black and white is recommended.

Plus, you can recycle your printer cartridges using a free recycling box from [Caritas](https://www.caritas.de/spendeundengagement/andershelfen/caritasbox/caritasboxstartseite). 

Adopt a sustainable printing policy

Mark this action as completed if you will buy office supplies made from recycled materials, produced and delivered in an eco-friendly way from now on. 

Recycled paper is 100% made from used paper, saving resources and water. Although the recycled paper is no longer pure white, it is also free of peroxides, sodium carbonate, and sodium hydroxide. These chemicals are used both in the production of fresh fibre paper and for bleaching paper. Recycled paper has two to three times lower energy consumption during production. 

At [Memo](http://www.memo.de), [EarthHero](https://earthhero.com/product-category/home/office-supplies/), or [GreenPicks](https://www.greenpicks.de/en/office-supplies-stationery/) you can find all of your sustainable office supplies.

Use eco-friendly office supplies

One of the projects where you can find cleaning products and soap without microplastic: [Zero Waste Era](https://www.zerowasteera.com)

Mark this action as completed if you will buy only eco-friendly cleaning products and soap for your office from now on. 

Use eco-friendly cleaning products

Our aim here is to minimize the delivery footprint and support local businesses.
Only purchase food and drinks with verified environmental standards. 


 Buy local, organic and seasonal food and drinks

These purchases can influence your carbon footprint significantly. 
- implement a repair-first policy: it's better to fix a laptop than buy a new one
- regularly calculate and check the footprint created by your equipment purchases (some companies, such as [Apple](https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/notebooks/13-inch_MacBookPro_PER_may2019.pdf) and [Dell](https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/CorpComm_Docs/en/carbon-footprint-latitude-7490.pdf), share data about their products’ footprint on their websites)
- when you need to buy things for your new office, don't just pay attention to them being made of ‘natural’ materials, but also to their production footprint
- utilize old and broken equipment in specially designated places.

Ensure responsible use of office equipment

Here are some ideas on how to make your marketing materials more eco-friendly:
- at conferences, fairs, and festivals, consider digital ways to interact with potential customers: screens, VR & AR, QR-codes, projections, e-business cards, and catalogs, etc.
- if you do choose to produce some giveaways, opt for materials with less of an end-of-life process
- order production locally to avoid causing additional emissions through deliveries
- improve your planning process to minimize waste after events.

Minimize giveaways of t-shirts, flyers, and stickers

What you can do:
- encourage your colleagues to order food delivery less: organize lunch in your office, subsidize lunch in the nearest cafes, or arrange food delivery in reusable containers,
- make sure you use glasses in your office and wash them instead of one-use plastic cups,
- buy beverages in returnable glass bottles,
- buy office snacks in bigger packages with less plastic.

Reduce plastic waste

Install low-flow faucets, toilets, and urinals in your office. 
Low-flow should meet or exceed the following EPA WaterSense standards: faucets use a maximum of [1.5 gpm](http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/products/bathroom_sink_faucets.html), toilets - [max 1.28 gallons per flush](http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/products/toilets.html).


Conserve water

Make your office more sustainable

Cutting down on your flights and moving towards train travel has a significant impact on your carbon footprint.

For domestic routes under five hours by train, take the train.
Railway stations are often more centrally located than airports, which makes arrival and departure easier and reduces the footprint of using taxis.  

Mark this action as completed as soon as you change your corporate travel policy accordingly.


Trains over planes

For intercontinental travel, a seat in business class produces __two to three times__ as much CO2 as an economy seat. 
First-class seats even produce up to __six times__ as much CO2.

Mark this action as completed as soon as you change your corporate travel policy and make sure that you buy only economy class tickets from now on.

Economy flights only

Use video conferencing whenever possible 

Set up a policy for sustainable business travel

Most public transport companies offer corporate ticket programs. Moreover, these programs are also tax-deductible.
Check out how it works at Berlin’s [BVG](https://www.bvg.de/corporate-ticket).

Public transportation subsidies


__Minimal requirements:__
- join the government bicycle subsidizing program, which allows employees to spend on bikes and equipment, tax-free, making a claimed saving of up to 42 per cent on the overall value. e.g. [JobRad](https://www.jobrad.org/arbeitgeber.html) (DE) and [CycleScheme](https://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/?utm_source=knowledge-base&utm_medium=web-link&utm_campaign=can-i-apply-ee) (UK).
-  ask for commitment. At the beginning of spring, riders commit to a certain frequency (daily, weekly, monthly) of commutes by bike. High frequency riders get bigger bike subsidies if they fulfill their commuting goals for the year. Track riders over the next twelve months with an honor-system spreadsheet. If they meet their riding commitment, they receive their full subsidy as a year-end-bonus. 

__If you want to go the extra mile:__
- Invest in a basic maintenance and repair station. This could be as limited as a bike pump, multi-tool, and bin of replacement tubes, or a full setup with a truing stand and bike repair rack.
- Offer a bike pool for your employees. All it requires is an up-front investment in a small collection of bikes – preferably low maintenance models with internal gearing – and geometry that scales well to a range of rider sizes. Establish your bike pool at the beginning of the calendar year and encourage riding with bonuses and incentives for participation. 
- Engage: track miles and ride frequency in an honor-system and organize monthly group rides.
- Dedicate a shower for riders, with a changing room and personal locker area. 

Cycle-to-work program

If it has to be the car after all for some team members, you can offer them to use shared car services such as [Clevershuttle](https://www.clevershuttle.de/en/), [Pendler Portal](https://www.pendlerportal.de/), [Berlkönig](https://www.pendlerportal.de/). 

Car sharing/pooling, instead of car owning

You can just add it as a requirement in your interview invitation template, or offer to cover train ticket costs for travels less than 5 hours. 
In many cases, responsible candidates prefer to work in companies who care about the environment, so such requirements can even increase your chances to hire the best team members. 

Train travel for on-site job interviews

If your company has its own carpool, investing in electric company cars can improve the environmental balance as long as the electric cars run on green electricity. 

Electric cars only for taxi services, rentals, and company fleet 

Start tracking it regularly and set reduction goals.
If your company’s headcount grows extremely quickly, track the commute footprint normalized by the number of employees in the corresponding quarter.


Quarterly survey to track commute footprint

Encourage sustainable commuting

Calculate your shipment carbon footprint

Survey your logistics providers & freight forwarder

Opt for slow delivery (sea freight)

Address your Less than Container Load shippings (LCL)

Optimize truck loads

Minimise the carbon footprint of your entire shipping

Collect benefits to convince others

Review latest target-setting resources

Review sector-specific considerations

Submit a commitment letter

Choose a (predefined) base year

Choose a (predefined) target year

Exclude the use of offsets

Determine how to treat scope 3 emissions

Follow best practices

Submit target(s) for validation

Announce target(s) and inform others

Disclose your progress

Develop and set a near-term science-based target

A green, sustainable business model means that you are creating a net positive impact on our climate while making money (or being financed through donations). 

Identify areas of impact

Identify innovation opportunity spaces

Get external help

Your company creates a net positive impact on the climate while growing its business? Then this checkbox is for you.

Discover how Penta is taking climate action

Penta joined forces with hundreds of others to take immediate, collaborative, and transparent action to fight climate change.

Raising the bar on climate leadership