ICICI Bank’s Contribution to UNSDGs
The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) is an action-oriented framework encompassing economic, social and environmental aspects that aims to transform the lives and livelihood of people. India has endorsed the UNSDGs, implemented suitable policy frameworks and is adopting several initiatives to meet its commitments. Significant strides have been made on issues like poverty eradication, sustainable growth, health, nutrition, gender equality, quality education, among others. Accelerated action in areas like environment and climate change are undertaken to meet the commitments under the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). At ICICI Bank, we are consistently drawing on these ambitions set out to transform India and sharing the vision of prosperity for its people and the planet.
Through our work with customers and society, and ESG strategy and priorities, we are contributing to promoting sustainable development. A brief description of ICICI Bank’s efforts to create an impact to enable the country to achieve the UNSDGs and NDCs:
SDG
End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Bank’s Objective
Empowering individuals and communities, especially the vulnerable and marginalised groups, to secure sustainable incomes.
Key Initiatives
Enhancement of livelihood is a focussed thematic area under the Bank’s CSR action plan. Initiatives include supporting farmers through value chain development and enabling multi-cropping by strengthening local ecosystems to enhance incomes and facilitate skill training to improve employability of youth in the community.
Progress and Impact
In fiscal 2025, as part of enhancing livelihood of farmers and to broadbase their income streams, programmes for generating sustainable income like horticulture and orchard plantation were taken up. Improving productivity by imparting training in modern efficient farming techniques, and providing high-quality seeds was another initiative.
In collaboration with leading academic and research institutions, specialised skilling training is being enabled to enhance livelihood opportunities.
Through these initiatives, 5.2 million lives were impacted during fiscal 2025.
SDG
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Bank’s Objective
Agriculture-based livelihood programmes support small and marginal farmers to enhance productivity and resilience to climate change. It also supports food and nutrition security and reducing postharvest losses.
Key Initiatives
Initiatives in the area of agriculture and allied activities primarily focus on addressing water scarcity, soil degradation, and other climate-induced stress. It also involves imparting knowledge and supporting water conservation, drip irrigation, and adoption of sustainable farming practices.
Progress and Impact
In fiscal 2025, several initiatives have been undertaken impacting farmers and agricultural productivity across several states. Some case studies relating to these have been presented in the report. The Bank has spent ₹1.41 billion towards value chain development and skill training programmes during fiscal 2025.
SDG
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being
Bank’s Objective
Supporting initiatives that improve access to healthcare, strengthen health systems and improve affordability of health services.
Key Initiatives
The Bank is committed to promoting better, affordable and accessible healthcare, specifically in the areas of cancer care, cardiac care and eye care.
Progress and Impact
The Bank has allocated the highest proportion of its CSR budget to healthcare. A flagship activity is supporting the setting up of three new cancer care facilities in the country, one each in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab. The various initiatives taken in healthcare since 2022 have enabled 2.5 million individuals to access quality and affordable medical treatment.
SDG
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities
Bank’s Objective
Supporting access to quality education, reduce learning gaps and improve future employability.
Key Initiatives
The Bank’s initiatives in education and skill development spans more than a decade through the establishment of ICICI Academy for Skills. This pro-bono skilling programme was concluded in fiscal 2025. The Bank is now focussed on collaborating with reputed educational institutions to promote learning opportunities in new and evolving fields.
Progress and Impact
In fiscal 2025, as part of CSR, support was extended to leading institutions for setting up training labs, enabling delivery of technical skills, and providing infrastructure for lifelong learning. This is expected to potentially benefit over 100,000 students.
SDG
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Bank’s Objective
Fostering an equitable and inclusive environment both within the organisation and also the communities we engage with.
Key Initiatives
The Bank advocates gender equality and has adopted a no-discrimination policy at the workplace. The women workforce is provided support to meet varying needs through the early stages of their motherhood.
As part of business, the Bank pursues a programme that supports women entrepreneurship.
Progress and Impact
Women comprise 32% of the Bank’s workforce. Supporting women during early stages of motherhood has been a long-time commitment, and policies have been designed accordingly.
The Bank is committed to developing women entrepreneurs through meeting the financial needs of Self-Help Groups. Till date, the Bank has extended support to over 11 million women in the country.
SDG
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Bank’s Objective
Enabling access to clean water and sanitation is fundamental to human existence and economic development.
Key Initiatives
The Bank has been undertaking initiatives like watershed development, restoring/strengthening existing water ponds and reviving defunct water sources for the benefit of humans and wildlife. In its own operations, the Bank has been adopting new approaches for sustainable management of water.
Progress and Impact
As part of CSR initiatives in environment and ecology, extensive work is being undertaken for water conservation in forest areas and for local communities engaged in agricultural activities. The initiatives in watershed development in fiscal 2025 has led to harvesting potential of 3.80 billion litres of water.
For its employees, the Bank has set up Atmospheric Water Generators in five offices with capacity to generate 8,000 litres of potable water per day, and reduce dependence on packaged water.
SDG
Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Bank’s Objective
Promoting use of renewable energy in Bank’s own operations and enabling communities in rural areas to benefit from steady supply of electricity.
Key Initiatives
For managing the carbon footprint in own operations, there is continuous effort to increase proportion of renewable energy. As part of CSR initiatives, a focus area is to promote adoption of renewable energy in rural schools, hospitals and homes and benefitting from steady supply of electricity.
Progress and Impact
The Bank procures electricity from renewable sources wherever feasible. The Bank has set up capacity to generate solar power on-site and is paying for green tariff where feasible and viable. In fiscal 2025, renewable sources accounted for 38% of electricity from grid and solar capacity.
As part of its CSR initiatives during fiscal 2025, solar capacity of about 3,006 kWp was set up in rural areas. One of the pilot projects involved engaging with local communities to install biogas units that convert organic waste.
SDG
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Bank’s Objective
Creating a healthy work environment for employees, with opportunities for growth and well-being.
Key Initiatives
The Bank strives to create a healthy work environment and takes up several well-being measures for its employees. Functional training and skill enhancement are supported for personal and professional growth of employees.
Progress and Impact
In fiscal 2025, the Bank completed certification as per ISO 45001:2018 standard for Occupational Health and Safety at three additional premises, taking the total number of certified premises to 21. Training is an ongoing effort and the per employee average learning days was 10 for fiscal 2025. Industry-academia engagement is strengthened to create bankers with diverse skills. Diversity, equity and inclusion policy and human rights policy have been established to promote a culture of no discrimination.
SDG
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
Bank’s Objective
Enabling economic progress that is productive and all-inclusive requires robust infrastructure and innovations.
Key Initiatives
The Bank promotes adoption of new technologies and innovation in its products and services for ease of use and enhancing customer experience. The Bank continuously experiments with innovative ways for delivering business within the guardrails of risk and compliance.
Progress and Impact
The Bank’s smart applications like iMobile Pay and InstaBIZ are continuously being enhanced to improve customer journey. The approach involves experimenting with industry-first ideas.
In fiscal 2025, as part of CSR initiatives in healthcare, the Bank facilitated development of a Real-Time Availability and Referral Portal (RTBARP) to enable better access to medical care by communities at remote locations.
SDG
Reduce inequalities within and among nations
Bank’s Objective
As part of our objective of promoting inclusive growth, the Bank focusses on empowering marginalised communities and bridge socio-economic gaps through development initiatives.
Key Initiatives
The Bank is an equal opportunity employer and has zero tolerance for any form of discrimination. As part of the initiatives on community development under CSR, the Bank works extensively with vulnerable groups.
Progress and Impact
The Bank’s community engagement focusses on improving economic opportunities and bringing into mainstream the marginalised segments of the population. The efforts range from access to healthcare, skill training, financial literacy, value chain development, improving access to markets and promoting entrepreneurship. Over 18 million people have benefitted from the various efforts till date.
SDG
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Bank’s Objective
The Bank is committed to reducing its environmental footprint and encouraging resource efficiency across its operations and value chain.
Key Initiatives
Several initiatives have been taken to enhance efficiency in operations like switching to recycled paper, installing energyefficient and motionsensor based lighting and recycling where feasible. The Bank’s Green Procurement Framework provides the base for responsible procurement of goods and services.
Progress and Impact
Progress during fiscal 2025 included converting 79% of pre-printed forms to FSC-certified recycled paper, promoting circularity measures and the 4R principles of refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle. The Bank also conducted awareness sessions to promote responsible consumption and disposal.
SDG
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact
Bank’s Objective
Contributing towards carbon reduction through internal actions and building climate-resilient communities.
Key Initiatives
The Bank monitors the Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions across its operations. It is also integrating climate risk assessment into lending frameworks. The Bank takes steps to promote carbon sequestration through afforestation, water conservation and nature-based solutions in vulnerable areas to improve biodiversity and ecology.
Progress and Impact
The Bank has set a target to become carbon neutral in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by fiscal 2032. Measures like on-site solar capacity, paying for green tariff are being taken for access to green power. The Bank consistently supports financing of climate mitigation and transition projects and activities within the guardrails of acceptable risk and compliance.
With the objective of contributing to India’s NDC of increasing carbon sinks, extensive plantation projects, and work in forest reserves are being supported as part of CSR activities for conservation of biodiversity and restoration of ecology.
SDG
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Bank’s Objective
Climate adaptation action is important to build resilience to climate impacts and meeting India’s goals and commitments under the Nationally Determined Contribution.
Key Initiatives
Restoring biodiversity, rejuvenating water bodies and plantation are ongoing activities as part of the Bank’s CSR initiatives.
Progress and Impact
In fiscal 2025, the Bank spent ₹2.25 billion towards environmental initiatives that spanned the length and breadth of the country. Till date, the Bank has planted over 4.9 million trees, created 33.87 billion litres of water harvesting potential and worked in 56 forest reserves to address critical issues concerning water, natural habitat restoration and man-wildlife conflict.
SDG
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Bank’s Objective
Uphold the principles of transparency, accountability and ethical conduct, while also contributing to policy and institution building.
Key Initiatives
The Bank has implemented a Risk and Compliance Culture policy and combatting bribery, corruption, money laundering, child labour, etc. are fundamental to its operations. The Bank participates in forums and contributes to policy initiatives to support the effort towards building effective institutional frameworks.
Progress and Impact
The Bank is a member of international and national industry associations and participates in deliberations on policy initiatives and regulatory frameworks in several business areas including on ESG. One of the Bank’s teams is dedicated to supporting start-ups and incubators and the Bank works with several government bodies as part of its CSR activities.
