SEB published its Green Bond Investor Report for 2024 on 10 January 2025, disclosing that the Swedish bank's portfolio of eligible green assets had reached SEK 82.7 billion as of 31 December 2024, representing growth of more than 30% compared with the position recorded at the end of 2023. The report provides investors who hold SEB-issued green bonds with detailed disclosure on the allocation of proceeds to qualifying asset categories and quantifies the estimated environmental outcomes generated by the financed activities over the course of the year.
The scale of the year-on-year increase reflects a material step-up in SEB's green lending activity across the core categories of its framework and positions the portfolio as one of the larger green asset pools among Nordic financial institutions. The expansion underlines the bank's stated commitment to growing the proportion of its balance sheet allocated to activities with demonstrable environmental benefit, as corporate and institutional borrowers across the bank's client base have increasingly sought green financing structures to support sustainability commitments and respond to investor expectations.
RENEWABLE ENERGY AND GREEN BUILDINGS DRIVE GROWTH
The two categories that contributed most significantly to the portfolio's growth in 2024 were renewable energy financing and green buildings. Renewable energy loans and facilities—covering wind, solar, hydro, and other clean power infrastructure—have been among the most active origination areas in SEB's green bond framework for several consecutive years. The continued expansion reflects both a strong pipeline of new clean energy projects across the Nordic and broader European market and the deepening of existing client relationships with project developers, utilities, and infrastructure investors seeking long-term financing from relationship-oriented banking partners.
Green buildings represent the second major driver of portfolio growth. SEB applies internationally recognised green building certification standards to determine which real estate assets qualify for inclusion in the eligible portfolio, and the robust pipeline of certified commercial and residential development projects in Sweden and across the wider Nordic region provided substantial origination opportunities during 2024. The bank's ability to structure tailored green finance solutions for property developers and real estate investors seeking alignment with progressively more demanding environmental performance requirements has been a competitive advantage in a market where sustainability credentials are increasingly central to corporate borrowing decisions.
CARBON IMPACT AND REPORTING TRANSPARENCY
SEB estimated in the report that the proceeds from green bonds allocated during 2024 contributed to the avoidance or reduction of approximately 1.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. This figure is derived from the environmental impact assessments associated with the individual financed projects and provides investors with a concrete, quantified measure of the real-world climate outcomes linked to their exposure to SEB's green bond programme. The methodology used to calculate these avoided emissions figures follows established market conventions for impact reporting and is detailed within the published report.
The annual Green Bond Investor Report fulfils SEB's reporting obligations under its green bond framework, which commits the bank to publishing regular disclosure on both the use of proceeds and the resulting environmental benefits, sustaining the transparency that green bond investors have come to expect as a standard feature of the market. As the volume of SEB green bonds outstanding has grown in line with the asset portfolio, investor expectations around the granularity and methodological consistency of impact reporting have risen in parallel. The bank said in a statement accompanying the report that the 2024 portfolio performance reflected its strategic commitment to financing the transition to a lower-carbon economy across its home and international markets.