###### Abstract  
The aim of the paper is to identify groups of banks with similar environmental commitment, taking into account their direct environmental impact. The study, which employs the aggregation method, reveals that small banks with a relatively worse financial standing are characterised by the lowest level of disclosures within pre-ecological initiatives. At the same time, large international banks belong to clusters defined by the highest or the lowest disclosure rates. The above-mentioned phenomenon results from the dichotomy of integrating environmental policy into their strategies and business models. This study is the first comparative analysis of the extent to which all listed (and at the same time the biggest) banks operating in Poland have taken initiatives to reduce the negative environmental impact of their activities. climate risk; commercial bank; cluster analysis 20221011911  
initial steps to address climate risks (ECB 2021). According to the ECB, banks perform best in the areas of: management bodies, risk appetite and operational risk management, and internal reporting, market and liquidity risk management and stress testing. Half of the banks have not planned concrete measures to integrate climate and environmental risks into their business strategies, and less than a fifth have developed Key Risk Indicators to monitor them. The ECB has also committed to gradually integrating climate and environmental risks into its SREP methodology, which will ultimately have an impact on the capital requirements under Pillar II. The actions of central banks and supervisory authorities should therefore be transferred to commercial banks. ([PERSON] et al. 2022) point out that commercial banks can influence their environment in three ways. Firstly, there is the traditional allocation function, which allows funds to flow from less efficient economic sectors to more efficient ones. Banks can play an important role in reducing the financing of borrowers with environmentally and climate-damaging activities by providing the necessary knowledge and management of credit risks. This area also includes bank products aimed at reducing climate risks (e.g., thermal modernisation loans, photovoltaic loans, climate risk investment funds, green bonds, etc.). Secondly, it involves the bank's ecological education among its stakeholders. Thirdly, it is about minimising one's own impact on the environment by managing the consumption of electricity, natural gas, water, heating, fuel, typical office supplies and the reduction of municipal waste and air pollution. This article precisely focuses on the last point. The objective of this article is to assess the activities of banks operating in the Polish banking sector in terms of their direct impact on the environment and climate change, and to identify clusters of banks with similar environmental commitment, taking into account only initiatives that are part of their day-to-day operations. The Polish banking sector was the largest among those of the ten countries joining the EU (EU 10) in 2004. The study is based on data of the 12 biggest banks that manage their activities in the Polish banking sector and are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (on the main market for public companies, or on the Catalyst market which is applicable for bonds issures). The survey is conducted on a sample of banks with total assets accounting for 84.00% of the assets of the Polish banking sector (standalone figures). The above mentioned estimation does not cover the state-owned Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK), which--due to a different legal basis of operation and other (not only business) objectives--is not treated in this paper as a commercial bank. Unlisted commercial banks (the market share of the largest of them, Credit Agricole Bank Polska SA, is less than 1.30%) and 530 cooperative banks were not included in the study. The surveyed banks account for 92.00% of the balance sheet total of Polish commercial banks (BFG 2022).