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Environment
Environment
Building a sustainable company for future generations.
At HSBC, we support practical measures and policies that help to protect and improve the environment. We connect the needs of our business with those of the planet.
HSBC is committed to keeping the environmental impact of its day-to-day operations to a minimum by integrating environmental management as standard business practice across all Bank and employee activities.
The key points of HSBC's environmental policy are:
- To reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency.
- To conserve water and other natural resources, and use renewable or recyclable materials.
- To minimise or recycle waste.
- To dispose of waste in an environmentally responsible manner.
- To favour suppliers and contractors who adopt environmentally sound practices.
To achieve these objectives, HSBC is implementing a wide range of initiatives that provide practical solutions to the world's complex and challenging environmental problems.
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Carbon neutrality
HSBC became the world's first carbon neutral bank in October 2005, three months ahead of schedule. As well as reducing energy consumption, HSBC's commitment to carbon neutrality involves buying green electricity and offsetting the remaining carbon dioxide emissions by investing in carbon credit or allowance projects.
In 2006, HSBC was rated as top in the banking industry in a global climate leadership index for its awareness of the risks and opportunities posed by climate change.
Carbon finance strategy
HSBC has extended its carbon management strategy into its core financial services business.
HSBC looks for opportunities to work with existing and new customers to promote energy and transport efficiency, and to look at energy technologies that emit less carbon like wind power, solar power and biofuels. We will also assist customers in understanding climate change-related risks and opportunities.
Environmental lending and ethical investment
HSBC is aware that, as a bank, it could indirectly harm the environment through its business transactions. It aims to lend and invest responsibly, avoiding projects where the potential for environmental damage outweighs the economic benefits.
In September 2003, HSBC adopted the Equator Principles, a set of voluntary guidelines developed to address the environmental and social issues that arise in financing projects.
HSBC adheres to sector guidelines governing lending and investing for the forestry, freshwater infrastructure, chemicals and energy industries before credit is advanced to customers in these sectors.
The Bank also holds workshops, seminars and roadshows on topics such as illegal timber and climate change to raise employees' environmental awareness.
Responsible purchasing
HSBC strives to make purchasing decisions that have less impact on the environment and also achieve savings in areas such as electricity consumption, maintenance costs and space utilisation.
HSBC Climate Partnership
Climate change is an urgent threat affecting people, their livelihoods and the world we live in and care about. To reduce the impacts of climate change, HSBC is partnering with four world-class environmental charities to launch a ground-breaking five-year global programme to inspire action by individuals, businesses and governments worldwide to alleviate the consequences for people, forest, water and cities.
Refer to HSBC Climate Partnership for more information.
Guandu wetland
Guandu Nature Park is situated in northern Taiwan at the junction of Danshui and Jilong Rivers. The landscape consists of a mosaic of freshwater and brackish ponds, mudflats, marsh, rice paddies, and woodland, in which inhabits a rich variety of organisms. The mission of this park is to protect these valuable natural resources. Guandu is a major stopover site for migrating birds, especially waterfowls and shorebirds, as well as an important wintering and breeding ground for many species. 229 species of birds have been recorded at Guandu so far, qualifying this wetland as an Important Bird Area (IBA) recognized by BirdLife International.
HSBC started its investment in Guandu Nature Park back in 2002. HSBC contributes financially to fund various projects at the Park, such as volunteers training programme, HSBC environmental protection classroom and summer camp, the crab observation platform, outdoor auditorium tent, and wetland environmental education programme, which consists of weekly workshops for teachers as well as fieldtrips for elementary schoolchildren in the metropolitan Taipei area. Meanwhile, HSBC staff enrolled as volunteers for the Park.
Tree Planting
Trees absorb carbon dioxide and are vital carbon sinks. It is estimated that the world’s forests store 283 Gigatonnes of carbon in their biomass alone, and that carbon stored in forest biomass, deadwood, litter and soil together is roughly 50 per cent more than the carbon in the atmosphere.
HSBC held tree-planting activities in Guandu Nature Park during March in 2006 and 2007. There are more than 220 employees and families participating in the event each year. They planted seeds, loosened the support pillars of the growing trees to give them more room for growth, planted water plant in wetland and applied fertilisers to 2000 trees in the park.
Environmental Quality Protection Foundation and National Taiwan University’s Experimental Forest jointly organize a tree planting campaign. HSBC took part in this campaign in August 2007, and engaged with staffs and clients.
