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A certification for the Green Leader Programme

Seon Ah Moon — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:19:21 +0000

In May 2013, BNP Paribas Cardif Life in South Korea was awarded the ‘10th Environmental Education Programme’ certificate from the Ministry of Environment for its Green Leader Programme.

This programme provides environmental education to children at a local welfare centre through various interactive classes and activities. It was selected for its excellence, environmental consciousness and safe execution.

In total, 206 programmes have been certified during the period between 2010 and 2013. Only five of these certified programmes–including the “Green Leader Programme”–focus on the well-being of chilren.

To let more young people benefit from this programme, BNP Paribas Cardif Life in South Korea has also published a “Green Leader Manual” and distributed it to over 250 children welfare centres in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do province.

Beehives on the roof in Brussels

Freddy Quidousse — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:51:09 +0000

The Chancellerie building in Brussels, the most sustainable of BNP Paribas Fortis’ premises, is now even more environmentally friendly: it now has beehives on its roof! These help to protect the bee population and also foster biodiversity in the Belgian capital.

Indeed, the installation is far from insignificant. Bees play an indispensable part in the pollination process, which enables plants to reproduce and is essential for life on earth.

However, intensive use of insecticides and pesticides is now threatening their existence–and by extension, ours.

Nevertheless, the urban ecosystem constitutes a favourite habitat for these industrious little creatures. The use of pesticides and insecticides is much more limited in cities than in rural areas. Cities are also characterized by milder temperatures, and offer a more diverse range of flowering plants. This is the reason why colonies of bees are now increasingly finding refuge there.

Some of the “Chancellerie” honey produced by these hives will be used to increase employees’ awareness of environmental problems.

Other initiatives have been led in favor of our dear foraging bees within the Group. In 2011, three beehives were placed on the roof of BNP Paribas Real Estate Headquarters, in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Paris). Another beehive was placed on the roof of BNP Paribas Cardif headquarters in Nanterre, in 2012… Not to mention the several thousand bees the blog forachangingworld.com adopted through the association “Un toit pour les abeilles”.

The Green Eco Day Bazaar

Seon Ah Moon — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:21:58 +0000

A “Green Eco Day Bazaar” was organized by employees of BNP Paribas in Korea organized on 3 April at Beautiful Store, an NGO serving public interests.

As the bazaar was held during the week of Arbor Day, a holiday in which tree planting and care is encouraged across the world, the Group conveyed the message of the environmental protection by selling secondhand goods and handing out seedsticks, a fun way to plant and grow seeds.

All proceeds from the event were donated for the emotional treatment of socially alienated children.

Through an internal donation campaign conducted from January to March, BNP Paribas entities in Korea collected 2,000 used goods to sell. Some 30 employees joined the bazaar as volunteers.

Thanks to everyone who made the day such a success!

For the love of green

Alphonse Daudre-Vignier — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:59:42 +0000

Since January, a little green bus has been making its way through the streets of Geneva carrying employees of BNP Paribas Switzerland. There’s a major difference between this eight-seat shuttle and the old minibus that served the same purpose: this one runs on green energy!

The bank has certainly achieved its goal of cutting emissions: by changing vehicles to one that runs on natural gas, it has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 39%…and what’s more, fuel costs are significantly lower!

BNP Paribas Switzerland had already showed its environmentally-friendly side, in particular by using a natural gas-powered vehicle to distribute the mail, an electric bike for its courier service, or by installing solar panels on the roof of its headquarters.

A Green Roof in Santiago

Macarena Ferrari — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:36:18 +0000

The Salvador Allende Elementary School is setting an example in environmental awareness. In an endeavor to support sustainable development and to improve the community, BNP Paribas Cardif in Chile has added 250 square meters of green roofing to the 115 sq. meters they had already planted in 2011 in this same school. With this new development, the company completes a very successful project in the first municipal school in Chile to have this kind of roof.

The inauguration took place in parallel with the celebration of the 15th anniversary of BNP Paribas Cardif in Chile.

There are many benefits to installing a green roof:

Energy efficiency: the ambient temperature in the classrooms during winter time rose from 12°C to 15°C, while reductions of temperature of approximately 6°C were recorded in the summertime.

Acoustic damping: noise levels were reduced from 50 to 40 dB.

Diverse eco-system: the pigeon overpopulation in the school was controlled and reduced thanks to green roofs in which a variety of new species, such as birds or earthworms, etc., thrive.

Contribution to the formation of oxygen: it is a good way to contribute to the fight against global warming.

Improved Air Quality: by sequestration of carbon dioxide and other contaminants from urban activities.

The company has been increasing its emphasis in supporting a management model that enables a balance between staff, business, the company and the environment. This green roof constitutes a concrete way of reducing its carbon footprint and of increasing environmental awareness among its staff.

1 Day, 20,000 Trees

Erin Kehoe — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:56:32 +0000

In an effort to plant 20,000 trees in just one day across New York City, MillionTreesNYC held a Volunteer Planting Day on October 27th. 35 volunteers from BNP Paribas, including friends and family members, boarded buses at the office to travel to the designated site, Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn.

Along with hundreds of other volunteers, over 5,000 trees were planted during the event. The official count for the MillionTrees Program is up to 630,000!

Just two days after this event, Hurricane Sandy struck the New York area. The Parks Department is happy to report that most of its young trees survived the storm, but it is still working around the clock on inspections and clean-up.

Ecocentric Transitions: How to reconnect people with their environment and community values?

Florence Valle — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:38:20 +0000

Our first post comes after our meeting with two amazing people, who set up their own business in Malaysia to help children, households and companies to better understand climate change and find easy ways to act now.

The call to action

After working for a few years in the corporate sector, Nisha Firdaus and Ly Mun Loo were struck by the increasing disconnect between people and their environment: “Why is that people do not realize that we need to change our habits to lower our ecological footprint, while plethora of information is available to all?”

“Indeed the Ais Batu Campur (ABC) is one of the favorite desserts of the children (and many adults!) in Malaysia and has a secret ingredient of Atapchi, the fruit of the wild wetland palm tree. This tree is increasingly rare due to clear cutting of forests—where it is replaced by more productive mono crops. Guess what will happen once all these trees will have disappeared?

“It is true that officially 60% of Malaysia is covered by forest, but only when one considers specific agriculture palm tree species as forest. It raises some critics amongst most experts; 60% of the original Malaysian tropical rain forest does not exist anymore.”

This is why Nisha Firdaus and Ly Mun Loo created Ecocentric Transitions in 2011, with the aim of expanding the awareness of the need for sustainable development and ecofriendly daily attitudes, as well as community values.

Ecocentric Transitions activities and business model

Ecocentric Transitions has developed its actions around 2 main activities: workshops and consulting, the latter financing the former, as well as the fixed costs of the structure.

While conducting workshops for children, youth, corporate or urban communities, Ecocentric Transitions educates and gives practical and easy tips to change habits and become more eco-responsible through interactive and creative activities. For example, “instead of planting ornamental trees in your garden, we encourage planting fruit trees, fragrant plants and simple vegetable gardens to encourage self-sufficiency.”

Nisha and Ly Mun are convinced that major and sustainable changes will only be achieved through education.

The consulting activity is more focused on company needs – with a strong focus on sustainable landscape design. For instance, Ecocentric Transitions has worked with a real estate developer to create a garden of fruit trees and edible plants within a new residential area. Such projects usually take up to 6 months to complete. Ecocentric Transitions would need 2 consulting missions and 10 workshops per year to turn to profit.

What is their dream?

To start up an eco-village, of course! It would allow them to organize training, workshops and make further experiments on an even larger scale.

To conclude…

Listening to Nisha Firdaus and Ly Mun Loo, it appears that our roots are never too far away…Indeed, it is not too late to get back to our community values and to let environment occupy a bigger part in our lives…and this alone might be the first step to adopting a more responsible attitude towards our environment. So why not start today doing one thing for someone and taking a deep breath while looking at the sky and the beautiful clouds?

MillionTreesNYC…five years of planting

Erin Kehoe — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:24:54 +0000

This year was BNP Paribas’ fifth consecutive year sponsoring MillionTreesNYC. By supporting this joint initiative between the NYC Parks Department and the New York Restoration Project, the Bank has contributed to the Mayor’s goal of planting one million new trees in New York City over the next decade.

Volunteer efforts this year focused largely around St. Mary’s Hospital in Queens. At our “adopted” tree planting site, BNP Paribas volunteers worked with the New York Restoration Project over the spring and summer months to plant over 130 trees on the hospital grounds. Work at the site wrapped up with BNP Paribas Cares Day on September 13th.

Stay tuned for the next MillionTrees event! On October 27th, BNP Paribas will participate in Fall Reforestation Day, a city-wide event where volunteers will plant 20,000 new trees across the five boroughs of New York City.

Giving new life to used equipment

Anne-France Simon — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:54:38 +0000

During the month of August, the BNP Paribas Fortis Foundation organised the distribution of used equipment to various not-for-profit associations.

A wide range of equipment and office supplies – tables, chairs, drawer units, letter trays, lamps, filing cabinets and wall charts, as well as projection screens and even refrigerators – were happily taken in by a number of associations.

The supplies were carefully collected with the participation of the bank’s EcoCoaches and with the indispensable support of its logistics departments. What are EcoCoaches, you might ask? They are bank employees who, in addition to their day-to-day customer service responsibilities, are responsible for educating their colleagues about ways to reduce the bank’s environmental impact through simple but effective measures: reducing paper usage, using water wisely, using coffee mugs instead of disposable cups, turning off the lights when leaving a room, etc.

Thus, during a recent office relocation that affected a thousand employees, the EcoCoaches ensured that only items that truly could not be reused were disposed of, with the aim of conserving all materials and equipment that merited a second life.

The not-for-profit sector responded enthusiastically to the appeal launched by the BNP Paribas Foundation. Schools, drop-in facilities, student associations, holiday camps for the underprivileged, as well as facilities for people with disabilities, for rehabilitation and for social integration all answered the call.

BNP Paribas Fortis remains fully committed to collecting equipment and supplies that can be reused – an appropriate reflex in the business world just as it is in our daily lives.