“Bank of Green Changes” programme

On April 23, 2019, following the International Earth Day celebrations, Bank BNP Paribas held a meeting with Katarzyna Wągrowska, the author “Zero Waste Life. Live without garbage and live better.” and the ograniczamsie.com blog, which inaugurated the first edition of “Bank of Green Changes” educational program addressed to all employees and their loved ones.

In the first edition of the program in 2019, in particular months Bank employees discussed a topic related to renewable and non-renewable resources and the segregation of waste. Since then, each month Bank employees have received a dose of ecological knowledge – guidance and ready solutions helping to live in balance with our planet. Employees learn about the causes and effects of climate change and how to counteract them.

Employees can test their knowledge in thematic quizzes. Eco-experts can use for eco-friendly gadgets which help them to implement the zero waste principle. To strengthen eco-attitudes, the Bank encourages employees to participate in monthly eco-challenges and share their ideas and achievements.

As part of the campaign, a special page was also created on the intranet: a treasury of knowledge about ecology for employees of Bank BNP Paribas.

The program also includes inspirational meetings and workshops. Renowned experts share their knowledge with Bank employees. Guests included Franck Courchamp – creator of the documentary film „Separate genre” and Marcin Popkiewicz – nuclear physicist, climatologist, author of “Climate Science.”

In 2018, as part of the “Let’s make meadows around us” campaign in cooperation with the Łąka Foundation, volunteer-employees of Bank BNP Paribas sowed flower meadows in Warsaw and Cracow. In October 2019, they sowed a meadow near the Bank’s Operations Center in Ruda Śląska.

On September 2019 Bank BNP Paribas cooperated with the Nasza Ziemia Foundation and the General Directorate of State Forests to organise the #TrashChallenge. Employees and their loved ones took part in educational picnics and cleaned contaminated areas in 8 locations in Poland.

We are all living with a land loan and our ecological debt is increasing dramatically. Preventing climate change is our joint responsibility. In order to adjust to a changing reality, Bank BNP Paribas focuses on important and universal issues in its communication, problems which are also important from a Polish perspective. Therefore, inspired by the commitment of our employees, we developed the „Climate Change Costs” campaign. The goal is to educate about climate change, but also to create Great Oxygen Gardens which we will plant on wastelands to clean the air around us.

The campaign raises the issue of climate change and its effects on the environment, including a rise in fruit and vegetable prices due to sudden droughts, more severe rainfall and hurricanes. In the first phase of the campaign, on television and in cinemas, we focused on the problem of high prices in the future. Those interested in additional information were invited to visit to zieleniak2040.pl.

In the second phase of the campaign, which included television, Internet, social media and cinema commercials, we encouraged potential clients to join our climate protection initiative. We pledged to plant one Oxygen tree for each new account or cash loan at our Bank.

All the above also promoted the bankzielonychzmian.pl website. It contains a counter of planned tree plantings, and a carbon footprint calculator for individual households with the added option of comparing results with the national and world averages. In addition we encouraged people to change their daily habits by giving them specific tips.

Bank BNP Paribas expresses its care for the natural environment by spreading eco-enthusiasm among its customers and partners. Our Bank has established cooperation with one of the largest lifestyle portals in Poland. We supported the newonce.net editorial team in the transition from top quality to ecological paper. As the Bank of Green Changes, in cooperation with the newonce.net editors, we wanted to draw the attention of young people to the problem of climate change. The perfect opportunity came from using the pages of their favourite magazine.

Together with newonce.radio, we have created the KLIMAT podcast, which focuses on the eco-initiatives of invited guests, discusses the most vivid examples of negative human influence on the natural environment and proposes solutions for the protection of nature. It explains what the carbon footprint is and how we can help neutralise it in the easiest way possible. The broadcast also explains what climate summits are and why they are the most important meetings of the 21st century, despite controversy. It also answers key questions: how to buy responsibly, how to travel wisely, how not to waste food, where to look for solutions and how much time we have left to reverse negative trends.

Together with onet.pl we have also created a new program entitled Green Stars. Michał Piróg and invited guests raise important environmental issues in an accessible quiz formula.

Our Free a Cloud for Earth campaign, built awareness about the energy consumption of email-storage servers and their impact on the environment. We encouraged people to delete emails from mailboxes, as they create a real carbon footprint.