Site mapLeading with our sustainable
business strategy
Managers make environmental pledges
Our senior executives pledged to take a more environment-friendly approach to their daily and business lives during the annual Country Managers Conference in Singapore. Their pledges were recorded on The Greatest Race on Earth: Race for a Living Planet website. The environmental challenge was added to the Greatest Race on Earth series in 2007/08 to raise awareness of the environmental issues faced by the world today and the actions individuals can take to redress them.
Financing renewable energy projects
In May, we financed the world’s largest photovoltaic plant in South Korea. At the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, we committed $8 -10 billion over the next five years to finance renewable and clean energy projects such as wind, hydro, geothermal, solar, bio-mass and coal-bed methane projects in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The development of renewable energy projects will help mitigate the effects of climate change, a stated goal for a number of our markets.
Supporting farmers in China
We took rural finance to a new level by reaching an agreement with a local Chinese
company to assist cotton farmers in Urumqi to enhance productivity, increase
income and improve living standards. We are the first international bank to establish
a complete microfinance programme to lend directly to farmers in rural China.
Our partnerships with over 40 microfinance institutions have enabled the Group
to disburse $170 million in 13 countries in 2007.
Environmental pledges made since October 2007
Over 1m*
*As at February 2008
Committed over next five years to finance renewable energy projects
$8-10bn
Microfinance loans disbursed in 2007
$170m
