Managing our natural resources is one of today’s central issues. UniCredit is well aware that financial institutions, although not themselves heavy polluters, can play an important role in the proper management of emissions, waste, water and biodiversity. Our actions in this field recognize our stakeholders’ needs and interests, and integrate them into our corporate development strategies.
In 2007, our CEO, Alessandro Profumo, recognized the need to consider environmental sustainability in all of our operations and signed a new Environmental Policy into effect. This Environmental Policy is based on our mission to generate long-term value, both for our stakeholders and for current and future generations. It applies to all of our institutions and activities.
Our Environmental Management System (EMS) allows us to manage environmental issues globally, systematically and consistently, with a view to continuously improving our environmental performance. Moreover, our EMS is compliant with the UNI EN ISO 14001/2004 and the EMAS Regulation, both of which require organizations to develop well-defined processes for the identification, analysis and assessment of environmental considerations in order to prioritize them in the course of defining key mitigation initiatives. These considerations may be divided into two primary categories:
- Direct impacts, relating to activities or services over which the organization has direct and complete operational control
- Indirect impacts, relating to activities or services deriving from third parties over which the organization only has a limited degree of control or influence.
The EMAS Regulation dictates that an Environmental Statement must be prepared every three years. Our next scheduled statement release is in December 2011.
As signatories of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Declaration on Climate Change, we are committed to advancing knowledge and understanding of both risks and opportunities in the field of climate change.
A range of Groupwide initiatives to raise awareness of environmental issues has been launched.
