Climate Impact Day Austria
Wednesday 13 October 2021
UniCredit Bank Austria sends a strong signal of climate commitment with a vast programme for both customers and employees proving that banks are an important multiplier for climate protection and that they have a massive leverage effect towards sustainable business.
Together with more than 130 other Austrian companies, UniCredit Bank Austria (UCBA) celebrated the local Climate Impact Day in September with a vast programme for both, customers and employees to raise awareness and take action together for climate protection.
The programme saw sustainable start-ups present concrete ideas and products for a climate-friendly future across selected branches and in UCBA’s headquarters. These ideas ranged from sustainable meat consumption and the CO2 impact of food purchases, to all-purpose rental vehicles as well as food made of insects for the more adventurous clients. UCBA customers were also able to participate in a "climate-friendly" raffle as part of the bank’s ongoing Go Green sustainability focus in its branches.
In addition, Robert Zadrazil, CEO of UniCredit Bank Austria, took part in a live discussion on the role of companies in climate protection at the Climate Impact Day’s official event. He commented that “Banks are an important multiplier for climate protection. They have a massive leverage effect towards sustainable business, which is far greater than in any other industry. This means we can steer capital flows towards more sustainability through lending". UniCredit Bank Austria, with a lending volume of around 60 billion euros, is in fact able to provide significant support for climate protection. The bank does this through its sustainable product range, by advising companies on sustainability and helping them define a suitable sustainability strategy and achieve their ESG targets.
Furthermore, UCBA also contributes to climate protection through its own actions as a company in line with UniCredit Group’s strong sustainability commitments of. For example, UCBA has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent between 2008 and end of 2020. It continues to source nearly 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources and has done so since 2020 as well as build one of the largest geothermal plants in Europe at the UCBA Austria Campus to generate energy for both, heating and cooling.