As announced last 20 September, UniCredit has joined the Climate Action campaign, in recognition that companies and the society at large need a new approach to build a sustainable future.
The bank's staff, encouraged to spend some time and to share their best ideas through which the Group can contribute to protecting the sustainability of the environment, has answered showing great sensitivity and commitment on the subject.
1,200 innovative ideas from employees were collected, of which:
- 400 on recycling & waste topics: employees proposed daily environmental actions such as providing recycling bins and personal cups for vending machines. Installing a creative recycling lab for old clothes for the production of green energy was also mentioned;
- 240 on transport & mobility solutions: from the introduction of e-scooters and the institutionalisation of a corporate car-pooling to incentives for bikers and safe bike parking. Employees also asked to incentivise the use of public transport, from a business point of view, introducing a hybrid/electric car fleet offer in the corporate fleet was suggested for customers and also colleagues. Another popular idea was an additional day working from home.
- 200 on Energy & Pollution subject: in this category employees shared ideas on how to make premises and data centres more energy-efficient. For example, by installing lighting smart sensors in our offices and branches. Some of you also mentioned improving centralised, remote-controlled heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
- Other important ideas have been collected on cultural topics, raising consciousness and social impact: employees focused on the idea of appointing a Sustainability Manager for each branch and on the introduction of a search engine that uses revenue from searches to plant trees where they are needed the most. Other employees listed movies, documentaries and readings to keep the attention high on the topic and make people inspiring. Finally, other employees declared they would like to have the opportunity to eat vegan food in UniCredit's canteens or establish sustainability awards and "planting a tree" campaings.
In the next weeks, The Millennial Board of UniCredit is going through all ideas in detail so that the bank can further discuss and then decide which projects will implement first. The first projects will be presented to the top management of UniCredit next 11 December. UniCredit's Millennial Board is a recently established work team whose participants are employees across the group ranging from 22-32 years old, and it aims at raising awareness of millennials' views on banking topics and exposing them to the management.