HSBC Holdings plc
HSBC is one of the world's leading financial services companies employing 330,000 people in 83 countries and territories around the world.
HSBC has been a corporate partner of Earthwatch for almost a decade, becoming part of the Corporate Environmental Responsibility Group (CERG) in 1999.
In 2002, HSBC launched Investing in Nature, a $50 million, five year partnership with Earthwatch, WWF and Botanic Gardens Conservation International. As part of this programme, HSBC sent 2,000 of its employees on Earthwatch field research projects around the world and helped Earthwatch train 230 scientists from the developing world on Earthwatch projects. As part of their Fellowship, employees had a responsibility to undertake an environmental project in their workplace or local community, supported by a grant from HSBC.
Building on the success of the five-year Investing in Nature partnership, in 2007 HSBC launched the HSBC Climate Partnership. Partnering with The Climate Group, Earthwatch, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and WWF, the HSBC Climate Partnership is a ground-breaking $100 million, five-year programme on climate change to inspire action by individuals, businesses and governments world-wide. It is a board-driven initiative that will have a bearing on the way HSBC does business by engaging HSBC employees in understanding more about the risks and opportunities associated with climate change and using that knowledge to reduce their own impacts at home and at work and those of HSBC.
Partnership Elements
Stakeholder Involvement
Through the HSBC Climate Partnership, Earthwatch aims to help HSBC embed sustainable thinking into the way that the bank does business. This will be achieved through engaging employees in an education programme, practical action and interactive workshops and seminars to stimulate change at all levels of the business.
Employee Learning and Engagement
Employee engagement has always been central to HSBC's support of Earthwatch. Investing In Nature saw 2,000 HSBC employees contributing to vital research on Earthwatch projects all over the world, as well as contributing to nearly 60,000 hours and $1 million to over 1300 community conservation initiatives in their local area.
This programme brought benefits not only to the environment but also to the individual employees and the organisation as a whole. Independent research into the programme by the Cambridge Programme for Industry (CPI) found that participation in the programme helped the employees develop key skills (in areas such as environmental awareness, and key management skills, including leadership and teamwork), which they were able to bring back to their workplace. It also found the programme had a positive effect on staff morale and therefore staff retention and recruitment.
The HSBC Climate Partnership aims to build on the successes of the Investing in Nature Programme by offering unprecedented opportunities for employee engagement. The bank's workforce will have access to an on-line learning programme; 22,000 will take part in local volunteering projects addressing the impacts of climate change at a local level and of these, 2,200 will go on to become 'Climate Champions' by participating in an Earthwatch Regional Climate Centres over the course of two weeks. Champions will become business ambassadors for climate change within HSBC, committing to a business-sponsored project on their return.
Community Investment
Through the Investing in Nature partnership, Earthwatch was able to provide training for 230 scientists in the developing world.
Community involvement continues to play an important part within the HSBC Climate Partnership. Key members of the local communities around the five Regional Climate Centres being set up as part of the programme will also be able to participate alongside the young scientists who work there. They will make an important contribution to the development of the Centres' areas of activity, as well as supporting the research programme throughout the five years of the partnership and beyond.
Environmental Research
The HSBC Climate Partnership will support critical research into the impacts of climate change on the world's temperate and tropical forest ecosystems. HSBC is working with its global research partners Earthwatch and STRI to gather data that will be used to inform management plans and policy decisions concerning the future of the word's forests and the communities that depend on them in the face of a changing global climate.
Marketing and Philanthropy
In 2007, Earthwatch was one of the beneficiaries of the first ever HSBC "Green Sale". This cause related marketing initiative meant that Earthwatch received a contribution for every product sold in the sale. To date, the sale has raised over £200,000 for Earthwatch's engagement and research programmes around the world.